Uncanny Valley (Wiener) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[Wiener] is here to fill out our worst-case scenarios with shrewd insight and literary detail.… Wiener is a droll yet gentle guide.… The real strength of Uncanny Valley comes from her careful parsing of the complex motivations and implications that fortify this new surreality at every level, from the individual body to the body politic (Cover review).
New York Times Book Review


[Uncanny Valley] defamiliarize[s] us with the Internet as we now know it, reminding us of the human desires and ambitions that have shaped its evolution.… Wiener's book is studded with sharp assessments.
Washington Post


The entrenched sexism of Silicon Valley is one of several endemic ills that Anna Wiener examines at unsparingly close range in Uncanny Valley, her absorbing, unsettling, gimlet-eyed memoir of time served in tech…. [T]he world the tech bros are molding is the one we’re all living in. The most valuable question Wiener asks is why we are allowing that to happen.
Boston Globe


The quality of Weiner's on-the-ground observations, coupled with acuity she brings to understanding the psychology at work, makes the book illuminating on a page-by-page basis.… [Wiener's] empathy makes the portrait all the more damning.… [Her] book isn't a warning so much as a lament over the damage done and the damage still to come.
Chicago Tribune


Hyper-self-aware.… Wiener's book transcends the model of a tech-work memoir.… Throughout the memoir, Wiener sustains a piercing tone of crisp, arch observation. It's revelatory to see her navigate the subjects one generally reads about in newspaper headlines, about sexism at Google or the unregulated forums behind events such as Pizzagate.
San Francisco Chronicle


Biting and funny.… Uncanny Valley will speak to you as well as any book about millennial culture. Its humor is a proxy for the despair Wiener feels about tech culture's predicament and her helplessness at doing anything about it.… Uncanny Valley ought to be read by policymakers just as closely as any set of statistics.
Los Angeles Times


Uncanny Valley is a different sort of Silicon Valley narrative, a literary-minded outsider's insider account of an insulated world that isn't as insular or distinctive as it and we assume.… Through [Wiener's] story, we begin to perceive how much tech owes its power, and the problems that come with it, to contented ignorance.
Atlantic


Equal parts enchanting and subversive.… [Wiener's] account of living inside the Bay Area bubble reads like HBO's Silicon Valley filtered through Renata Adler; Wiener is a trenchant cultural cartographer, mapping out a foggy world whose ruling class is fueled by empty scripts: "People were saying nothing, and saying it all the time." The book's author does the very opposite.
Vogue


Beautifully observed.… Someone like Wiener makes for a good spy in the house of tech.… Wiener excels at…  the texture of life for people in a particular and pivotal time and place.
Slate


An achingly relatable and sharply focused firsthand account.… [T]he literary texture of Wiener's narrative makes it particularly valuable as a primary document of this moment. Her voice, alternating between cool and detached and impassioned and earnest, boasts an observational precision that is devastating. It is whip smart and searingly funny, too… a feat.
Nation


[A] hyper-detailed, thoroughly engrossing memoir.… At the intersection of exploitative labor, entitled men, and ungodly amounts of money, Wiener bears witness to the fearsome future as it unfolds.
Esquire


[An] insider-y debut memoir that sharply critiques start-up culture and the tech industry.… Wiener is an entertaining writer, and those interested in a behind-the-scenes look at life in Silicon Valley will want to take a look.
Publishers Weekly


[A]bsorbing, fast-paced…. Wiener is a talented writer, and her story will engage fellow millennials…. Insight into the history of Silicon Valley, and the ideologies transforming society, are a bonus that will ensure the book's longevity.
Library Journal


A compelling takedown of the pitfalls of start-up culture, from sexism to the lack of guardrails,Uncanny Valley highlights the maniacal optimism of the twentysomethings behind the screens and the pitfalls of the culture they are building
Booklist


(Starred review) Equal parts bildungsroman and insider report, this book reveals not just excesses of the tech-startup landscape, but also the Faustian bargains and hidden political agendas embedded in the so-called "inspiration culture" underlying a too-powerful industry. A funny, highly informative, and terrifying read.
Kirkus Reviews


(Starred review) [Wiener] is an extremely gifted writer and cultural critic. Uncanny Valley may be a defining memoir of the 2020s, and it's one that will send a massive chill down your spine.
BookPage