Please Report Your Bug Here

A Novel

By: Josh Riedel

Narrated by: Torian Brackett

“An unexpected, inventive, heartfelt riff on the workplace novel—startup realism with a multiverse twist.”—Anna Wiener, author of Uncanny Valley

"Torian Brackett shines in his performance of this debut novel. Showing his impressive range as a narrator, Brackett deftly switches between descriptions of picturesque San Francisco neighborhoods and Block's endless questions about his priorities and future."—AudioFile

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.

©2023 Josh Riedel (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Please Report Your Bug Here is a gripping literary thriller that forces us to confront our complicity in the technologies reshaping human connections, and it asks how far we will go to maintain those connections. Dark, funny, and highly inventive, Riedel’s debut is as addictive as the apps it criticizes."—Vulture

"A smart exposé of the tech boom imbued with a touch of weird fantastical elements . . . 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."—Publishers Weekly

"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."—Booklist

Story with a lot of build up and no conclusion

This is a strange story. I have no idea what it was about. Here are some themes picked up and abandoned… A man who abandons his girlfriend, friends, and life to be in a startup. Putting everything you have into the startup but being taken advantage of. Hacking of little companies by huge companies. A fantastical world we can travel to via mysterious portals and trading objects in this world for objects in that one, maybe. Finding your prefect mate. Understanding yourself or otherwise by answering questions. Teleporting between places on Earth. Appreciating art. Reading books gifted to you by a friend. Working in a collective versus at a major corporation. Being hyper focused on startups. Many, many references that can only be appreciated by people in San Francisco. Taking public transport. Trainings at major corporations. Connecting with people. Failing to connect with people.

So, it builds up a lot of different potential themes. But they never come together or go anywhere.

The voice. The romantic prospect. The hidden agenda

Spoiler alert: I didn’t like that it was ultimately a simple, sad, love story. One could argue it’s a good thing when you don’t realize you’re reading a tragedy until the end, but something about the set up felt so… evitable.

What Even Is This?

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 falling into obsession when nothing truly excites you. At any rate, it was a disappointing book. The narrator gets 3 stars because he was pretty bland, but that's like giving Kristen Stewart 3 stars because her portrayal of Bella Swan was a little flat. You can only do so much with what you're given.

most urbanish fantasy

when I opened it, for some reason I expected thriller kind of urban fantasy. But honestly this book is so realistic of our world and on so many layers, that I'm hesitant to call is fantasy, even though it's about other dimensions. Or is it?

pretty boring TBH

The interesting stuff was interesting for like 5 minutes. everything in-between the long gaps of the interesting stuff the really pretentious and predictable.

A vivid whirlwind of 2010 San Francisco start-up culture

A fast paced adventure through a familiar recent history, Josh’s debut novel is a remarkable telling of an alternate yet familiar reality that was 2010 San Francisco startup culture. The boom will undoubtedly resonate for anyone adjacent to that time and place. On its own it’s a fun adventure with mystery, intrigue and many characters. Silicon Valley had a way of making one feel tumble dried, knocked around and spit out. Stepping back this book captures a lot of what it might have been like had you attached yourself to a tech rocket ship. Is it disorienting? Yes and bizarre at times. Such was life and I appreciate this time capsule surrounded by beautiful narration and vivid storytelling.

SF 2010

Especially if you’ve worked in the Bay Area in the last decade or so, you’ll be delighted by all the little SF details in this book. It is very reminiscent of San Francisco circa 2010 and I loved the little mentions of Sightclass coffee back when it was a kiosk and Little Skillet when it was just a window to get chicken and waffles from.

The story is fun and fantastical with some thematic elements that, to me at least, felt inline with Murakami. There are suspensions of disbelief that have to be taken — this isn’t hard-fi — but the concepts used let the book discuss technology, the future, ethics, relationships, and what it is to be human, in a way that’s scary but still somehow hopeful.