The Prediction

De: Faith Gardner

Narrado por: Raquel Beattie

A new marriage. A perfect home. A machine that says it's all a lie.

Welcome to Silicon Valley, where the weather is perfect, the income is high and Rowena Snyder is miserable.

A transplant from New York, Rowena moved into her husband Jacob's idyllic childhood home with their new baby. But suburbia isn't Rowena's cup of Starbucks. And she's got serious anxiety and depression to boot.

Jacob, worried about their marriage, scores a new product currently in beta testing from his tech job: Maxine, a "digital friend" that bonds with an individual by continually gathering their personal data. Along with functioning like an upscale digital assistant, Maxine has "advice" and "prediction" modes that have shown promise for patients with mental health issues.

To Rowena's shock, the device turns out to be not just helpful, but eerily accurate, predicting events before they occur. It's a godsend until Maxine offers a series of increasingly bone-chilling predictions that will change Rowena's life forever.

This domestic suspense novel set in a near-future dystopia asks, who do you trust more—your mind, your man, or your machine?

©2022 Faith Gardner (P)2026 Faith Gardner

Praise Maxine

I need a Maxine in my life to take care of me. Even if she was creepy, I would love her

Psychological thriller perfection

I loved this book so much. I listened to it in the car to and from school rides with my 12-year-old son, and while there were a couple times I had to tell him earmuffs, we both still LOVED this book. It was twisted and kept us guessing. We both have some theories that may or may not have been true, the ending left room for several of them to be true. Which we liked. We can’t wait to listen to the next near-future book by Faith Gardner.

Kept me listening all the way through!

I enjoyed this book and it had twists i didn't see coming. But i was disappointed towards the end . It had the potential to go in many great directions and for me it fizzled out.

Good beach read but prepare not to like anyone!

I'll admit the story sucks you in in spite of yourself.

However, I seriously wonder if this author set out to write a story where literally no characters are likable!

The main character, Rowena, suffers from an anxiety disorder but she's also the type of person who thinks she's too good for tacos and showers...you know, relatable stuff!

She's also extremely judgemental. Literally the only reason you end up on her side is because everyone else in her life sucks even more.

She's stuck with a husband who's a manipulative gaslighting narcissist who isolates her from her already small social circle of an emotional vampire mother and a BFF who encourages her to lean on her but during every conversation is interrupting to say "hey, girl, hey!" to someone else or "Oh hang on a sec, girl, this my jam!"

He even talks her out of seeing a real therapist because "it'll be a pain with insurance" and instead convinces her to see his mother's friend, who turns out to be his former nanny, and warily asks "what? are you planning to talk about me or something?" when she brings up the conflict of interest.

Of course, Rowena is also the type who, when she does meet a potentially supportive new friend, pulls away and instead relies more heavily on her AI assistant.

Honestly, it's pretty bad when the AI is the most likable character! Like a car crash you can't look away from.

Average at best

It has its moments and it was a decent listen. The ending was polished and had a little twist.