As a San Franciscan who has worked in tech since the late 90s (once a journalist, now a lawyer), I eagerly anticipated getting my hands on this book, which is perhaps why I found it so disappointing.

It feels as if the author created a checklist of every Silicon Valley stereotype (including non-tech types, like Berkeley co-op evangelists and advocates of shipping container homes) and set about writing a story that contorted itself to check all the boxes on that list, rather than serving as an interesting narrative. The checklist includes not just every stereotyped character you can imagine, but every business model and known industry problem, such as misogyny, misuse of customer data, and management inexperience. The plot was such an afterthought that she really should have instead written a book of essays about her observations on Silicon Valley... except that the vast majority of those observations are lazy and obvious.

To top it all off, while mocking everyone else, the narrator lacks the self-awareness to recognize that she, herself, is worse than all of them: The sort of East Coast, materialistic striver who moves to San Francisco while constantly romanticizing New York, has no interest in the Bay Area and its community beyond her overpaid tech job, and does nothing to grow roots or contribute to the community. Perhaps most damningly, she is the sort of person who pretends California doesn’t have seasons (in noting that it didn’t rain in 3 years, one wonders if she is even aware of how global warming has created a historic drought in California, creating real hardship for residents of the Central Valley).

Ultimately, this book left me longing for a better satire that skewers Silicon Valley’s unique culture in a way that’s actually original and genuine. There’s just SO MUCH to make fun of! I can only hope that somebody out there is writing it as we speak, tapping out chapters during her downtime from answering customer support emails at Salesforce, or rather, “an unnamed sales software company with forest-themed cartoon characters as its mascots.”