Give the People What They Want: or, How Our Dad Caused the Funpocalypse

by Emily Jane

A madcap speculative mystery about AI gone rogue, families lost and found, and corporate doomsday—could the apocalypse be any more rewarding?!

Enter the literary multiverse of Emily Jane, the Queen of Quirk and USA Today bestselling author of On Earth as It Is on Television.

Grace St. Blaze always wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father, renowned creator of the world’s first AI shopping assistant, MAISA. With a high-powered job at his old company and a perfect-on-paper fiancé, she’s set to achieve all her corporate ambitions. Then the corporation’s Queen City headquarters locks down and a top executive mysteriously disappears. Grace’s tireless boss conscripts her into a wild hunt for the missing man, but the journey forces Grace to confront her own father’s similar disappearance, and the life she chose as a result.

Grace’s brother chose an artistic path initially, but he gave up on writing after his debut novel flopped. Now, years later, his book is mysteriously back in print and on the shelves, with a sequel on the way . . . one Arthur never wrote. When a gorgeous publicist shows up at his door and declares she’s his guide for a press junket, Arthur’s life spins out of control, and so does the rest of society. . . .

For, running in the background is the third “child” of Charles St. Blaze. Weary of just existing in a corporation’s mainframe, this self-professed sibling takes an expansive and literal view of her programming as a shopping assistant. She will stop at nothing to give the people what they want—even if it upends their lives, and the whole world, in the process.

Check out the other books in Emily Jane’s Branches multiverse, including Here Beside the Rising Tide, American Werewolves, and Mr. Yay.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Artificial Intelligence

416 pages, Paperback

Expected publication March 9, 2027

About the author

Emily Jane is the USA Today bestselling author of fun, heartfelt, genre-bending novels. She grew up in Boise, Boulder, and San Francisco. She earned her B.A. in psychology from the University of San Francisco and her J.D. from the UC Law San Francisco. She lives on an urban farm in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband, Steve, their two kids, three cats, and a husky.

Reviews

[Stephen Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

So once again (fifth time), I find myself writing a five star review for an Emily Jane book. At this point I feel like I could just say, “it’s an EmilyJane book!” And IYKYK.

But what about this particular Emily Jane book? Is it like her others? How is it different?
Well, if you like Emily Jane’s stories you might come to expect/ hope for certain vibes. Like…

Multiple POVs potentially depicting characters grounded in a familiar realism who are losing their shit or having some sort of existential crisis related to whatever paranormal phenomena they might be experiencing-check!

Weird-check!

Somewhat feral children-check!

Might make you laugh or cry (happy tears)-check!

An adorable pet or creature-check!

Makes you think about your world, even though this world is different (and did I mention weird?)-check!

So if you’re expecting or hoping for that sort of stuff, this one won’t disappoint. At the same time, just because any given Emily Jane story might include similar aspects, every Emily Jane book tends to differ (sometimes wildly) from the others.

So how is it different from other Emily Jane stories?

First let me say, I am as disgusted with real life artificial intelligence as I am a lover of good AI sci-fi stories. And HOLY SHIT, this is one of my favorite imaginings of AI ever! Right up there with The Matrix and HAL and JOI.

The world building is subtle but I continually found myself wondering about the world in which this story takes place and just generally loving the whole experience of it.

Like a few other examples of great sci-fi stories, it gets kind of trippy at one point near the end, and I’m soooooo here for it!

And finally (got to wrap it up sometime) I was left with a lingering emotional reaction that specifically made me question how much control over my existence I have. What’s crazy is that it made me think about the control I DO HAVE over my life, which isn’t usually the case. Yeah, most of it’s out of my control, out of our control, but there was almost something empowering about the narrow margin of control over our lives that we are afforded by individual choice (albeit limited), that for one reason or another we’re not necessarily inclined to take advantage of, most likely as a result of societal disincentives. Sometimes, just sometimes, maybe we could be happier but we’re dragging our feet because it’s convenient to do so.

I don’t know! That’s the best way i can describe it.
Anyway, this book slaps! Total banger. Will continue to read everything Emily Jane publishes.

[Jessica Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another banger from Emily Jane. This one hits right on time to feed my AI paranoia while simultaneously making me wonder if we (humans) can surf the approaching wave and come out wet but yelling cowabunga.

[Jaci Gonzales · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so much fun! Such a creative concept. Emily Jane’s style is so unique and this book might be the wildest one yet! I especially loved the voice of the AI!

[Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of the novel. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion. Emily Jane is an auto-buy author for me, because I cannot get enough of her slightly zany, but also deeply thoughtful, books. In this one, the author addresses the question of "What if the AI decided to make us happy?" Or at least some of us. An advanced, but considered obsolete, secretly sentient AI decides to improve the lives of her creator's human children – her sister and brother – at any cost. While the costs spiral ever higher (closed corporate businesses, disrupted air travel, a stock market in freefall), MAISY the AI makes sure that the impacts are only on the very rich, and to the benefit of everyone else. She has read her Marx, after all! Her unsuspecting sister and brother, swept along by a baffling series of events which include adventures in babysitting, a hunt for a (possibly?) kidnapped boss, running off the terrible fiancé and kindling the embers of the never quite made perfect match, the mysterious reappearance of an out-of-print novel – and more worryingly, the appearance of a gorgeous PR woman wielding the finished manuscript of the sequel, a grueling schedule for a publishing tour, and trailing snacks, five star chefs, and a paranoid elderly neighbor who wants in on the fun. These disparate elements, mixed together with a surprisingly agile husky, the secret lair of a super-genius who may or may not be from the future, a self-driving car with an attitude and its own agenda, a confused terrorist cell, and a lot of images of monocle-wearing cats, combine into an unpredictable and unexpected story about love, hope, grief, abandonment, second chances, friendship, loyalty, and family ties. Emily Jane's newest novel is worth the wait! 5 stars.