Sucker

This bloody satire of Silicon Valley corporate culture bites deep into the ultra-rich. Charles Gross got into punk music and founded Obnoxious Records to rebel against his very rich, very conservative, and very evil family. His best friend from college, Olivia Watts, owns Kenosis, a company that’s at the forefront of bioelectronics—or at least it appears to be. When Olivia invites Charles to be part of Kenosis, Charles makes some startling discoveries about how Olivia does business and how she plans to change humanity. Readers will have long figured out Olivia’s secret before Charles does. Still, they may not care, as Charles is made a likable narrator thanks to Graham Halstead’s portrayal of him as a guy who, through bad luck, a desire to do good, and a lack of forward-thinking, gets in over his head. Hornsby (Via Negativa) delivers a slow-burn thriller peppered with jokes about the one percent and corporate culture—exorbitantly priced New Age retreats, performative speeches delivered to investors, and private nature preserves in the backyards of the ultrarich.