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A review by cindypepper
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
4.0
As somebody who worked in tech for several years in Silicon Valley, I was apprehensive about reading this. Wouldn't I be reading things I already knew -- and had lived? But I figured it might be interesting to read about Silicon Valley from a different lens, that of somebody who had never had a life in tech planned out for herself.
Uncanny Valley is riveting, almost in the way Gossip Girl can entice you by making you feel like you're part of an outer circle but not quite in the inner circle. I love the oblique references to various Silicon Valley companies and people; most are quite obvious in a mutually understood way ("A social network everyone said they hated", "A search-engine giant down in Mountain View") that makes for a nice puzzle. Others require a bit of sleuthing and Googling. Uncanny Valley is stylish, but it's still hawkishly observant and stripped of the rose-colored glasses.
Uncanny Valley is riveting, almost in the way Gossip Girl can entice you by making you feel like you're part of an outer circle but not quite in the inner circle. I love the oblique references to various Silicon Valley companies and people; most are quite obvious in a mutually understood way ("A social network everyone said they hated", "A search-engine giant down in Mountain View") that makes for a nice puzzle. Others require a bit of sleuthing and Googling. Uncanny Valley is stylish, but it's still hawkishly observant and stripped of the rose-colored glasses.