A Good Morning America Buzz Pick * Named A Best Book of Summer by Entertainment Weekly, New York Post, Buzzfeed, TheSkimm, PopSugar, Bustle, HelloGiggles, Ms. Magazine, Oprah Daily, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Lit Hub * Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by The Millions, Harper's Bazaar , Marie Claire, Crimereads A sharp and prescient novel about women in the workplace, the power of Big Tech, and the looming threat of foreign espionage from Kathy Wang, "a skilled satirist of the northern California ...
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A Good Morning America Buzz Pick * Named A Best Book of Summer by Entertainment Weekly, New York Post, Buzzfeed, TheSkimm, PopSugar, Bustle, HelloGiggles, Ms. Magazine, Oprah Daily, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Lit Hub * Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by The Millions, Harper's Bazaar , Marie Claire, Crimereads A sharp and prescient novel about women in the workplace, the power of Big Tech, and the looming threat of foreign espionage from Kathy Wang, "a skilled satirist of the northern California dream" (Harper's Bazaar) In 2006 Julia Lerner is living in Moscow, a recent university graduate in computer science, when she's recruited by Russia's largest intelligence agency. By 2018 she's in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of America's most famous technology companies. In between her executive management (make offers to promising startups, crush them and copy their features if they refuse); self promotion (check out her latest op-ed in the WSJ , on Work/Life Balance 2.0); and work in gender equality (transfer the most annoying females from her team), she funnels intelligence back to the motherland. But now Russia's asking for more, and Julia's getting nervous. Alice Lu is a first generation Chinese American whose parents are delighted she's working at Tangerine (such a successful company!). Too bad she's slogging away in the lower echelons, recently dumped, and now sharing her expensive two-bedroom apartment with her cousin Cheri, a perennial "founder's girlfriend". One afternoon, while performing a server check, Alice discovers some unusual activity, and now she's burdened with two powerful but distressing suspicions: Tangerine's privacy settings aren't as rigorous as the company claims they are, and the person abusing this loophole might be Julia Lerner herself. The closer Alice gets to Julia, the more Julia questions her own loyalties. Russia may have placed her in the Valley, but she's the one who built her career; isn't she entitled to protect the lifestyle she's earned? Part page-turning cat-and-mouse chase, part sharp and hilarious satire, Impostor Syndrome is a shrewdly-observed examination of women in tech, Silicon Valley hubris, and the rarely fulfilled but ever-attractive promise of the American Dream.
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I haven't read a spy thriller in a while and with Imposter Syndrome set against the backdrop of a large tech corporation in Silicon Valley, I was excited to find out more.
I think the saddest thing about this book is that upon reading it, I can accurately sum up the entire plot in about 2 sentences without really missing anything out - and one of those sentences is on the blurb! Imposter Syndrome is a very slow read - there's a lot of unnecessary detail and exposition of backstory for characters which really isn't needed. A good edit could probably take about 150 pages out without affecting the plot or the readers enjoyment (and it isn't a long book!). From the blurb, I was expecting a cat and mouse, high paced thriller as worker bee Alice discovers her boss and head of tech company Tangerine is a Russian spy. It isn't until about halfway through the book that Alice discovers this fact though which seemed like a lot of build for a fact that has already been told to the reader both in the blurb and in the first chapter from Julia's perspective.
The plot doesn't seem to progress very well either. We get a lot of back and forth, a lot of dull conversations and then the ending just fizzles out. In the final few pages I was really hoping for a bit of a violent twist of a conclusion and a sharp ending to Julia's side of the plot but the actual ending was disappointing. Despite all of the backstory and interactions I didn't feel like I related particularly well to any of the characters - they are all quite unlikeable, including Alice.
Overall, Imposter Syndrome should have been a high paced techno-spy-thriller but we were left with a slow moving plot and not much of a story. Thank you to NetGalley & Verve Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
