You come in half and you understand: I don’t want to finish it, Tell the machine goodnight by Katie Williams, and instead here is the review because as far as we can fight, breaking away from the pages is hard. A fresh novel, in the plot and in the style, so I immediately want to say that Williams will now enter the list of writers to keep an eye on, known for the young adults, it arrived with this novel published by editions and / or another level of storytelling. So let’s start: we are in a not very distant future, indeed. The company is technologically developed to the point of having created a machine, the Apricity, capable of measuring happiness. Not only. Once the satisfaction of a person through the DNA is quantified with a swab inside the mouth, the machine provides the indications to become happy. Outrageous, ironic, compelling, it has been said that it will particularly appeal to fans of the Black Mirror TV series, and I think anyone wants to get lost in a novel.
Pearl is one of the most experienced at using the happiness machine, this metal box capable of changing people’s lives with their answers. It is his work in an important company with a technological vocation, she submits to the apricity test and communicates the response. Here the machine of happiness is like a futuristic oracle of Delphi but with a concrete look. From the Apricity, indications of the kind arrive, buy a dog, divorce your wife, cut the tip of your finger. Request sometimes that seem absurd and paradoxical. Pearl has an adolescent son, an enigmatic character, Rhett who has stopped eating voluntarily by lowering himself between anorexia and bibiton that he must swallow to avoid going back to the clinic, in a world of deprivation. Pearl wants to help him, but the boy refuses to undergo the happiness machine. Between twists and turns, unpredictable outcomes and dialogues, fun, scary and so real mental mechanisms, Tell the machine goodnight by Katie Williams is a great choice to take on vacation, or to escape while staying in the city.
