I just, I can't with this book. Two stars because I was able to finish it, and also, some of the plot points were okay as long as you know nothing about computers at all (like the characters, apparently).To be fair, I am a programmer and it's a pet peeve of mine when authors clearly do ZERO research into how coding works and what is and is not possible. If this is not science fiction, there needs to be SOME amount of plausibility re: current technology. I think one of the reasons I was particularly disappointed is that I saw that the author is apparently a Silicon Valley type who went to Stanford. So I assumed they might actually know something about programming, or know someone who knows something about programming that could fact check for them.Because, I don't care how much of a computer genius you are, you're aren't going to:(1) Hack into "the SATs" in 30 seconds. Why is it that hacking into things is automatically the way to show someone knows their way around a computer? (2) Create an app in a week that allows you to control any device automatically with your phone. And the technobabble explanation for how this works ("cross-correlating waveforms!" "modulation algorithms!") is utter gibberish. (3) CODE IN BINARY. Yes, there is actually a line about 1s and 0s on a computer screen. MAYBE SHE HACKED INTO THE MATRIX.So, that's a pet peeve of mine. But all that aside, there were some basic story things that didn't work either. Characters who served no purpose except minor plot points and then took up space with their own personal drama that didn't tie into the rest of the plot at all. Dangling plot threads that went nowhere, etc. The last twenty pages happening so quickly that you feel like you have whiplash.But as I said, I did finish it, and I was genuinely curious about where it was going. This grandiose, glittering portrayal of young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley is loaded with the trappings of a potential prime-time script: a breakneck plot depicting money-fueled lust, unattainable love, flouncy displays of extreme privilege, circuitous (and sometimes parental) backstabbing, and overt descriptions of current and dreamed-up technologies. In this first book of the Start-Up series, the author, a former Silicon Valley exec herself—Hayes is a pen name—introduces twins Adam and Amelia Dory, who serendipitously land at Stanford University after a dreary life bouncing around the foster-care system and enduring it by any means necessary. Braniac coder Amelia outs a rising tech company’s nefarious business practices and, with hotheaded Adam as her business manager, creates a mobile-app start-up in part to underscore how ethics can prevail in burgeoning high-tech business. This, of course, proves contrary to every relationship the pair encounters. As their fame skyrockets, their pasts, which contain glitches to their future success, come to light. Readers will be both engrossed with and appalled by the shifty universe and deliciously soapy momentum created in this thrilling series opener. —First published October 7, 2013 (Booklist Online)
What do You think about The Start-Up (2011)?
What the hell just happened? It just ended, no warning!
—SkoenmakerQ
