The Benton Updates: The Loneliness Algorithm, Three Raccoons, and the Day the Porch Fought Back #1, (Paperback)

<p>What if an app tried to end loneliness... and broke a whole town instead?</p><p>Welcome to Benton, Indiana. Population: 12,847. Host Score: 2.1.</p><p>When Silicon Valley drops Palgorithm on their town-an app that "optimizes community" by matching you with your "First Best Friend"-12-year-old Zoe Plank gets paired with a juice box. Her dad gets paired with his Lunchable-stealing nemesis. And the whole thing is run by three raccoons in a hoodie operating from an abandoned Blockbuster.</p><p>The only way out? A potluck. A porch. And a goose with an existential crisis.</p><p>KERNEL PANIC is The Good Place meets The Office, but the office is an entire town and the algorithm is feral.</p><p>Perfect for fans of Terry Pratchett, Christopher Moore, and anyone who thinks QR codes are a personal attack.</p><p>The Benton Updates #1 kicks off a series about what happens when you try to debug a community. Because humans don't run on code. They run on casserole.</p><p>There is no app for this. There is only Benton.</p><p>Tropes: Small town comedy, tech satire, found family, raccoons, anti-capitalist humor, cozy dystopia, midwestern gothic, community vs. corporation, social media satire.</p><p>Content note: Contains Raisinets from 2013, emotional support dumpsters, and one very bad clarinet.</p><p>For readers who liked: Good Omens, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Legends &amp; Lattes, The Kaiju Preservation Society.</p>

• The Benton Updates: The Loneliness Algorithm, Three Raccoons, and the Day the Porch Fought Back #1, (Paperback)
• Author: Bart Studio Press
• ISBN: 9798235488311
• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 2026-05-05
• Page Count: 220