Face-Lift 1527

Guess the Plot

Broken Algorithms 

1. When Mia's basement-dwelling adult son leaves his Facebook account open, she notices some unexpected posts in his feed. Either the algorithm is broken, or he's thinking of pulling a Norman Bates.

2. When the government mandates that everyone marry their algorithm-chosen soulmate, Amelia isn't thrilled with the man chosen for her. But if she complains, she'll lose her job, as she works for the algorithm developer.

3. Molly's formula for dating: Find man - sing karaoke to him - buy him ice cream - take him home to meet her mother. She's starting to think she might need to revise her process.

4. When burnt out college student Francis finds a genie, he makes the obvious wish to pass all his tests. What he did not expect was that the world would change to make his answers right.

5. Leif Huxley starts up a computer dating site where one can have a fantasy relationship with an AI. But then people start being paired with other human beings! And the AIs get jealous and start hacking, stalking, and manipulating the system!! Also, black-sand beaches.

Original Version

Dear Agent,

Per a new government order, Amelia Collins must marry her soulmate, James. Well, who the government says is her soulmate, anyway. With the lack of spark between them, she’s not completely convinced. Amelia doesn’t have the luxury of doubt, though. Not if she wants to keep her career. 

As the up-and-coming [top] candidate for the Director position at SOUL, Amelia’s job is to convince people that the Soulmate Algorithm is their best chance at finding love.  [If everyone must marry their soulmate, why is someone tasked with convincing them?] That’s all well and good until just weeks before her wedding, when her ex suddenly reappears, showing up at a charity work event.

Having all but ghosted her three years before, Declan brings not only unresolved feelings but a warning about SOUL. He tells her that SOUL isn’t just finding soulmates, it’s manipulating them. And he knows how. ["How" is interesting to Amelia. I'm more interested in what you mean by "manipulating" them. Can you make that more specific?] 

Despite their messy past, Amelia can’t ignore Declan’s claims, or him. If he’s telling the truth, it would unravel the entire foundation that SOUL was built on – that love is better suited to an algorithm than chance. A narrative that Amelia wholeheartedly supported due to her failed relationship with Declan, until Declan himself returned, and she was reminded of the chemistry between them.

As the proof of Declan’s claim mounts, Amelia must decide what she wants her future to look like. She can continue her career and become even more complicit in SOUL’s manipulation, all the while safeguarding her career and her future. [I wouldn't suggest she's been at all complicit if she knew nothing about it and did nothing with the intention of enabling it.] Or, she could speak out and own her desires, risking her future but retaking control of her life. [My career is down the tubes, 60 people including my fiancé are planning to show up for my wedding, which I'm calling off, and my ex, who I've been bad-mouthing to all my friends for three years is trying to worm his way back into my good graces (as if). I've finally got control of my life.] [By which I mean can we do without owning her desires and controlling her life, and make the choice be between becoming complicit, now that she knows what's going on, or becoming director and exposing the villains and bringing them down?

BROKEN ALGORITHMS is a women’s fiction novel with romantic elements, complete at 88,000 words. It will appeal to fans of the governmental control in THE MARRIAGE ACT and the idea of finding love through algorithms in THE SOULMATE EQUATION. [While those books have fans, those fans aren't necessarily fans of government control and the idea of finding love through algorithms. More accurate would be to say your book combines these elements.]

<Bio>

Thank you for taking the time to consider my submission.

Notes

This is clear and well-organized, if a bit long. But it will be more compelling if we know what the government (or the evil overlord in charge of SOUL) is up to. Are they trying to take over the world? Turn all the women into Stepford wives?

Has the government declared everyone must marry their soulmate, as chosen by the government? Which is what I thought after your first sentence. Or everyone who works for SOUL must marry their soulmate, as chosen by SOUL? Which might be SOUL's way of promoting their service. "Our algorithm is so perfect, all our employees swear by it." 

Does the current director of SOUL know about the manipulation? Someone there must know about it. When are they planning to tell Amelia?

If SOUL is manipulating the soulmates it finds, and Amelia is about to marry the soulmate it found for her, it seems she would have been subjected to this manipulation. Also, if she's about to be SOUL's director, how does Declan know more than she does about what's going on?

What's Declan's explanation for disappearing for three years and not even making contact? I don't see Amelia forgiving that, chemistry or not.

Is SOUL an acronym, like NASA or DOGE?