Valley Verified
The addictive and outrageously fun new novel from the author of THE FRAUD SQUAD
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- 25,00 kr
Publisher Description
IT'S TIME TO SWAP HAUTE COUTURE FOR HTML.
On paper, Zoe Zeng has made it in New York's fashion world . . . but life in the city isn't quite what Zoe imagined.
Her editor at Chic magazine wants to censor her opinions to please the big brands; she shares her 'quaint' (read: small) apartment with three roommates who never let her store kimchi in the fridge; and how is she supposed to afford all the designer clothes on her meagre salary?
When Zoe is offered a job at FitPick - a startup based in Silicon Valley - the salary and office perks are great, but moving across the country and leaving her best friends behind? Not so much.
Taking a leap of faith, Zoe trades high fashion for high tech. But she soon realizes that in an industry claiming to change the world for the better, not everyone's intentions are pure. And with an eight-figure investment on the line, Zoe must find a way to revamp the app's image despite Silicon Valley's elitism and her icy colleagues.
If not, the company's future will go up in smoke - and hers with it.
LEGALLY BLONDE meets SILICON VALLEY in this bold and addictive new novel from Kyla Zhao, author of The Fraud Squad.
PRAISE FOR KYLA ZHAO!
'Immersive, cinematic, and exquisitely fun!'
Ali Hazelwood
'Escapism at its finest. This book will swallow you right up and keep you awake until you turn the last page'
Elena Armas
'As glamorous and page-turning as a glossy magazine, infused with sharp class critique, a vibrant cast of characters, and a poignant emotional core'
Ava Wilder
'Rich with clever charm and scandalous sparkle'
Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
'Lush, swoony, and delightfully exquisite'
Amy Lea
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Zhao (The Fraud Squad) returns with a mediocre story of an emerging fashion writer who faces sexism after pivoting to the tech industry. Zoe Zeng toils at a second-tier New York City fashion magazine for low pay. At a clothing launch, she meets Bill, the CEO of a startup called Fit-Pick, and he offers her a marketing job. The app allows users to post two choices for an outfit and have others vote to see which they prefer. Zoe appreciates the democratic and empowering ethos behind Fit-Pick—users are meant to develop confidence in their fashion choices based on encouragement from others, rather than blindly follow queues from influencers—and she decides to leave New York for the higher paying role in Silicon Valley. There, under pressure to create a marketing plan that will impress the company's top investor, Zoe unwisely recruits a group of influencers to promote the app. The strategy backfires after one of the influencers and Fit-Pick are called out for posts with doctored images, and the blame falls on Zoe. The character work is paint-by-numbers—Bill is a stereotypical sexist bro who cuts corners to wow investors, and the firm's nerdy male coders bully Zoe—and the happy ending feels implausible. There's not much here to recommend.
