Fabulous Fiction Firsts #671

Thu, 06/14/2018 - 5:23pm by muffy

YA author Katie Williams sets her first novel for adults, Tell the Machine Goodnight * in near-future (2035) San Francisco. As a skilled technician for the Apricity Corporation, Pearl provides customers with personalized recommendations generated by the Apricity Happiness Machine simply with a swab of one’s DNA. However, she doesn’t seem to be able to manage it in her own life. A single mother to an anorexic son named Rhett who finds great satisfaction in denying himself food; and ex-husband Elliott, a narcissistic performance artist who left them for a much younger woman. When Rhett refuses to submit to the happiness machine analysis, Pearl takes matters into her own hand but the results are bewildering and devastating.

Then one of Rhett’s friends asks him to help solve a mystery; Pearl becomes the target of industrial espionage; and the demands of her new high-profile client test not only her loyalty to the company, but her humanity as well.

“In this imaginative, engaging, emotionally resonant story, (Williams) reveals how the devices we depend on can both deprive us of our humanity and deliver us back to it. With its clever, compelling vision of the future, deeply human characters, and delightfully unpredictable story, this novel is itself a recipe for contentment.” (Kirkus Reviews)

* = Starred review