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A review by danaisreading
New Waves by Kevin Nguyen
3.0
3.5 stars
This is definitely not a techno-thriller as advertised. Or a heist gone wrong. Yes, Lucas and Margo steal the customer list from their former employer, but that's as heist-y as it gets. They use the list to get new jobs, but then Margo dies in a random car accident several months later. The list is never mentioned again in the book until the very end, by which time you've probably forgotten about it altogether.
Most of the novel is devoted to Lucas being left behind, trying to process his grief. After the funeral, Margo's mother asks Lucas to delete Margo's Facebook account. From there, Lucas discovers that Margo has an online life that doesn't resemble her offline life. He meets Jill, one of Margo's online friends, and they grieve together, yet separately, for the person they thought they knew.
The other part of the novel deals with Lucas at the job Margo got with him because of the "heist", and trying to deal with the ethics/morality of the startup. Lucas has zero technological knowledge. He does the grunt work and CS jobs the rest of the company can't be bothered with because they're developing the software or apps. But then the startup becomes a success for completely unintended reasons, and suddenly Lucas' job becomes more important. The company has to figure out which remains vital to them - integrity or practicality.
Interspersed within the novel are some SciFi story snippets. All but one are maybe a page or two long, and are titled strangely. Their inclusion isn't explained until you're about halfway into the novel. It'll make sense then, but not before.
Margo dies early on, but she is a strong presence throughout the novel. The story is first-person, mostly in Lucas' voice. There will be segments from other perspectives, both in character and time. I didn't find it too jarring or hard to figure out, but others might.
Despite the misleading summary, I thought it was a good book, and drawn in enough to read the book in a couple of sittings.
This is definitely not a techno-thriller as advertised. Or a heist gone wrong. Yes, Lucas and Margo steal the customer list from their former employer, but that's as heist-y as it gets. They use the list to get new jobs, but then Margo dies in a random car accident several months later. The list is never mentioned again in the book until the very end, by which time you've probably forgotten about it altogether.
Most of the novel is devoted to Lucas being left behind, trying to process his grief. After the funeral, Margo's mother asks Lucas to delete Margo's Facebook account. From there, Lucas discovers that Margo has an online life that doesn't resemble her offline life. He meets Jill, one of Margo's online friends, and they grieve together, yet separately, for the person they thought they knew.
The other part of the novel deals with Lucas at the job Margo got with him because of the "heist", and trying to deal with the ethics/morality of the startup. Lucas has zero technological knowledge. He does the grunt work and CS jobs the rest of the company can't be bothered with because they're developing the software or apps. But then the startup becomes a success for completely unintended reasons, and suddenly Lucas' job becomes more important. The company has to figure out which remains vital to them - integrity or practicality.
Interspersed within the novel are some SciFi story snippets. All but one are maybe a page or two long, and are titled strangely. Their inclusion isn't explained until you're about halfway into the novel. It'll make sense then, but not before.
Margo dies early on, but she is a strong presence throughout the novel. The story is first-person, mostly in Lucas' voice. There will be segments from other perspectives, both in character and time. I didn't find it too jarring or hard to figure out, but others might.
Despite the misleading summary, I thought it was a good book, and drawn in enough to read the book in a couple of sittings.