A glitch in the novel’s tone... never quite resolves itself ... No one seems fazed by the invention of teleportation, never mind that it’s far more Jetsonian than any other of the book’s extrapolations of current technology ... This blasé reaction is made all the more confounding in light of the rest of the novel, which is firmly rooted in the real world ... It’s hard to square this familiarity, bordering on banality, with the technological magical realism.
Not the first – and nowhere near the best – sci-fi thriller to contend with Silicon Valley’s immense power. But it’s a smart and brisk novel that, despite some occasionally leaden prose, speaks the language of a distinct cohort ... Riedel’s prose can be stiff, a weakness that’s occasionally glaring ... But Riedel’s depiction of the book’s technological and financial transgressions... is convincing.
If another close look at a social media startup were all this novel were about, it might not warrant much attention. Thankfully, that's not all Riedel is up to ... The book pushes readers to see the ways both art and technology construct and disrupt reality, forcing an examination of every experience, an insistence that humans are always in the process of discovering what is true. These more abstract and infinitely more interesting questions are the heart of Please Report Your Bug Here.
Riedel’s bio states that he was the first employee at Instagram and now holds an MFA, which explains his exquisite technical rendering of startup/app culture as well as his deeply romantic portrayal of contemporary San Francisco. The book is a great addition to the growing canon of literature examining the role and reach of Silicon Valley.
Inventive ... The book pushes readers to see the ways both art and technology construct and disrupt reality, forcing an examination of every experience, an insistence that humans are always in the process of discovering what is true.
The novel’s intriguing premise... invites urgent questions about how technology operates in our lives. Unfortunately, Riedel glosses over key leaps in story logic and is light on memorable descriptive language. Riedel evokes the bougie Silicon Valley ecosystem by peppering scenes with cultural references, regional markers, and New Age business-speak but leaves his characters frustratingly underdeveloped ... A diffuse homily on technology and identity that is easy to read and easy to forget.
Riedel makes the most of his removed narrator, who has enough distance from the events to offer sharp insights on gentrification, workplace ennui, and the uncanny ways that tech has blurred his sense of reality ... It’s impressive how much Riedel packs into this.
