

We are introduced to both Mack and Katya, as they attend an early morning rave in Manhattan. This is even more extreme, when you realize that Katya’s job depends on things like Twitter: it’s not just personal, but it’s her career. For example, early in the novel, we see the characters struggling to keep up with their social media accounts, both with regard to adding personal content and staying current with others. One of the major themes is the fear of missing out. I have to admit that it also made me anxious. How long can these characters keep up their lies, before the lives implode? Sabrina is hiding a massive debt that she has incurred from shopping. Dan is hiding a secret crush that he has on Katya. Dan and Sabrina are in their mid-thirties, struggling with both their marriage and keeping afloat working in a younger persons industry. Her lead involves, Sabrina, who happens to both work at Takeoff, and who is the wife of Katya’s boss, Dan. Katya is a young journalist, who inadvertently lands a lead on the problems occurring at Takeoff. She is no longer interest in Mack. In a moment of desperation, Mack sends Isabel compromising pictures of himself, an action which creates gossip and jeopardizes his fragile startup.ĭownstairs, in the same building as Takeoff, is a newsroom, filled with desperate tech reporters, who depend on social media traffic to keep their jobs. Its founder, Mack, is externally confident and cocky, but he has secrets. Mack is desperate for funding, his company is on the brink of failure, and Isabel, a beautiful employee that he has casually slept with, has a new boyfriend. PLOT– TakeOff, a New York based tech company, is poised to be the next big thing. Thank you to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advanced copy of Doree Shafrir’s novel, Startup, in exchange for an honest review.
