Play Book Tag discussion

Even though this was mostly a fun enjoyable satire set in the startup tech world of NYC Silicon Alley in the 2010s, in the end it just felt like a weak version of The Bonfire of the Vanities set in tech with sexual harassment themes added. At least Bonfire gave us 'masters of the universe' and 'social x-rays'. Here the way the author wrote the dialogue and behavior of the 3 very different women vis. the sexual harassment theme just felt inadequate, skirting around the seriousness of it all. And that really bothered me.

Mack, the CEO of a wellness app startup, which is in process of seeking major funding for expansion, has been having a (initially at least) consensual affair with Isobel, his assistant (who he promoted to Marketing Ninja - yes, that really is her title [cue eyeroll]). Katya works for a startup tech online newsforum similar to Buzzfeed, looking for a big story while dealing with her editor, Dan, an unhappily married 40 year old who is starting to behave inappropriately. Sabrina is Dan's unhappy wife with a shopping addiction and working as the assistant to Mack's Marketing Ninja Isobel. Oh, and they all work in the same building in Silicon Alley (the Flatiron District of Manhattan) and live in the now 'cool' areas of Brooklyn like Williamsburg and Prospect Park. As Isobel tries to disengage from a personal relationship with Mack, he sends out some emails....the rest is quite predictable. The very end though felt unfinished, or maybe that final scene was just unnecessary - it added nothing and actually left questions hanging that did not exist prior to that. Or maybe I just didn't care what happened to these characters.

The author does a great job of humorously skewering the neanderthal insensitive boys' club of the startup tech world, but it is almost too cartoonish -- onesie day in Product, reminsicing nostalgicly on nerfball fights in the office, complete lack of any sense of boundaries between boss and staff, heroes and ninjas instead of managers and administrators. I count as clients quite a few startups;
I am the seasoned lawyer hired to negotiate the leases and get them out when it all implodes in a couple of years. I recognized many traits, but every single one of my clients behaves far more maturely and responsibly than anyone in this story.

What actually offended me from the beginning was how everyone 30 and over was 'old' and Dan at 40 is ancient. I know, I know, that's the world, but it ticks me off.