Please Report Your Bug Here: A Novel by Josh Riedel
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Web ID: 15733295a debut contemporary sci-fi/fantasy blend
Please Report Your Bug Here by Josh Riedel is a contemporary sci-fi/fantasy blend and the author's debut novel. I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in at a little under nine and a half hours and is narrated by Torian Brackett. We follow our main character with first-person point-of-view. Ethan lives in San Francisco and works for the hot new dating app DateDate. Post-horrible-breakup, Ethan decides to check out who his algorithmically matched soulmate is on the app by overriding the system and clicking on the profile. But then he disappears. Once he blips back to the office, he tries to convince everyone that a coding issue caused his issue. When I read the official synopsis, it made me think of Cult Classic by Sloan Crosley, which I really enjoyed last year. I had a lot of fun with this one! I ended up reading it in two main sessions across a period of two days. As an elder millennial, I saw many pieces of myself scattered around many of the different characters in this book. There are a lot of really cool musings here about how people use/are used by technology and technology companies. I particularly liked the exploration regarding technology and art. The publisher blurb for this book calls it "adrenaline-packed," but I don't know if I'd choose those words to describe it myself. I'd call it something more like speculative fiction with suspenseful elements. I was confused by some of the story beats, some of the plot meandered a bit, and the ending was okay but I think I wanted a little more from it. I figured these complaints stem from the fact that this is the first novel written by the author. I think he has some really cool ideas and I'm excited to read further stories by him. CW: child disappearance (occurs prior to novel) I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Unique and Immersive
Please Report Your Bug Here is a science-fiction/magic-realism book. The protagonist is Ethan who is revealing dark secrets of tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. He works for a dating program (DateDate) and when he tries to find his own perfect match, he is teleported briefly to another dimension. The rest of the book details his quest to figure this out. This was a smart and different story. Though it’s science-fiction, it is presented in a way that feels like this could be possible. It shows how technology has advanced over the years and can do things we never thought was possible 100 years ago. Who’s to say that what happens in this book couldn’t happen in another 100 years? It was easy to feel immersed in this story. As it says in the book, “Technology evolves with the way people use it.” Another part of the book I appreciated was that it demonstrated how people are so reliant and focused on devices that they don’t even acknowledge other people in the same room/office. Ethan’s experience when he works for the Corporation and how everyone seems to be siloed and glued to their computers with headphones in. At times the book was a little confusing. Although overall, this was an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Interesting Silicon Valley/Science Fiction Read
First of all, thank you Goodreads and Henry Holt & Co for an arc of "Please Report Your Bug Here" by Josh Riedel. After reading the synopsis on Goodreads, I decided to apply for an arc of this novel. I was excited to be chosen and have to say, I did enjoy the novel. For those of you not aware, Josh Riedel was the first employee of Instagram where he worked for several years before earning a Master of Arts degree from the University of Arizona. Without giving too much of the plot away, this information added credence to the storyline. I have always found the tech. world and the Silicon Valley fascinating, since my world is about as far away as possible from this lifestyle. Mr. Riedel did a wonderful job of creating an interesting plot, believable characters and settings that were well described. The science fiction aspect was easy to follow (unlike a lot of science fiction novels). Even though this novel had a satisfactory ending, I could see how another novel could follow it. I look forward to reading additional novels by this author.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com