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Please Report Your Bug Here
“An unexpected, inventive, heartfelt riff on the workplace novel—startup realism with a multiverse twist.” —Anna Wiener, author of Uncanny Valley
Introducing Josh Riedel's adrenaline-packed debut novel about a dating app employee who discovers a glitch that transports him to other worlds
Once you sign an NDA it's good for life. Meaning legally, I shouldn't tell you this story. But I have to.
A college grad with the six-figure debt to prove it, Ethan Block views San Francisco as the place to be. Yet his job at hot new dating app DateDate is a far cry from what he envisioned. Instead of making the world a better place, he reviews flagged photo queues, overworked and stressed out. But that's about to change.
Reeling from a breakup, Ethan decides to view his algorithmically matched soulmate on DateDate. He overrides the system and clicks on the profile. Then, he disappears. One minute, he’s in a windowless office, and the next, he’s in a field of endless grass, gasping for air. When Ethan snaps back to DateDate HQ, he’s convinced a coding issue caused the blip. Except for anyone to believe him, he’ll need evidence. As Ethan embarks on a wild goose chase, moving from dingy startup think tanks to Silicon Valley’s dominant tech conglomerate, it becomes clear that there’s more to DateDate than meets the eye. With the stakes rising, and a new world at risk, Ethan must choose who—and what—he believes in.
Adventurous and hypertimely, Please Report Your Bug Here is an inventive millennial coming-of-age story, a dark exploration of the corruption now synonymous with Big Tech, and, above all, a testament to the power of human connection in our digital era.
Introducing Josh Riedel's adrenaline-packed debut novel about a dating app employee who discovers a glitch that transports him to other worlds
Once you sign an NDA it's good for life. Meaning legally, I shouldn't tell you this story. But I have to.
A college grad with the six-figure debt to prove it, Ethan Block views San Francisco as the place to be. Yet his job at hot new dating app DateDate is a far cry from what he envisioned. Instead of making the world a better place, he reviews flagged photo queues, overworked and stressed out. But that's about to change.
Reeling from a breakup, Ethan decides to view his algorithmically matched soulmate on DateDate. He overrides the system and clicks on the profile. Then, he disappears. One minute, he’s in a windowless office, and the next, he’s in a field of endless grass, gasping for air. When Ethan snaps back to DateDate HQ, he’s convinced a coding issue caused the blip. Except for anyone to believe him, he’ll need evidence. As Ethan embarks on a wild goose chase, moving from dingy startup think tanks to Silicon Valley’s dominant tech conglomerate, it becomes clear that there’s more to DateDate than meets the eye. With the stakes rising, and a new world at risk, Ethan must choose who—and what—he believes in.
Adventurous and hypertimely, Please Report Your Bug Here is an inventive millennial coming-of-age story, a dark exploration of the corruption now synonymous with Big Tech, and, above all, a testament to the power of human connection in our digital era.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 17, 2023
112 people are currently reading
10512 people want to read
About the author
Josh Riedel
2 books63 followersJosh Riedel was the first employee at Instagram, where he worked for several years before earning his MFA from the University of Arizona. His short stories have appeared in One Story, Passages North, and Sycamore Review. He lives in West Marin, California.
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January 17, 2023
Update 1/17/23: Reposting my review to celebrate that today is publication day!
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for sending me an ARC of Please Report Your Bug Here in exchange for an honest review.
Ethan Block is employee number one at DateDate, a hot new dating app. But his job isn’t glamorous. He works long days largely deleting inappropriate photos from the app. And he’s at the mercy of the app’s Founder, who seems far too interested in selling out to the Corporation (think an amalgamation of Facebook and Apple). And if that sale goes through, Ethan will have to adjust to the lifestyle change from working at a tiny startup to bring a small cog in an enormous machine.
Ethan Block is employee number one at DateDate, a hot new dating app. One day, for both work reasons and personal curiosity, he uses his access to DateDate to find his absolute top match, and when he clicks on her picture, something very strange happens. He feels as though he’s been transported to an empty field in another world. Afterwards, he begins to look into the bug, and he realizes he’s not the only person to experience this … feeling? Or did he actually travel somewhere else?
So, yeah, Please Report Your Bug Here is two very different stories brought together in one novel. The author, Josh Riedel, was employee number one at Instagram, so I assume his portrayals of the grind of working at a Silicon Valley startup, and then working at a large tech company—and the cutthroat competition between them—have a great deal of truth to them.
The other, more speculative sci-fi storyline raised some really interesting ideas—the relationship between technology and art (especially photography), the importance of human connection even though you can never truly know another person. But by the end of the novel I wasn’t sure I really understood what was happening with Portals, the other worlds, Ting, or Noma. It was either over my head or a bit muddled, and I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.
Finally, a word about the narrator, Torian Brackett. The main character Ethan has a millennial vibe that I thought Mr. Brackett presented very well. And I thought his voice for Noma captured her inscrutable distance. A few of the other male characters’ voices were a bit too similar, but I still thought the narration was good overall.
Please Report Your Bug Here is an ambitious debut novel, with some interesting ideas about people and their technology. In the end, I think it’s a bit of a mixed bag—and it’s definitely not “adrenaline-packed” as the marketing materials claim—but it’s certainly an original story.
P.S. I would have thought the author far too young, but I loved the reference to the Choose Your Own Adventure book Inside UFO 54-40. I loved those books as a kid, and I still remember the gimmick of this one: that the aliens are looking for a utopian planet called Ultima that is in the book, but cannot be reached by any set of choices. Ultima is just sitting there always out of reach, a surprisingly deep moral for a grade school book.
“I could answer a million questions on DateDate and you still wouldn’t know who I am. Nobody would. That’s the point: we don’t know people, we get to know them. We’re always in the process of getting to know each other. It never ends.”
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for sending me an ARC of Please Report Your Bug Here in exchange for an honest review.
Ethan Block is employee number one at DateDate, a hot new dating app. But his job isn’t glamorous. He works long days largely deleting inappropriate photos from the app. And he’s at the mercy of the app’s Founder, who seems far too interested in selling out to the Corporation (think an amalgamation of Facebook and Apple). And if that sale goes through, Ethan will have to adjust to the lifestyle change from working at a tiny startup to bring a small cog in an enormous machine.
Ethan Block is employee number one at DateDate, a hot new dating app. One day, for both work reasons and personal curiosity, he uses his access to DateDate to find his absolute top match, and when he clicks on her picture, something very strange happens. He feels as though he’s been transported to an empty field in another world. Afterwards, he begins to look into the bug, and he realizes he’s not the only person to experience this … feeling? Or did he actually travel somewhere else?
So, yeah, Please Report Your Bug Here is two very different stories brought together in one novel. The author, Josh Riedel, was employee number one at Instagram, so I assume his portrayals of the grind of working at a Silicon Valley startup, and then working at a large tech company—and the cutthroat competition between them—have a great deal of truth to them.
The other, more speculative sci-fi storyline raised some really interesting ideas—the relationship between technology and art (especially photography), the importance of human connection even though you can never truly know another person. But by the end of the novel I wasn’t sure I really understood what was happening with Portals, the other worlds, Ting, or Noma. It was either over my head or a bit muddled, and I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.
Finally, a word about the narrator, Torian Brackett. The main character Ethan has a millennial vibe that I thought Mr. Brackett presented very well. And I thought his voice for Noma captured her inscrutable distance. A few of the other male characters’ voices were a bit too similar, but I still thought the narration was good overall.
Please Report Your Bug Here is an ambitious debut novel, with some interesting ideas about people and their technology. In the end, I think it’s a bit of a mixed bag—and it’s definitely not “adrenaline-packed” as the marketing materials claim—but it’s certainly an original story.
P.S. I would have thought the author far too young, but I loved the reference to the Choose Your Own Adventure book Inside UFO 54-40. I loved those books as a kid, and I still remember the gimmick of this one: that the aliens are looking for a utopian planet called Ultima that is in the book, but cannot be reached by any set of choices. Ultima is just sitting there always out of reach, a surprisingly deep moral for a grade school book.
September 28, 2023
As is obvious by the rating, I did not enjoy this. This was also almost a DNF for me, but I was 60% in so I decided to persist.
I feel like this book was two separate books and neither was particularly engaging or effective for me, not did they transition well from one to the other. We start off with what, to me, was the more interesting part of the book: a man works for a startup and is simultaneously incredibly invested in his work and insecure about whether he is an integral part of the team (the other members being The Founder and The Engineer). He takes us through his daily commute, the tedium and heavy time investment needed in content moderation, and how it eventually numbs the person doing it, and his quest to retroactively create a mission statement for the company and convince The Founder that he needs to hire someone to help him with the ever-expanding content backlog. All very relatable problems and somewhat interesting due to the author's credentials as the first Instagram hire. Honestly, hearing about the algorithm and questions and business model of DateDate was the most interesting part of this book for me.
The second part of the book is a vaguely fantasy alternate dimension that is somehow triggered by people matching with others. There is a vague inciting incident, a child (Ting) [apologies for insensitive comment about the name, I did not catch on that the child is potentially ethnically Chinese and it is a common name for a female child] is somehow warped into a fantasy location and the rest of the book is about Noma and Ethan working incredibly separately and frustratingly aimlessly to get her back somehow.
My frustration with this part was in two parts:
1. Ethan is not a compelling POV character. He has no ambitions, is uncertain of who he is, and has a strange crush on Noma and behaves in ways that would be alarming to anyone watching (showing up at her home, following her when he sees her out with her friends, messaging her constantly, etc.) when she clearly is not romantically interested in him and also barely acknowledges his existence. They are not friends, Ethan is being used first by the Founder, then by Noma, then by Henry, and so on. He's neither interesting nor compelling and I genuinely did not get invested in him at all.
2. The inciting incident is vague and I have no idea why Ethan was so driven to pursue it except that he has very little else going on in his life and is being screwed over constantly by people using him.
Put those two together and add a lot of commuting on the BART, vague talk about art and technology, despite Ethan not having any confidence in his own opinions to even talk about art and why it interests him, and you have this book.
I would have enjoyed getting some investigation into the idea of Ting, the child, and how she fades from memory or changes in this alternative realm, and whether she is even the same person anymore, and how on earth her disappearing is covered up, but we don't investigate anything of interest or any controversial ideas in this book because the POV is Ethan and he has absolutely no thoughts beyond public transportation and wondering what Noma or his ex-girlfriend are doing at any given point in time.
A disappointment for me, unfortunately.
I feel like this book was two separate books and neither was particularly engaging or effective for me, not did they transition well from one to the other. We start off with what, to me, was the more interesting part of the book: a man works for a startup and is simultaneously incredibly invested in his work and insecure about whether he is an integral part of the team (the other members being The Founder and The Engineer). He takes us through his daily commute, the tedium and heavy time investment needed in content moderation, and how it eventually numbs the person doing it, and his quest to retroactively create a mission statement for the company and convince The Founder that he needs to hire someone to help him with the ever-expanding content backlog. All very relatable problems and somewhat interesting due to the author's credentials as the first Instagram hire. Honestly, hearing about the algorithm and questions and business model of DateDate was the most interesting part of this book for me.
The second part of the book is a vaguely fantasy alternate dimension that is somehow triggered by people matching with others. There is a vague inciting incident, a child (Ting) [apologies for insensitive comment about the name, I did not catch on that the child is potentially ethnically Chinese and it is a common name for a female child] is somehow warped into a fantasy location and the rest of the book is about Noma and Ethan working incredibly separately and frustratingly aimlessly to get her back somehow.
My frustration with this part was in two parts:
1. Ethan is not a compelling POV character. He has no ambitions, is uncertain of who he is, and has a strange crush on Noma and behaves in ways that would be alarming to anyone watching (showing up at her home, following her when he sees her out with her friends, messaging her constantly, etc.) when she clearly is not romantically interested in him and also barely acknowledges his existence. They are not friends, Ethan is being used first by the Founder, then by Noma, then by Henry, and so on. He's neither interesting nor compelling and I genuinely did not get invested in him at all.
2. The inciting incident is vague and I have no idea why Ethan was so driven to pursue it except that he has very little else going on in his life and is being screwed over constantly by people using him.
Put those two together and add a lot of commuting on the BART, vague talk about art and technology, despite Ethan not having any confidence in his own opinions to even talk about art and why it interests him, and you have this book.
I would have enjoyed getting some investigation into the idea of Ting, the child, and how she fades from memory or changes in this alternative realm, and whether she is even the same person anymore, and how on earth her disappearing is covered up, but we don't investigate anything of interest or any controversial ideas in this book because the POV is Ethan and he has absolutely no thoughts beyond public transportation and wondering what Noma or his ex-girlfriend are doing at any given point in time.
A disappointment for me, unfortunately.
January 12, 2023
4.5 stars
Magic realism + Silicon Valley might be my literary catnip, because thus far I've loved all the novels that fuse these two elements together (such as novels from Robin Sloan). The constant tug of war between technology (and profitability) and human connection is always ripe for deep dive and examination, and Please Report Your Bug Here is another worthwhile entry to this niche category.
While there's a central mystery at hand, Josh Riedel took a more literary route in its storytelling, focusing on the mundane, intimate moments, rather than emphasizing on twists and reveals. There's also an evident air of authenticity throughout; San Francisco feels lived-in and vibrant, and the Californian tech world quirks and attitudes have me chuckling at their realism (and how ridiculous when observed from afar). If you're listening through audio, Torian Brackett's performance is a perfect fit for this story.
There are moments here and there where I felt the story is repeating the same beat once too many, but it is a minor complaint considering how much I enjoy the quiet, yet stylish telling. The novel referenced the film Lost in Translation at certain point, and it is actually also the perfect 'vibe check'—if you enjoyed the calming, melancholic wit of the said film, Please Report Your Bug Here will definitely resonate.
**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!**
Magic realism + Silicon Valley might be my literary catnip, because thus far I've loved all the novels that fuse these two elements together (such as novels from Robin Sloan). The constant tug of war between technology (and profitability) and human connection is always ripe for deep dive and examination, and Please Report Your Bug Here is another worthwhile entry to this niche category.
While there's a central mystery at hand, Josh Riedel took a more literary route in its storytelling, focusing on the mundane, intimate moments, rather than emphasizing on twists and reveals. There's also an evident air of authenticity throughout; San Francisco feels lived-in and vibrant, and the Californian tech world quirks and attitudes have me chuckling at their realism (and how ridiculous when observed from afar). If you're listening through audio, Torian Brackett's performance is a perfect fit for this story.
There are moments here and there where I felt the story is repeating the same beat once too many, but it is a minor complaint considering how much I enjoy the quiet, yet stylish telling. The novel referenced the film Lost in Translation at certain point, and it is actually also the perfect 'vibe check'—if you enjoyed the calming, melancholic wit of the said film, Please Report Your Bug Here will definitely resonate.
**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!**
March 2, 2023
The story centers around protagonist Ethan Block, who is a 24 year old millennial working in San Francisco in a tech start-up company called "DateDate". The start-up is headed by a character called the Founder and has only two employees, Ethan and a computer engineer. Ethan himself has a liberal arts background, but relishes working in the cutting edge world of tech.
Ethan decides to use the app himself, for both professional and personal reasons, to find his own perfect match (the company touts its ability to link people up romantically). In doing this, something weird happens. Ethan finds himself transported to another world where he lands on a beach with tall grass. He's not sure, but a young child might be playing nearby. He soon wakes up to find himself back in his shabby office. Ethan reports this to the Founder, who calls it a computer bug or glitch. The novel continues on from here.
I have mixed reactions as a reader. I enjoyed the descriptions of San Francisco and the tech world. As part of the story, Ethan goes to work for the Corporation - a huge social media corporation which sounded like Facebook. The social satire was fun reading. I also liked the author's portrayal of Ethan, himself.
The science fiction elements of the book were less compelling for me (but keep in mind that I don't gravitate towards this genre).
Additional Note: According to the author's bio, he was Instagram's first employee.
Ethan decides to use the app himself, for both professional and personal reasons, to find his own perfect match (the company touts its ability to link people up romantically). In doing this, something weird happens. Ethan finds himself transported to another world where he lands on a beach with tall grass. He's not sure, but a young child might be playing nearby. He soon wakes up to find himself back in his shabby office. Ethan reports this to the Founder, who calls it a computer bug or glitch. The novel continues on from here.
I have mixed reactions as a reader. I enjoyed the descriptions of San Francisco and the tech world. As part of the story, Ethan goes to work for the Corporation - a huge social media corporation which sounded like Facebook. The social satire was fun reading. I also liked the author's portrayal of Ethan, himself.
The science fiction elements of the book were less compelling for me (but keep in mind that I don't gravitate towards this genre).
Additional Note: According to the author's bio, he was Instagram's first employee.
January 31, 2023
I had high hopes for this but it simply was uninteresting?
November 21, 2022
Techno-(pseudo)dystopian future blended with some sci-fi elements, this novel has some interesting ideas but leaves something to be desired. Starting with what I appreciated, I will say the overall story is interesting. I like how the sci-fi elements just kind of snuck in halfway through, unexpected, and weren’t really commented on as anything other than the logical extension of technology. I thought there was a good job of really depicting the loneliness, desperation, ego, and aspirations of the main character, the toxic stew that leads so many mediocre white men to stumble-fail their way upwards. The novel doesn’t offer a critique of this as heavily as it could, but as far as character development goes, I felt a reality contained in the protagonist. Lastly, there was an artistic choice to only identify some things by their generic labels (the Founder, the engineer, the Corporation) and yet to pair that with hyper-specificity regarding things like brands or coffee preparation techniques, all the entrapments of wealthy-hipsterism. A generous reading of this is that it presented the all-consuming face of our attention economy, there is no difference or need for proper names as we move from one technological autocracy/behemoth to another, they all consume us equally, and the culture and identity they create is one based on cultivating intense in-group ideologies nurtured and exacerbated by capitalism and specialized knowledge regarding cultural ephemera.
A less generous reading is that it just got tiresome. I think Chemex (a specific coffee preparation technique) is mentioned at least three different times that I can remember off the top of my head, and I would be willing to bet that’s an undercount. It was interesting at first, created a specificity of the tech/start-up scene in San Francisco, but it soon just felt like a crutch, a convenient trick to avoid developing an actual environment or setting beyond the costume it was wearing. Aside from the main character the supporting characters all felt rather two-dimensional, barely tweaked versions of stock characters. Maybe that’s a comment about the interchangeability of individuals who live in this world, but it just felt like a reliance on stereotypical tropes instead of developing personality. The plotting itself was strange, it just felt there was a lot of filler, going places and doing things just for the sake of going there and doing it, not because it mattered in any way. In many ways this felt like a really, really strong short story that turned into an interesting novella and eventually a confused, wandering novel. A lot of these things I can overlook if there is especially beautiful or talented writing, but that isn’t the case here. It isn’t bad, and a lot of the dialogue feels natural and not forced. But there is a utilitarian feel about the writing, a lot more telling than showing, and it doesn’t inspire me or make me want to keep reading it, or re-read it, in the way that good prose can do. Plus, the framing device is pretty much wasted. The novel is framed as if it were written by the main character, a whistle-blower/exposé story aimed directly at us, the audience… but aside from the very opening and the very ending, this form is never really played with. It is just a simple first-person narrative, as countless other novels are. This novel could have chosen to have the narrator address the audience directly before every chapter. Since the narrator is both a student of art history and also deeply entrenched in tech culture, I imagine every chapter, or at least the major sections, could have some sort of reflection somehow showing off these and other uncommon character traits. If the framing device is introduced it should be used both to make the story better and also to make the character more complex, but it just sits there, seemingly forgotten until the last chapter, which was wasted potential.
This novel isn’t bad. But it is somewhat obvious that the author has written a lot of short fiction, and this is his first novel. It has an interesting premise and a complex main character, and while meandering at times the overall pacing, the timing of reveals and developments, all feels pretty good. If tech-dystopia is your jam then there is a good amount of fun to be had here, it just wasn’t enough for me. However, there are enough interesting seeds planted here that I am interested in seeing what else he writes as he continues to develop his long-form story-telling craft.
I want to thank NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company, who provided a complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest review.
A less generous reading is that it just got tiresome. I think Chemex (a specific coffee preparation technique) is mentioned at least three different times that I can remember off the top of my head, and I would be willing to bet that’s an undercount. It was interesting at first, created a specificity of the tech/start-up scene in San Francisco, but it soon just felt like a crutch, a convenient trick to avoid developing an actual environment or setting beyond the costume it was wearing. Aside from the main character the supporting characters all felt rather two-dimensional, barely tweaked versions of stock characters. Maybe that’s a comment about the interchangeability of individuals who live in this world, but it just felt like a reliance on stereotypical tropes instead of developing personality. The plotting itself was strange, it just felt there was a lot of filler, going places and doing things just for the sake of going there and doing it, not because it mattered in any way. In many ways this felt like a really, really strong short story that turned into an interesting novella and eventually a confused, wandering novel. A lot of these things I can overlook if there is especially beautiful or talented writing, but that isn’t the case here. It isn’t bad, and a lot of the dialogue feels natural and not forced. But there is a utilitarian feel about the writing, a lot more telling than showing, and it doesn’t inspire me or make me want to keep reading it, or re-read it, in the way that good prose can do. Plus, the framing device is pretty much wasted. The novel is framed as if it were written by the main character, a whistle-blower/exposé story aimed directly at us, the audience… but aside from the very opening and the very ending, this form is never really played with. It is just a simple first-person narrative, as countless other novels are. This novel could have chosen to have the narrator address the audience directly before every chapter. Since the narrator is both a student of art history and also deeply entrenched in tech culture, I imagine every chapter, or at least the major sections, could have some sort of reflection somehow showing off these and other uncommon character traits. If the framing device is introduced it should be used both to make the story better and also to make the character more complex, but it just sits there, seemingly forgotten until the last chapter, which was wasted potential.
This novel isn’t bad. But it is somewhat obvious that the author has written a lot of short fiction, and this is his first novel. It has an interesting premise and a complex main character, and while meandering at times the overall pacing, the timing of reveals and developments, all feels pretty good. If tech-dystopia is your jam then there is a good amount of fun to be had here, it just wasn’t enough for me. However, there are enough interesting seeds planted here that I am interested in seeing what else he writes as he continues to develop his long-form story-telling craft.
I want to thank NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company, who provided a complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 5, 2024
This is actually very sad. Around the 85% I was just debating whether this was a 4 or a 5-star read but damn, dude. No. I get it, you want your main character to be ‘exotic,’ but saying the character will go back to his hometown in “Catalonia, two hours away from Barcelona, and he will speak fluent Spanish, and dream in Spanish” because that’s the native language there was… idk, not very well researched? My hometown is two hours away from Barcelona and the few native Spanish speakers I know there, were born in Spain (aka, not Catalonia). SHRUG.
I’m bumping this down to 2 stars because of those two sentences? Yes, I am. Did I think about giving it 1 star? Yeah. This sort of reminded me of a British guy who couldn’t distinguish the difference between Catalan and Spanish, so when he tried to show me the “Spanish” he had learnt, it turned out to be Catalan. Idk, native English speakers in foreign countries or writing about foreign countries make me scratch my head sometimes.
If Users by Colin Winnette and We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets had a baby, it would be this book. And it was excellent (yes, this is not a bad review). I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Silicon Valley tech biz, magical fiction (mysterious bugs and algorithmic peculiarities), and literary fiction.
I am a bit confused with the low rating (since I assume I’m the only person giving this a bad rating because of political reasons lol), I thought this was a very good book tackling very fun/relevant topics like content moderation, things we send on dating apps, trusting apps with all the information they ask from us, personal relations, toxic workplaces and hierarchies… I don’t know, I thought it was cool. The story had me hooked, I liked the characters (I do appreciate a good platonic relationship between a man and a woman, it was refreshing to see one), big etc… I do admit this goes into alternative realities/portals which is something I actively avoid and don’t enjoy, but I was aware of it from the synopsis and I was still hooked to the main story, so yeah.
The story in itself has the core mystery of the bug and every weird thing going on in the app, but it has a slice-of-life vibe, everything is very mundane and mediocre. I guess I can see why someone may find it boring, I thought it was very realistic and I wanted to know about Ethan, so it worked for me. The normality of it all felt like an anchor to reality too, if we start mixing magical realism with crazier things it would just come off too quirky/silly maybe? Idk.
Some things I thought were cool: 1) I thought it was funny when Ethan mentioned he has a Goodreads review with 19 likes, it made me chuckle. 2) The mentions of Catalan art (Joan Miró shows up a lot). 3) As much as I hated Lost in Translation, I understand why Ethan went crazy trying to visit the spots where scenes had been recorded (shoutout to my last trip to Tokyo and my visiting all the spots that were shown in Alice In Borderland lol).
I’m bumping this down to 2 stars because of those two sentences? Yes, I am. Did I think about giving it 1 star? Yeah. This sort of reminded me of a British guy who couldn’t distinguish the difference between Catalan and Spanish, so when he tried to show me the “Spanish” he had learnt, it turned out to be Catalan. Idk, native English speakers in foreign countries or writing about foreign countries make me scratch my head sometimes.
If Users by Colin Winnette and We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets had a baby, it would be this book. And it was excellent (yes, this is not a bad review). I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Silicon Valley tech biz, magical fiction (mysterious bugs and algorithmic peculiarities), and literary fiction.
I am a bit confused with the low rating (since I assume I’m the only person giving this a bad rating because of political reasons lol), I thought this was a very good book tackling very fun/relevant topics like content moderation, things we send on dating apps, trusting apps with all the information they ask from us, personal relations, toxic workplaces and hierarchies… I don’t know, I thought it was cool. The story had me hooked, I liked the characters (I do appreciate a good platonic relationship between a man and a woman, it was refreshing to see one), big etc… I do admit this goes into alternative realities/portals which is something I actively avoid and don’t enjoy, but I was aware of it from the synopsis and I was still hooked to the main story, so yeah.
The story in itself has the core mystery of the bug and every weird thing going on in the app, but it has a slice-of-life vibe, everything is very mundane and mediocre. I guess I can see why someone may find it boring, I thought it was very realistic and I wanted to know about Ethan, so it worked for me. The normality of it all felt like an anchor to reality too, if we start mixing magical realism with crazier things it would just come off too quirky/silly maybe? Idk.
Some things I thought were cool: 1) I thought it was funny when Ethan mentioned he has a Goodreads review with 19 likes, it made me chuckle. 2) The mentions of Catalan art (Joan Miró shows up a lot). 3) As much as I hated Lost in Translation, I understand why Ethan went crazy trying to visit the spots where scenes had been recorded (shoutout to my last trip to Tokyo and my visiting all the spots that were shown in Alice In Borderland lol).
May 15, 2023
The book was certainly easy to consume. Before I even noticed, I was 20% into the audiobook. But at some I started to wonder what it actually was about, because it tried to keep quite a few balls in the air, and I'm not convinced it was entirely successful. And I started getting bored.
I was led to believe that the novel belonged to SFF genre, but the fantastical elements were barely there. It was just some guy doing normal stuff and having normal experiences. Whenever the book started to remember what it was supposed to be according to the advertising and explored the portals to other worlds, it was brief and then it was back to rambling about random everyday reflections about Life. In the end, what was the point?
(I guess I'm just not into magical realism?)
I could certainly recognize typical patterns of behaviours/relations and the atmosphere at a software company due to my own professional experience - so I can say with confidence it was done well. I had some anxiety spiking at moments. So that was well-done, next to the sci-fi elements.
Most of the characters were half-heartedly developed, including the narrator. The only person who shined through was Noma and I wish she was the main character.
All in all, I liked parts of the book but they were buried in a pile of random reflections and philosophical divagations about love, relationships, professional identity and the related topics. I felt like the novel didn't know what it wanted to be and ended up being stuck in limbo.
I was led to believe that the novel belonged to SFF genre, but the fantastical elements were barely there. It was just some guy doing normal stuff and having normal experiences. Whenever the book started to remember what it was supposed to be according to the advertising and explored the portals to other worlds, it was brief and then it was back to rambling about random everyday reflections about Life. In the end, what was the point?
(I guess I'm just not into magical realism?)
I could certainly recognize typical patterns of behaviours/relations and the atmosphere at a software company due to my own professional experience - so I can say with confidence it was done well. I had some anxiety spiking at moments. So that was well-done, next to the sci-fi elements.
Most of the characters were half-heartedly developed, including the narrator. The only person who shined through was Noma and I wish she was the main character.
All in all, I liked parts of the book but they were buried in a pile of random reflections and philosophical divagations about love, relationships, professional identity and the related topics. I felt like the novel didn't know what it wanted to be and ended up being stuck in limbo.
November 8, 2022
I find myself very interested in stories about Silicon Valley and tech start ups. It is such a different world than the one I know. My husband and I were mildly obsessed with the HBO series titled, Silicon Valley, so when I read the synopsis of this book, I knew it would be one that would interest me.
The story begins with Ethan, a non-techie who was part of the start up group designing and building the app DateDate, ruminating on his experience. Apparently he has been recording his recollections in an effort to write a manuscript of his DateDate journey. He then walks the reader through his memories, starting with his entry into the tech start-up world even though his background is in the arts. In the beginning, he is proud to be affecting history and putting DateDate's mark on the world. His memories are indicative of his feelings of inferiority and good fortune. The fact that he calls his partners, The Founder and The Engineer are indicative of the sort of relationship they possessed. The story goes on to detail the rise of the app, eventual purchase by The Company and then Ethan uncovering secrets that the Founder was hiding. It leads him to a journey he never imagined. His feelings morph as he gets pulled further and further in.
This story was a mash up of several genres - Literary Fiction, Science Fiction and Dystopian. It felt like the overarching message was how easily these companies and apps can become intrusive while being largely unregulated. I have to admit that the technology was a little more than I could fully comprehend, but I still really enjoyed this story. None of the characters stood out as particularly likeable - but I think the story was more about the technology and its possible effects. This story held my attention throughout and I found it interesting and original. Definitely recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt for the advance copy to read and review.
The story begins with Ethan, a non-techie who was part of the start up group designing and building the app DateDate, ruminating on his experience. Apparently he has been recording his recollections in an effort to write a manuscript of his DateDate journey. He then walks the reader through his memories, starting with his entry into the tech start-up world even though his background is in the arts. In the beginning, he is proud to be affecting history and putting DateDate's mark on the world. His memories are indicative of his feelings of inferiority and good fortune. The fact that he calls his partners, The Founder and The Engineer are indicative of the sort of relationship they possessed. The story goes on to detail the rise of the app, eventual purchase by The Company and then Ethan uncovering secrets that the Founder was hiding. It leads him to a journey he never imagined. His feelings morph as he gets pulled further and further in.
This story was a mash up of several genres - Literary Fiction, Science Fiction and Dystopian. It felt like the overarching message was how easily these companies and apps can become intrusive while being largely unregulated. I have to admit that the technology was a little more than I could fully comprehend, but I still really enjoyed this story. None of the characters stood out as particularly likeable - but I think the story was more about the technology and its possible effects. This story held my attention throughout and I found it interesting and original. Definitely recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt for the advance copy to read and review.
December 22, 2022
I am a software engineer who absolutely can’t stand startup culture so I love books that poke fun at it a little. I was really intrigued because this was written by the first employee of Instagram.
I unfortunately don’t have many good things to say about this one. For the first nearly 200 pages we only got glimpses of the glitch. The rest was a dull and monotonous caricature of working in Silicon Valley and having crappy friends. Even the “bad guys” weren’t even interesting enough to hate read. (What I will say this book absolutely nailed though is mediocre people failing up and the fact that most people making mistakes aren’t malicious, they just literally have no idea what’s going on).
The glitch part was ultimately unsatisfying as well. The stakes were not that interesting and I don’t really understand a lot of the motivations for why some choices were made.
This lit-fic/sci-fi is not seekingdystopia approved 👎🏻 If you’re looking for some big corp satire/lit fic, I recommend instead:
- THE VERY NICE BOX by Eve Gleichman and Laura Blackett
- SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE TYPING by Calvin Kasulke (this one had me laughing hysterically)
- BLACK BUCK by Mateo Askaripour
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted arc!
I unfortunately don’t have many good things to say about this one. For the first nearly 200 pages we only got glimpses of the glitch. The rest was a dull and monotonous caricature of working in Silicon Valley and having crappy friends. Even the “bad guys” weren’t even interesting enough to hate read. (What I will say this book absolutely nailed though is mediocre people failing up and the fact that most people making mistakes aren’t malicious, they just literally have no idea what’s going on).
The glitch part was ultimately unsatisfying as well. The stakes were not that interesting and I don’t really understand a lot of the motivations for why some choices were made.
This lit-fic/sci-fi is not seekingdystopia approved 👎🏻 If you’re looking for some big corp satire/lit fic, I recommend instead:
- THE VERY NICE BOX by Eve Gleichman and Laura Blackett
- SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE TYPING by Calvin Kasulke (this one had me laughing hysterically)
- BLACK BUCK by Mateo Askaripour
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted arc!
February 8, 2023
блядь что за хуйня
January 25, 2023
This book felt like it didn't know what it wanted to be. A treatise on human connection and interaction? The existential ennui of self doubt and self discovery in a Millenial's mid-twenties and not understanding yet how to manage work/life balance? A portal fantasy? A scathing commentary on corporate greed?
It did all of these things, but it did them all poorly. It felt like the mystery took too long to ramp up, then was abandoned. Ethan meanders through other people's lives in what seem to be pointless vignettes. Even when I put on a generous amount of suspension of disbelief and tried to convince myself these were character moments giving me a glimpse of how Ethan interacts with the world and himself, they were boring.
He drifts through experiences in Las Vegas, in Tokyo, in another parallel world and it is all cloaked in a miasma of self doubt and a certain amount of imposter syndrome regarding his interpretation of art and wondering if his interpretation is objectively wrong. Even in the most egregious cases I have seen of a character doubting themselves, they have one thing they know they do well and that turns out to be what changes the story for them. That is lacking here, and the only thing Ethan appears to do well is know about coffee varietals and pull a perfect espresso shot, both meaningless and pretentious when fit into the tone of the overall story.
The last 15 minutes of the book is Ethan trying to get over the loss of his friend who he wanted to be more but never told her that. She moved to an alternate universe to spend time with a little girl she used to babysit, who is stranded forever because the company with the resources to get her out is shutting down the project because they can't monetize it. It's more bland prose centering around him taking up photography (again?) Because this is hinted throughout as something he takes interest in.
Perhaps this is supposed to be a metaphor for him finally finding direction and knowing himself when he has defined his identity by the people around him, including his ex-girlfriend who he had dated for 5 years, and the monotonous tone of the novel is designed to express the crushing sameness of the work cycle and the dangers of obsession when nothing truly excites you. At any rate, it was a disappointing read.
It did all of these things, but it did them all poorly. It felt like the mystery took too long to ramp up, then was abandoned. Ethan meanders through other people's lives in what seem to be pointless vignettes. Even when I put on a generous amount of suspension of disbelief and tried to convince myself these were character moments giving me a glimpse of how Ethan interacts with the world and himself, they were boring.
He drifts through experiences in Las Vegas, in Tokyo, in another parallel world and it is all cloaked in a miasma of self doubt and a certain amount of imposter syndrome regarding his interpretation of art and wondering if his interpretation is objectively wrong. Even in the most egregious cases I have seen of a character doubting themselves, they have one thing they know they do well and that turns out to be what changes the story for them. That is lacking here, and the only thing Ethan appears to do well is know about coffee varietals and pull a perfect espresso shot, both meaningless and pretentious when fit into the tone of the overall story.
The last 15 minutes of the book is Ethan trying to get over the loss of his friend who he wanted to be more but never told her that. She moved to an alternate universe to spend time with a little girl she used to babysit, who is stranded forever because the company with the resources to get her out is shutting down the project because they can't monetize it. It's more bland prose centering around him taking up photography (again?) Because this is hinted throughout as something he takes interest in.
Perhaps this is supposed to be a metaphor for him finally finding direction and knowing himself when he has defined his identity by the people around him, including his ex-girlfriend who he had dated for 5 years, and the monotonous tone of the novel is designed to express the crushing sameness of the work cycle and the dangers of obsession when nothing truly excites you. At any rate, it was a disappointing read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
dnf
April 24, 2023dnf at 10% i simply do not care
March 2, 2025
I generally liked this. I liked the writing style & the descriptions of SF & the Bay Area. I was pretty confused by the portal/technology/etc & had a hard time understanding what was going on. However, I liked the storylines about the absurdity of Silicon Valley tech culture, which kept me engaged. Easy, enjoyable read, although a bit muddled on the weird technology part of the storyline.
March 1, 2024
This feels like a concept novel that never got past its idea. A guy working for a dating app company finds that, when he gets access to his top-tier match, he gets sucked into an alternate world for a few minutes. There's a move to use the tech for teleportation, and there's a girl who needs rescuing (maybe) from an alternate world. But mainly, the book is just a boring venture into the world of San Francisco internet startup companies. Rather than a real ending, it just meanders more into the guy's boring life for far too many pages before stopping. Had it ended earlier and had more umph of some sort, it would have been better.
January 28, 2023
4.5 loved
July 14, 2022
This book took me ages longer than it usually takes me to finish a book. I was expecting to get a tech-minded mystery of sorts, and what I got was a main character that I couldn’t connect with, who seemed to be a mirror for anyone he encountered. The peripheral characters were all very categorized. I found the plot difficult to get into, which was ok, as once I got to the end, I was not invested enough to be bothered that there was no end.
On a positive note, the general premise of the book was very interesting. Thank you #NetGalley for this ARC of #PleaseReportYourBugHere
On a positive note, the general premise of the book was very interesting. Thank you #NetGalley for this ARC of #PleaseReportYourBugHere
January 6, 2023
I know zilch about tech, but the premise of this book intrigued me. When I found out the author was Instagram's first employee, that peaked my interest more.
Ethan's works on the app DateDate and the author's portrayal of him was well done, probably because he lived it. DateDate is an odd dating app and there's some magical realism in the story, and I was never quite sure how I felt about it. The OG owner of DateDate is search for his young daughter, who somehow fell into this magical realm.
When DateDate is bought out by the big guys (nice nod to the big companies taking over the tech industry) things took a turn.
I feel this one falls more in the magical realism with some mystery rather than thriller genre. I also didn't find Ethan particularly likeable, and many of the other characters were definitely cold and distant, but that may be what the author was trying to portray in the tech industry.
It was quick, easy read and I found the tech stuff and the storyline engaging.
Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan audio for an ALC of this one!
Ethan's works on the app DateDate and the author's portrayal of him was well done, probably because he lived it. DateDate is an odd dating app and there's some magical realism in the story, and I was never quite sure how I felt about it. The OG owner of DateDate is search for his young daughter, who somehow fell into this magical realm.
When DateDate is bought out by the big guys (nice nod to the big companies taking over the tech industry) things took a turn.
I feel this one falls more in the magical realism with some mystery rather than thriller genre. I also didn't find Ethan particularly likeable, and many of the other characters were definitely cold and distant, but that may be what the author was trying to portray in the tech industry.
It was quick, easy read and I found the tech stuff and the storyline engaging.
Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan audio for an ALC of this one!
April 14, 2025
I enjoyed this book for a long time but in the end I was frustrated. I’m not sure what the common theory is on unsatisfying endings to books but I do wonder if it was simply rushed writing or a representation of what I thought was the point of the book, that there are no answers, not to the worlds, or to Ting’s and Noma’s disappearances, or to love.
Putting that aside I did find that Ethan was an especially tragic character, unable to assert himself in any way, whether that be at work, in relationships, even in the other worlds. I liked how this was reflected in his portal world being empty, absent of any true individual characteristics until they were built for him, it reflected how passive he seems to be.
I didn’t hate it, I just wish the last 100 pages were 200 pages, we deserved more.
Putting that aside I did find that Ethan was an especially tragic character, unable to assert himself in any way, whether that be at work, in relationships, even in the other worlds. I liked how this was reflected in his portal world being empty, absent of any true individual characteristics until they were built for him, it reflected how passive he seems to be.
I didn’t hate it, I just wish the last 100 pages were 200 pages, we deserved more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2024
I'm intrigued by stories about other worlds and parallel universes, and PLEASE REPORT YOUR BUG HERE had two--the otherworldly space that users of one strange phone app are whisked into, and the world of high tech and its developers in startup mania-era San Francisco. Both are nearly equally foreign to me!
BUG is a peek into a very different world, in more ways than one.
BUG is a peek into a very different world, in more ways than one.
February 14, 2023
I had a hard time rating this one because it wasn’t what I was expecting and I don’t want that to cloud my review, but ultimately I found this book uninteresting for the most part. And then when it started to get good (ie the portals actually come into play), it either went over my head or was poorly explained. I don’t even know which.
It’s a book about corporate greed and the importance of human connection in a tech loving world… I think?
It’s a book about corporate greed and the importance of human connection in a tech loving world… I think?
January 3, 2023
Okay so I was hoping this was a thriller that took place at a tech start up. But it was more a book that was suspenseful that focused on the tech startup world. The audio book was quality 10/10 but honestly this book was just not for me. I’m not a big tech person, I like books. So the idea of this book caught my eye. I mean who wouldn’t be interested in a dating app where you may escape to a different reality/world.
This book had my attention but I just didn’t connect with it. Soren is literally the worst. He can go away. (You wont understand this until you read the book).
If you like tech and sci-fi go ahead and check this one out. If you aren’t a person who loves the world of Silicon Valley and start-ups you should maybe rethink this book.
This book had my attention but I just didn’t connect with it. Soren is literally the worst. He can go away. (You wont understand this until you read the book).
If you like tech and sci-fi go ahead and check this one out. If you aren’t a person who loves the world of Silicon Valley and start-ups you should maybe rethink this book.
January 16, 2023
I think I went into reading this book with the idea that it would be similar to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. This book is marketed as a science fiction thriller, and it reads definitely more like literary fiction with some fantasy thrown in.
The reason this book did not work for me, was because I never felt a connection with the main character . He wasn’t particularly interesting or likable….and for me-that can make or break a book. The story caught my attention at times…. and confused me at other times. Specifically the Portal.
2.5 ⭐️
This was an ARC from McMillan audio.
The reason this book did not work for me, was because I never felt a connection with the main character . He wasn’t particularly interesting or likable….and for me-that can make or break a book. The story caught my attention at times…. and confused me at other times. Specifically the Portal.
2.5 ⭐️
This was an ARC from McMillan audio.
February 28, 2023
#阅读分享 #施工完成
Please Report Your Bug Here ★
First of all, I am not trying to be mean. I know how hard it is to write and complete a story. That's all very brave and wonderful and great... But next time, please keep it to yourself, make your friends and family read it, whatever... just don't publish it.
The premise is kind of fun—Our main character, Ethan, works at a doing-well start-up and is the content reviewer of the tiny three-person team behind a hit dating app called DateDate. Finding himself unable to move on from a recent breakup, he decides to give DateDate a shot. After tons of questions, thoughts back and forth, balabalabala, there's a match! But weird things happen when he clicks on his match's photo... He finds himself mysteriously transported to an other-worldly place, waking up dizzy and completely lost. Yet before he can grasp the situation, he is suddenly back in his own chair again, in the familiar surroundings of DateDate HQ in San Francisco. He reports this bug, but others don't seem to take it seriously. On the other hand, the new help he hired—Noma—seems to be curiously determined to fix this bug. Amid all of this, Ethan has another battle to fight: the Corporation, the tech giant, is coming after DateDate, and Ethan is not entirely sure he has a future there.
See? The premise is great, very contemporary as well. It's hard to imagine that such an exciting premise could lead to one of the most bland, boring stories I've ever read... There's too much real-life and extremely little imagination in this story: the "other-worldly portal" bit is never clearly explained and remains more or less an open mystery; yet there's an extensive amount of information about living in San Francisco, comments about coffee, and the weird, stressful, somewhat crushing experience of working at tech start-ups. Well, if I wanted to know about how strange the tech start-up culture is becoming, "Bad Blood" or the WeWork documentary would be much more fitting and informative. I chose to read this book because of the imagination part! It's such a letdown that the author tosses away the fun part and focuses on the mundane things that anybody in the tech industry could write about.
Please Report Your Bug Here ★
First of all, I am not trying to be mean. I know how hard it is to write and complete a story. That's all very brave and wonderful and great... But next time, please keep it to yourself, make your friends and family read it, whatever... just don't publish it.
The premise is kind of fun—Our main character, Ethan, works at a doing-well start-up and is the content reviewer of the tiny three-person team behind a hit dating app called DateDate. Finding himself unable to move on from a recent breakup, he decides to give DateDate a shot. After tons of questions, thoughts back and forth, balabalabala, there's a match! But weird things happen when he clicks on his match's photo... He finds himself mysteriously transported to an other-worldly place, waking up dizzy and completely lost. Yet before he can grasp the situation, he is suddenly back in his own chair again, in the familiar surroundings of DateDate HQ in San Francisco. He reports this bug, but others don't seem to take it seriously. On the other hand, the new help he hired—Noma—seems to be curiously determined to fix this bug. Amid all of this, Ethan has another battle to fight: the Corporation, the tech giant, is coming after DateDate, and Ethan is not entirely sure he has a future there.
See? The premise is great, very contemporary as well. It's hard to imagine that such an exciting premise could lead to one of the most bland, boring stories I've ever read... There's too much real-life and extremely little imagination in this story: the "other-worldly portal" bit is never clearly explained and remains more or less an open mystery; yet there's an extensive amount of information about living in San Francisco, comments about coffee, and the weird, stressful, somewhat crushing experience of working at tech start-ups. Well, if I wanted to know about how strange the tech start-up culture is becoming, "Bad Blood" or the WeWork documentary would be much more fitting and informative. I chose to read this book because of the imagination part! It's such a letdown that the author tosses away the fun part and focuses on the mundane things that anybody in the tech industry could write about.
January 19, 2023
This book was so interesting. The concept was intriguing for sure. I lived in SF for years and commuted to the peninsula, SJ, Palo Alto etc. So I thought it was fun traveling through the areas I know. And the startup tech industry living in this area you are bound to know ppl who work on that field.
But this is tech heavy and it focuses on a dating app that is the startup company. It starts to get interesting when the startup is swallowed by the corporation.
There is a bug, and a fascinating new app that can transport people anywhere instantaneously. But there are a lot of interested parties and those that don't know how to fix the issue that has popped up.
✨Maybe spoiler✨
There was an alternate dimension that was giving me wrinkle in time vibes. But without that oily demon that was the humans in this story.
Thank you henryholtbooks and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.
But this is tech heavy and it focuses on a dating app that is the startup company. It starts to get interesting when the startup is swallowed by the corporation.
There is a bug, and a fascinating new app that can transport people anywhere instantaneously. But there are a lot of interested parties and those that don't know how to fix the issue that has popped up.
✨Maybe spoiler✨
There was an alternate dimension that was giving me wrinkle in time vibes. But without that oily demon that was the humans in this story.
Thank you henryholtbooks and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.
March 3, 2023
Not good. I only finished because I was hoping there would be some payoff in the ending. There was not. Too much name dropping of SF specifics, not enough story. Also the protagonist was incredibly irritating.
August 16, 2023
Abandoned
I really tried to persevere, but I just couldn't do it.
Aside from the fact that I absolutely hate first person narrative, the main character is about as interesting as a speck of dust. Incredibly dull, the story felt forced and I didn't care for anyone involved.
I really tried to persevere, but I just couldn't do it.
Aside from the fact that I absolutely hate first person narrative, the main character is about as interesting as a speck of dust. Incredibly dull, the story felt forced and I didn't care for anyone involved.
June 18, 2023
Very cool concept, but the characters and story were somewhat underdeveloped. It is interesting to ponder the book’s themes, about how technology is shaping our world for better and for worse.
February 18, 2024
Unfortunately, Please Report Your Bug Here was a swing and a miss for me. Maybe it was just because I was anticipating something life-changing in the pages of this book, but it was wholly underwhelming. I found it impossible to connect with the characters the vast majority of the time and, honestly, I was bored for most of the time I spent reading this. I’m really surprised by all of the reviews calling this book “adrenaline-packed,” “exhilarating,” a “page-turner,” because I found it incredibly slow and bland.
For all of its flaws, I do think there’s potential in this concept and I think the perspectives offered in this book are interesting. Being that this is Riedel’s first book, I’d be interested in reading something else of his to see if it’s more my speed.
For all of its flaws, I do think there’s potential in this concept and I think the perspectives offered in this book are interesting. Being that this is Riedel’s first book, I’d be interested in reading something else of his to see if it’s more my speed.
April 21, 2023
Riedel writes from an insider's perspective in Silicon Valley, an early employee for one of the bigger social media sites. In "Please Report" he creates an alternate reality just next door to present day San Francisco and the dominance of such companies as Facebook/Meta and Google/Alphabet. Riedel's twist is a dating app that may possibly act as a portal to other realities. The story works because Riedel confidently grounds it in a concrete world we know, but with the unsettling and uncanny slips into an adjacent universe where intra-dimensional travel may be possible. The plot races along with "Chinatown" conspiracies threatening to undo the protagonist, but for me, the tension developed in the slippage between what was accepted and what seemed extraordinary. One was never quite sure.
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