Tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton's new technology, Own Your Unconscious, enables users to externalize their memory, access it whenever they want, and share every memory in exchange for others' memories. Each chapter is written from a different character's perspective on how Own Your Unconscious has affected their lives, positively or negatively. Jennifer Egan brilliantly explores different writing styles and narration to paint a fascinating picture of technology's impacts on human relationships, be it longing, love, family, and redemption.

I thoroughly enjoyed how Jennifer Egan utilizes divergent voices based on the characters throughout the book. My favorite perspective is from the "counter", basically a data scientist of some sort; I felt the most connected to the character and his point of view, probably because we're both nerdy haha. Unfortunately, the writing couldn't save the lack of novelty in The Candy House. Other than "memory manipulation", a trope pretty common in recent sci-fi books, I find the discussions on "free technology" repetitive and unimaginative. Due to the ever-changing POV, keeping track of all the characters and their connections is also quite challenging. Ultimately, I don't need to read a 300+ page book to know that social media can be harmful when misused and pull people apart even with good intentions. The Candy House is an interesting read but not a phenomenal one.