PanThe Washington PostAs insipid and ingratiating as it is jarring ... The language of Big Tech has disrupted her prose ... One gets the sense that Castillo is more invested in the Twitter politics of one’s dating life than the implications of a virtual reality technology ... If tech wants to allay criticism, it is fortunate that the industry has already shaped the minds of so many of its potential satirists.
PanThe Washington PostFranklin is prone to shorthand characterizations largely based on consumer habits … These allusions don’t seem to signify much beyond their face value ... Franklin’s story feels too deep in that muck to recognize that things could even be otherwise. Her observations about the state of precarious employment, online polarization and the erosion of community at the hands of social media are less incisive than they are summative, almost like Wikipedia entries: informative, perhaps, but common knowledge to many.
Clare Sestanovich
PositiveThe Washington PostIf Sestanovich’s thematic ambitions are broad — the meaning of life, the coherence of identity, the possibility of principles — her language is cuttingly precise ... While Sestanovich’s reach sometimes exceeds her grasp, it’s reaching that she’s more curious about anyway.
Alexandra Tanner
RaveThe Washington PostWorry is paced like the internet: Petty micro-dramas create a sense of movement, but mostly nothing happens ... Tanner, adept in the argot of the hyper-online inert... skewers the girls’ lassitude while remaining sensitive to the inevitable ennui of modern life.
