Please Report Your Bug Here

Hmmm, I'm struggling with this rating! I would say I enjoyed this book, but not for the reasons one might expect, and I found the first half to be much more compelling than the second.

What worked well for me:
- The descriptions of the tech scene were uncomfortably, uncannily lucid - though I didn't know this when I read it, I'm not at all surprised that the author was the first employee at Instagram!
- The vivid sense of place; San Francisco (and Oakland, and the South Bay, and, hell, even the shuttle!) truly were supporting characters.
- The dynamics between Ethan, our somewhat hapless protagonist, and the much stronger and more opinionated characters around him, like Mona and “the Founder”.
- Ethan's obvious discomfort and struggle to find his footing throughout his time at DateDate and in his early days at “The Corporation”; I thought his thoughtful, tentative interiority - especially contrasted against the brash confidence of his environments - was extremely well-done.

What didn't work so well:
- Just one, but it's a big one: I didn't find the central conflict - will Ethan be able to get back to the “mystery world” and achieve [spoiler]? - particularly clear or compelling. I understand it's sci-fi, but I read a lot of sci-fi, and the logic behind the glitch fell flat for me. I think I would have been willing to overlook this if the events the glitch set in motion were more interesting, but they almost felt like a distraction - I cared more about Ethan's deteriorating relationship with Noma, and his general identity issues, than this plotline. (And I understand that they're related, but ... that felt a little forced.) Overall, the second half of the book - in which this plotline takes precedence - just didn't feel real or exciting to me, even though in theory it should have.

Thanks to Henry Holt & Co and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.