Identifying USERS’ horror roots, Chelsea Davis at TOR.com wrote about USERS as a part of a new tradition of Silicon Valley Gothic, saying:
“Miles’s career, and the novel’s plot, take off when he invents The Ghost Lover, a highly popular virtual scenario in which the user is gently haunted by the spirit of an old flame. The game seamlessly marries Gothic creature with science fictional technology, “merging elements of real life with the impossible logic of the subconscious[,] … the extra-rational.” It is there, after all, in the locked basement of the unconscious, that horror thrives—and Ghost Lover asks whether we really ought to use science to open the door to that particular cellar.”
https://www.tor.com/2023/07/26/silicon-valley-gothic-putting-the-ghost-back-in-big-techs-machine/