The Glitch

March 26, 2018
In her witty debut, Cohen follows Shelley Stone, a high-powered, perfect-on-paper lightning-strike survivor and married mother of two whose life gets a bug in it. The CEO of Conch, which developed a behind-the-ear personal assistant, is the perfect corporate shill, calculating, artificial, and always on message, even when things start going wrong. Her four-year-old disappears from the beach while she and her husband take business calls; when she bizarrely meets someone who seems to be her 20-years-younger self, she advises young Shelley to take more coding classes but never mentions the lightning to come. When the media reports that a man killed himself because his Conch nagged him into it, her approach remains transactional. She’s on point whether she’s working toward a corporate merger or in marriage and motherhood, even as her husband begins suggesting a more balanced approach. Cohen’s novel premise and lead character—so incredibly well-drawn in her singlemindedness—are almost enough to sustain the story. But as the glitches in Shelley’s life begin to pile up, the author loses control of the narrative. By the time she wrests it back, the reader may wonder if a reboot along the way might have worked better.