“Love Engine Optimization”
Lightspeed Magazine 85
Ed. John Joseph Adams
June 27, 2017
The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2018 Edition; 2017 Locus Recommended Reading List; Honorable Mention, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection, ed. by Gardner Dozois

“Disturbingly brilliant.” — Alan Baxter

 “[The story has] a timely central notion: a way of using deep data (with realtime help) to attract romantic partners. The question, of course, is how “real” such a romance would be. Kressel makes the story work by focusing on the character and drives of the protagonist, with an honest and dark twist of the knife at the end.” —Locus Magazine, Rich Horton

“‘Love Engine Optimization’ by Matthew Kressel is a modern cyberpunk story of a hacker who uses the ubiquitous nature of technology to digitally stalk women, analyzing their data to figure out how to seduce them. In a world already currently full of online dangers, this story highlights just one more way future-tech could enable scammers to exploit people.” — Tangent Online

“Very good and scary character study and warning. Ends with a nice chill.” — SFRevu

“Despite having a wholly unlikable protagonist (then again, isn’t that the point?), this story really worked for me. Kressel clearly knows his tech, and he employs precise language in this tale of manipulated love. The hacker v. hacker subplot adds just the right amount conflict leading up to the fallout in the end. If you like near-future science fiction, “Love Engine Optimization” is a must read.” — Strange Shuttle

Love Engine Optimization is a chilling story of how a sociopath uses her extensive computer skills to get all the information she needs so that her victims fall in love irreversibly.” — Osrascunhos, (translated from Portuguese)