Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Nylon, A Must-Read Book of the Month
The New Yorker, A Best Book We Read This Week
Elle, A Most Anticipated Title of the Year
The Millions, A Most Anticipated Read
"Told in refreshingly unadorned prose that lets Winnette’s characters and ideas shine . . . Users is not only a book for today or a warning about tomorrow, but a timeless and moving story about fatherhood and one man’s yearning for a more meaningful life." —Jessamine Chan, The New York Times Book Review
“A perceptive, subtly moving novel . . . Winnette’s thoughtful depiction gives [Miles] a heart that’s not beyond redemption.” —Kevin Canfield, San Francisco Chronicle
"The juxtaposition of its folktale-dark tone with the gleaming, upper-class world of consumer technology it sends up leaves a lasting impression—as does Winnette’s talent for leaving the reader to imagine the horrors just outside the story’s edges, as a good campfire yarn-spinner should." —Derek Robertson, Washington Examiner
"Users asks its readers to wonder what lurks in the depths of any given person’s mind—or, more alarming, what technology and the Internet may have inserted there—and whether those depths are, perhaps, shallower than they used to be . . . Among the novel’s strengths is Winnette’s ability to capture the dissatisfaction that life online generates . . . Miles's downward spiral is an effective and upsetting reminder that there’s more to lose on the Internet than just time and money." —Lily Meyer, The Nation
"This book brings the suspense and dread of Severance to the life of a VR game developer. I finished it in about two days (a record for me in a year of infrequent reading)." —Jordan McMahon, New York Magazine
"Gripping, clever, and terrifying, Users sucks you in just like a video game." —Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
"[A] sharp, Charlie Kauffman-esque thriller." —Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
"Fans of Apple TV+'s Severance will enjoy this workplace novel." —Milan Polk, Men's Health
"A speculative marvel as well as a work of entertaining fiction . . . Haunting, real, and at times funny, Users is a downwards comedy of errors of disastrous proportions." —Sam Franzini, Our Culture Mag
"A thoughtful exploration of parasocial relationships or the way real ones can turn into odd hauntings." —Megan Crouse, Den of Geek
"This one is a mind-boggling ride . . . breathtaking and mind opening and more original than anything being produced for a semi large audience . . . The story will force you to consider the meaning of authentic experience, and it might punch you in the gut." —Mark Dago, Big Shiny Robot
"A disquieting cautionary tale for an age of virtual spaces." —Kirkus Reviews
"An engaging story of a virtual reality designer stuck in a rut . . . In Winnette’s hands, the dangerous blur between the virtual and reality provides both a warning and a thrill." —Publishers Weekly
“A surreal puzzle box and page-turner from which the reader may never recover, full of the unique absurdity, dark humor, and character insight that make Colin Winnette’s work such a joy.” —Jeff Vandermeer, New York Times bestselling author of the Southern Reach Trilogy and Hummingbird Salamander
“Users is the best kind of book: both thrillingly old-fashioned, and utterly, daringly timely. Winnette captures the anxiety and paranoia of the current age in a tale that will have you ripping through the pages. Haunting, clever, witty, terrifying, moving; reader, I loved it.” —Andrew Sean Greer, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Less
"Users creeps upon the reader like the well-designed programs it describes, disguising itself as a tome about the future, virtual reality, the tech world, and what tantalizing dangers it wreaks. But what is truly frightening about this extraordinary book is the center of its futuristic shell—an unsettling look at marriage, parenting, and relationships that will lurk in the reader's mind long after the final page. Colin Winnette has written a delicious nightmare. Welcome to its open maw.” —Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias
"In gripping prose and disturbingly sharp focus, Colin Winnette presents us with a not-too-distant future where technology and selfhood have become completely entangled. Users shows how we can become addicted to our customizable versions of reality, both on and offline—and how tenuous the boundary between these two realms can be. I kept thinking about this novel long after I put it down." —Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, author of In the Distance and Trust
10/17/2022
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.)
2022-12-14
The inventor of a cutting-edge VR project descends into a state of profound alienation.
Winnette’s recent novels have ventured into the realm of surreal Westerns (Haints Stay, 2015) and unsettling ghost stories (The Job of the Wasp, 2018). With this new novel, he’s opted for a different route, following the life of Miles, a man working for a virtual reality company who has been receiving death threats. There are clues early on that Miles is not the greatest of co-workers—an early passage describes him manipulating his colleague Lily’s schedule so she's working on his brainchild, an “experience” called The Ghost Lover, instead of her own ambitious project. His penchant for working late hours is but one manifestation of his profound alienation from life, which Winnette also evokes by barely using the proper names of Miles’ wife and children. Winnette links this anomie to larger questions of technology and corporatization; later on, Winnette shares details of Miles’ previous job, when he’d worked on an acclaimed television series that gradually compromised its aesthetic until it lost its audience. In the novel’s second half, the VR company Miles and Lily work for has embraced an idea that the two of them proposed—an expanded virtual reality presence that utilizes a device called the Egg. Gradually, Miles’ waking life, dreams, and VR experiences begin to blur together—eventually arriving at a shocking image that both reframes Miles’ alienation and sets him spiraling even further. The sense of menace that Winnette establishes early on with the death threats continues to evolve over the course of the novel—eventually arriving at a haunted, haunting place.
A disquieting cautionary tale for an age of virtual spaces.