The premise for this story (a machine that can tell you what to do to be “happy,” usually a list of totally strange and inexplicable things like “eat honey” or “don’t slouch”) is strange but simple, and serves as a backdrop for some truly well-rendered human drama. Pearl, a technician who uses the titular machine to tell people their paths to contentment, struggles to understand why her teenage son doesn’t seem to want to be happy and healthy. Her efforts to get closer to him and to help him are heartbreaking and so relatable. Meanwhile Rhett, the son in question, is lost in a world that doesn’t make sense to him, a character that anyone who struggled as a teenager, or just with the overwhelming strangeness and difficulty of living will understand.

The cast of characters who populate the novel are unique and interesting, and I found myself won over (sometimes inexplicably) by every single one of them. It touches on so many relevant themes: our obsession with the quest to be happy, our reliance on psychology and technology, our struggle to make true connections in a world where we are all stuck in our own unique experiences. This is a bittersweet story, not simple enough for traditional happy endings, but I loved it.

#heartfelt #clever #femaleprotagonist #speculativefiction #humandrama #psychology #technology #tagsgiving #sweepstakes