Users

Winnette (The Job of the Wasp) delivers an engaging story of a virtual reality designer stuck in a rut. Miles’s career founders as he casts about for a new product for his Chicago startup that rivals his signature augmented reality experience, “The Ghost Lover,” where virtual reality players are haunted by an ephemeral lover personalized to their own experience. Meanwhile, his home life presents its own challenges; his marriage is struggling, and his 10-year-old daughter plays increasingly violent games with her younger sister. Perhaps most troubling, Miles acquires a “ghost lover” of his own, and he’s receiving cryptic, anonymous death threats. The author convincingly portrays Miles’s claustrophobic interior, where the protagonist is held captive by virtual simulacra. After a vacation with his family rekindles Miles’s creativity, he plunges full speed into the creation of the “Egg,” a virtual-reality pod that encases the user’s body. Though a commercial and professional success, the Egg accelerates the dissolution of Miles’s family, and brings him ever closer to the source of his elusive threats. Despite a rushed final act, the author offers a vertiginous glimpse down a tech rabbit hole. In Winnette’s hands, the dangerous blur between the virtual and reality provides both a warning and a thrill. Agent: Kevin O’Connor, O’Connor Literary Agency. (Feb.)