Completely unlike anything I’ve ever read before, the narrative voice, ostensibly that of Shelly, is removed and almost robotic: analytical and near emotionless, it feels as if it is another product placement to show the ‘usability’ of the Conch’s product. But, I digress. Shelly Stone is the CEO of Conch, joining when things were a start-up and their device a simple idea. A small, Bluetooth-headphone like device that prompt’s the wearer, much like an inner-voice – keeping you on top of social cues, schedule, reactions, etc. A bit creepy in that wearers tend to surrender to the prompts, perhaps to the detriment of living in the moment, a problem that seems to define Shelly from the get-go.

Married with two children (both geniuses), busy, always juggling and focused on her ‘list of things to accomplish’ it seemed as if Shelly was being run by her life and commitments, not taking part more than superficially in any activities but simply making choices and decisions to check that ‘moment’ off her list. Her children, Nova and Blazer are meant to be reflections of their high-flyer, go getting successful parents, but both serve best in the role of spoiler to their wishes, exposing the cracks in the façade, while clearly showing that ‘being present’ isn’t on either parent’s radar.

But Shelly is about to realize that her “only for work’, trouble with emotion and the maternal instinct (non-existent here) and her own struggles with understanding why her husband, who encouraged her to take this leap into the corporate world, isn’t more supportive and encouraging, or understanding of her “here but not” approach to everything not work related. The conflicts here were also dulled by the narrative voice: a precision of word choice and a slight remove left it feeling almost uncomfortable with the more emotional (or what should have been emotional) moments, and did tend to over-emphasize the ‘corporate’ world – a world in which Shelly is far more comfortable than real life, but made the reading feel much longer than it actually was. The concept – intriguing and I expected more “emotion’ from Shelly than she was giving: mostly because she had divorced herself from self-directed interactions, and kept her difficult to empathize with, even as moments screamed for emotional reactions from the read. Better in concept, and a touch too rigidly determined to present the ‘remove’, the story was unique, and certainly sure to be enjoyed by those who want a challenge in their read.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-9Np/” > <a> I am, Indeed </a>

Since I have lived in Northern California long enough to have experienced both tech booms, I was immediately interested when I heard about The Glitch, a comic novel set against the backdrop of our local industry. Shelley Stone is one of the few high-powered female CEOs in Silicon Valley; her company, Conch, produces a wearable device that’s sort of like a more-advanced Siri who’s always in your ear. (The Conch provides advice, like “Avoid blood clots and increase productivity by taking a moment to stand and stretch,” along with giving directions and information.)

Shelley believes in her product, but more than anything, she believes in herself. Incredibly driven, Shelley lives a regimented life centered around work (“I manage myself, my actions, my thoughts, my goals, my calories ingested and expended, mood, work deliverables, and long-range planning with an intensity and accountability that I know most people could not handle”), but she does have a husband and two children (their maid speaks Mandarin to the toddlers “so they’ll have perfect tones”).

In the first chapter, the family is visiting Cap Ferrat, France, when 4-year-old Nova disappears. Both Shelley and her husband are on business calls, which they try to continue as they frantically search for their daughter. I thought at that point that the book was going to be about a type A personality who comes to realize the importance of family, but The Glitch is a lot wilder and weirder than that; Nova is found relatively quickly, though the search for her brings Shelley into contact with a mysterious man who figures into the plot later on.

Shelley went from a normal Wisconsin teen to a hyper-ambitious striver after she was struck by lightning shortly before her 20th birthday. Now rising at 3:30 AM (“such a great time to answer email while doing some high-intensity interval training”), she often comes across as the human embodiment of a TED Talk. Elisabeth Cohen must have spent months reading books and listening to speeches given by Silicon Valley thought leaders in order to write using such fluent business-buzzword-speak: “I tried to do some strategic blue-sky thinking, focusing on our Conch mottoes and corporate touchstones: ship and iterate. Moonshot thinking. Fail better.”

On the one hand, Shelley is obviously a deeply unlikable person with seriously screwed-up priorities (“having a family [is] part of my brand”). But on the other, there are so few women leaders in Silicon Valley (or in Fortune 500 boardrooms in general) that when things start going wrong, I will admit I was rooting for her to succeed. The Glitch takes some odd turns into magical realism, then sort of undercuts them with prosaic and sometimes-unconvincing explanations. But on the whole, this is a book I had fun reading, and it’s one I would put in a time capsule so people 50 or 100 years from now can understand what it was like in Silicon Valley circa 2018. By then, maybe everyone will be wearing Conches, or perhaps a similar technology will just be implanted directly into our brains.

I once again had high hopes for this book and my hopes were shattered. I liked the premise, mom trying to juggle family life with work life. But it just didn't work for me.

It starts out with Shelly and her husband Rafe are on a walk in France and they are both on their phones taking business calls. Shelly turns around and Nova the four year old is gone. She tries to get her husbands attention as to the missing child while she is still on her phone and so is Rafe. They continue the business call as they look for their daughter. It just goes down hill from there.

I know it's a story about an overworked mother and father and they do address this later after they find their daughter, but I just could click with that or any other part of the book. It was way to corporate for me. I never worked in a corporate setting and so a lot of language was beyond me. I guess this was not a book for me. Thank you NetGalley for the book in exchange for an honest opinion.

I really liked the main character. This was a very funny book that made me laugh out loud. =) I have never read anything by Elisabeth Cohen but this won't be my last book.

This is exactly the kind of smart, funny entertainment I crave. Shelley Stone is the singularly driven CEO of Conch, a success in Silicon Valley's highly competitive wearables space; her droll assessment of the sub-par performance of others (very a la Raviga Capital lead partner Laurie Bream on HBO's Silicon Valley) was a running gag I loved. Also her constant striving for gender equality (to the point of opting to take a men's multivitamin). Elizabeth Cohen manages to capture the entrepreneurial leadership vernacular, trends and culture perfectly and hilariously on point - far better than the celebrated Dave Eggers did in his The Circle, imo. Shelley and her dashing husband Rafe, live with their two littles Nova and Blazer (and modest live-in staff) in a home one can practically feel and smell, this writing is so transportive. Even Cohen's descriptions of tropical vacation sites and childhood memories of Wisconsin ring so true it's uncanny. The only location I felt was a little under-described was the factory in Malaysia where the storm didn't come across as authentically Asian, but that came towards the end and in the midst of a long action scene, that otherwise really did deliver.

This is a light romp of a novel that skewers the Silicon Valley ethos and the ambition to have it all.

I really wanted to like this book, but the main character, Shelley, annoyed me from the very beginning. She and her husband are too busy on the phone while their daughter disappears, and then Shelley seems upset, but doesn't call the police because she and her husband are worried they'll look bad. Shelley runs a company with a lifestyle product called Conch that sits in your ear and gives you personalized reminders all day of different things. Actually, the product sounded fascinating. It's too bad that a lot of the book was caught up in Shelley's inner dialogue that wasn't very interesting. The rest of the plot was OK but the end was ultimately disappointing for me.

Thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the writing and the lack of awareness the narrator had for her own behavior!

I had such high hopes for this book. It started off more like a mystery thriller with a child abduction than what it was described as, a funny satire. I kept reading, and I dont know when it occurred to me that I should just stop. But I kept coming back hoping that it would be different, better. It wasn't. I never saw funny or satire in the entire book. I just cannot recommend this book at all.

I really wanted to like this one, but it fell short for me. Was is scifi? Was it chick-lit? Both? I'm still not sure what I read. To be fair, it lost my interest shortly after I saw how the main character and her husband interacted with their children. It was hard for me to develop much of an affinity for them after that.

I wanted to like this book but ended up giving up on it. The book starts out in a search for a missing child and the author makes it clear that her mother Shelley (the main character) and father are so dominated by work that neither will even hang up on a business call to search for their child. The plot continues to stress how neurotic, robotic, and unlikable Shelley is. Several chapters about working and being anal-retentive later and the plot slightly picks up when Shelley runs into her younger self and takes her back to a hotel room. More chapters follow where older Shelley thinks about how stupid and ridiculous (read more likable) her younger self is and I couldn’t take it any longer. The story may have picked up but I wasn’t able to get past 35% in. Three stars for making me want to get as far as I did to find out if something good happened.

I received this book from net gallery in exchange for an honest review.

The main character was robotic, obsessive, and detached.

I'm afraid this was not really for me. I thought it would be quite humorous, but I felt more annoyed and couldn't connect with the characters. The premise did intrigue me, but the execution did not really satisfy.

A smart, engaging read. It’s rare that I find a main character I like this much when she’s thoroughly unlikeable to everyone around her! I would highly recommend this book.

The opening chapters made me cringe and I could not continue.

The Glitch
Elisabeth Cohen
Available: May 22, 2018

Thank you to NetGalley.com for the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was so sure that The Glitch was going to be one of my top reads for Summer 2018 – it has a strong woman in a position of authority and power, life in Silicon Valley, a balance between work, love and motherhood AND you get to meet yourself from the past? I thought I was going to be in HEAVEN! I would love to meet my former, college self and try and give a little advise to steer myself into a better place without changing who I am.

Uh………..no. This is not that book. While I admit that I gave up at the 50% mark, I did it for a good reason. Shelly is not a wife/mother/boss – she’s a robot. When I was first starting the book, I thought, okay – Shelly is going to be a little quirky like the heroines of “The Cactus” or “Eleanor Oliphany is Completely Fine”, but no such luch. Fifty percent of the way in and I still have no clue as to what a Conch is. Is it like Google Glass? A Fitbit? More like something to try and take over the world.

Maybe my expectation was off – I was expecting parenting fluff and was getting a little too much Sci fi/tech for my liking. And while I didn’t finish, I can only hope that Shelly spends more time with Michelle and goes back to the person she was before the accident.

What I loved: Shelly is from Marathon County, WI – my dad’s entire side is born/raised/still based in Wausau so I can relate to the cheese curds, beer, and Midwest references.

What I didn’t love: Shelly is such an unlikable character – there’s nothing to connect with as she has no feelings or thoughts that are not work related. You almost begin to secretly wish she will fail in order for something to maybe change.

What I learned: Don’t drink beer out of a can.

Overall Grade: C-

www.FluffSmutandMurder.com

When Mad Men debuted I began watching the show and was pretty ticked off a few minutes in and my first reaction was to turn it off. But I stopped myself and thought, "Wait, perhaps the thing that's peeved you is there for a reason. Don't you want to know if there's more to the story?" I stayed and the pay off was worth it. I have to say, The Glitch was a bit in that same area for me. Shelley, our narrator, is initially not endearing, in fact, she's deeply off-putting. To the point that, her likability can only go up.

Shelley and Rafe are both doing the high-level job thing and they have two children, Nova (so named because they're innovators and Nova's a root word) and Blazer (no explanation on why the name but who is small enough that, in the first half of the book, he's often worn around by his parents & nanny making his name titter inducing). As we come into the story, they've misplaced Nova and are looking for her. Enter a stranger who has found her, and odd exchange with Shelley that makes one wonder if Nova was actually taken and finally enters a young woman who is so like the younger Shelley that Shelley is convinced the woman is her younger self. And then things start to get weird and start to unravel for Shelley at work and home.

The further along I advanced in the story, the more I enjoyed it and the more I pulled for Shelley to figure out what was going on with Michelle and Conch. It took until around 60-65% of the way into the story but the shift did occur.

While I never took to Shelley's style of being a parent or spouse, I definitely respected her decisions and her acknowledgement that she had made them and there were therefore tradeoffs. I had a Type A, high achiever father and she reminded me very much of him. It made for a complicated reading as I recognized and disliked some of Shelley's ways very much but Cohen, through Shelley and others here, gave me added insight as to what drives these people to the ends they chase so single-mindedly. The world needs all types.

I was quite stunned at some of the actions & non-actions taken by several characters:

[Cullen gives Enrique access to some of the code for Conch & is certain he can't do anything with it. Why?! Given the high level stakes of all this, it seemed to me, lunacy. Also frustrating, Shelley never mentions the strange occurrence of her interaction with Enrique to Cullen. I felt they should have closed that loop.

After Michelle's ruse is somewhat revealed, Shelley lets her into her home & leaves her there unsupervised & without telling Rafe anything about this woman. It's slightly less crazy that she didn't tell anyone at Conch about Shelley's ease of breaching security & that she was hired by people who expressly want to steal SportConch. The woman tried to extort her & has made it clear that she'll take a job for the highest bidder for ffs! And to top it all off, Michelle's cagey with the details of who she's working for and her actual name. Shelley investigates none of this and this chick goes off for ice cream with Shelley's family as Shelley heads out of the country on business. Who does this?!

Shelley didn't snag the business card from Michelle with that Malaysian address with the wave pattern when she was herself, going to Malaysia. Didn't even look it up. Ok, then. When she apparently doesn't have a neuron fire that she's seen it before when she's actually in Malaysia and presented with it at least twice, I admit, I side-eyed. And frowned. Michelle's resolution in the story, I just didn't buy or understand at all. Either I'm not trusting or forgiving enough or perhaps, I'm just too retributory.

Shelley was really surprised that her Conch had been switched. I was stunned by that because I was sure it had occurred (I thought by Enrique) so that it never crossed her mind was strange. Also disappointing. (hide spoiler)]

In the end, I quite liked how Shelley's work endeavors with Conch resolved. It felt complete and I was satisfied. I daresay, I liked her in those moments. I felt the resolution to her family and marriage were too instantaneous with no real resolution to their actual deeper problems. I needed she & Rafe to continue the real talk they'd begun earlier in the story. The Epilogue reads like it should be heart-warming, but I felt it unsatisfying. Cohen really didn't give it the attention to detail the Conch resolution received.

I enjoyed reading this and it didn't take long because when I had to put it down, I kept thinking about it and wanted to get back to reading. I highlighted some witty lines along with lines and passages that struck me as so uncomfortable and so real. I also give points for the eel scene. That'll stay with me for a bit. Also, everything at the factories in Malaysia. Still, I did feel there were a few things that brought it down for me (mentioned above). Shelley isn't the most likable character but I found her fascinating and worth reading about. Definitely recommended.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This was described as a hilarious novel about a high profile CEO. I found nothing funny about the main character; in fact, she was not a very nice nor caring person. I understand this is satire, but, as a reader, I just didn't connect.

I had a hard time with this book. I found the concept fascinating, but some parts really irked me. As a mother of three, I cannot FATHOM being more concerned about a buisness call than my child, who has apparently disappeared, and who could possibly be drowning. (Opening scene).
I felt no real connection to the characters, which was also another issue for me. I could see the author has a genuine talent, but I still struggled with the book, which was rather disappointing. I also feel the book ran a little long, and could have been shortened by about 25%. I feel that there is an audience for this novel; an audience that will gobble it up and fall in love. Unfortunately, I was not that audience, this particular time.

*2.5 stars

I was so intrigued with the premise but there were a few places it fell short for me. First, it was way too long and a lot of it could have been edited out. Less of Shelley's long, rambling thoughts, explanations, and life insights and more dialogue.

It was Shelley herself who brought my rating down to 2.5 stars. Personally I have very little in common with her. Her savage competitiveness, aversion to home/family life, and single-minded drive to succeed at all costs is pretty much the opposite of how I live my life. I think she's meant to serve as an extreme example of today's all work, no play philosophy, but I couldn't relate to her at all. I found her incredibly unlikable and annoying, with too few amusing lines or insights that might have made her seem more human to me. I think what bothered me the most about her was her judgmental attitude towards anyone who wasn't a "high achiever" like herself. I found her incredulous disgust at her own husband's desire for more work/life balance to be extremely unappealing.

Furthermore, I find myself confused at the role of Michelle in the story. At first I thought the whole point of Shelley facing a possibly younger version of herself was to show her how work wasn't everything, work/life balance had certain appeal, remind her how her younger self had actually enjoyed life, etc. So I was disappointed at the end of the novel when it appeared Shelley had learned very little from Michelle. Perhaps I completely missed the point on that. On a related note, the resolution felt rushed, albeit realistic for the characters and their personalities.

What I most enjoyed about this book was Conch itself, which surprised me as I'm really not into technology at all. Conch and its business model took up a large chunk of the book, which I really didn't mind because I found it so interesting and enjoyed learning more about it. Cohen did a fantastic job making the product feel real and desirable.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I gazed at the girl. There was something peculiar about her, about meeting her. My Conch buzzed in an alert pattern. “Say hello,” it said, “To Shelley Stone.”

Shelley Stone has been running Conch from it’s start-up, a company that manufactures a device worn in the ear that gives advice, prompts much like one’s “inner voice” only better! She and her husband Rafe are raising two children, who of course were meant to be geniuses! Four year old Nova sings, plays soccer, is learning Chinese, likes to draw and if she isn’t showing any special gifts, well there is time. At the novel’s beginig she also shows a proclivity for vanishing. Do not be alarmed, this isn’t that sort of tragic story, but in that disappearance so much is evident by Shelley and Rafe’s reactions. Shelley may be a high flying, innovative powerhouse of a woman in a highly competitive tech career but she is completely absent from the present. Unable to find pleasure in anything but working, a worshiper of Mondays, pill popping to keep the energy to stay ahead of…well everything, controlling her entire existence in the world, and ‘planning’ happiness as if it can be ‘scheduled” she is about to meet her young self, in the flesh! Is this a scheme to bring down her technology, her career, her life? Could she really have crossed over into some alternate reality that made it possible to meet herself for a purpose? Maybe she is on the verge of a breakdown. More likely she is losing it and soon there are even bigger problems with the company. Just what is happening, why? Is she to blame?

What made me like this novel so much is daughter Nova, who just by being herself exposes the cracks in Shelley’s life. “Youtubing absense seisures”, that just tickled me! Shelley is clueless when it comes to her kid, forging ahead as if she can ‘will’ her child, as she has willed her great success with Conch, to be a model child. Even youngest, her son Blazer, isn’t free from exposure to a top education with languages and outings. Luckily she has a nanny to help assure her children will have bright futures! This novel is odd, Shelley isn’t the most nurturing woman out there, but isn’t it always more forgivable for a man to be all about his career than a woman? She talks to her children as mini-adults, of course they respond as children will, which is funny. Shelley is modern with a captial M but husband Rafe is sick of innovation, he just wants his wife, more time to be actualy hands on parents and some sleep! She just cannot let go of the hunger for success and wasn’t it Rafe who urged her to take this oppurtunity to begin with?

The Conch is an interesting idea too and not far fetched, come to think of it. There is something creepy about it, as if surrendering control is something so many desire, even if it’s just a voice in your ear or buzzing alerts. The idea that making money, launching a product on time to stay ahead even if it isn’t ready, even if it could be dangerous is more important than the safety of customers is terrifying. Hmm, like most things we buy.

I often wonder about the person behind the public persona of the most successful people, women and men like Shelley. Surely no one can be that ‘together’ all the time. Oh their poor children, all that pushing and pulling to give birth to their best self! How much sacrifice is worth your sanity, safety? It’s about ‘pressures’ but here is hoping no one’s life veers into her sort of problems. Truthfully, Shelley got on my nerves, she is the sort of person that would have far too much energy in the mornings, Monday through Sunday. I could never abide people who can’t simply relax into a moment. For once it seems the husband (Rafe) has a far better insight into what the family needs. But will Shelley be willing jump off the mountain of success she has built? And then what? What would she do if she didn’t have Conch to consume her every thought? Will her ‘younger self’ be a revelation, open her eyes to the dirty side of business?

It’s original but not the time trip I expected, still it’s a good read. People certainly go pretty far in this story to succeed, it’s much more manipulation. Motherhood, career, marriage, maybe she should have it all, but it’s not so easy. If only she would see things and people for who they really are, then maybe things would make sense. Maybe failure can be as much the way as success.

This is an advanced readers edition, and it won’t be out until May.

Publication Date: May 22, 2018

Doubleday