It's personal taste, but this is significantly better than the last couple of fiction books I've read (which were both well reviewed).

I think it's good enough that it's hard to argue is emotionally vacuous, unless you define that to mean 'it was written by a machine'

I think increasing we'll find AIs are extremely good at emotional 'manipulation' (which I mean in the same sense has how a good tearjerker is in some sense emotionally manipulative).