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Book: “Anna Bright Is Hiding Something” by Susie Orman Schnall
Publishing Info: SparkPress, June 2024
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher.
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: What some women will do for success…
A fast-paced and ripped-from-the-headlines story set in the glossy offices of Silicon Valley startups and New York City new media, Anna Bright Is Hiding Something explores our culture’s fascination with businesswomen who are breaking barriers—and sometimes behaving badly in the process.
Anna Bright is committing fraud. But nobody knows it yet. Not the board of her multibillion-dollar company, BrightLife; not her investors; not the media; not the public breathlessly anticipating the imminent launch of BrightSpot.
Jamie Roman, a hardworking journalist for BusinessBerry, is, no surprise, in awe of her company’s billion-dollar valuation, her polished confidence, and her hustle. But when Jamie learns about Anna’s misconduct, she embarks on a bicoastal journey to expose the crimes in the hope of making a name for herself as a journalist. It’s not long before Anna learns what the young reporter is up to, however—and she’ll do anything to stop Jamie, especially now that BrightLife’s IPO is days away.
With news of the deceit about to break, each woman will risk everything for her version of the truth . . . and only one will emerge unscathed.
Review: Thank you to SparkPress for sending me an ARC of this novel!
Back in 2019 I read the book “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup” by John Carreyou, which was about the rise and fall of Theranos and it’s lying founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who defrauded many many people for a lot of money by promising her tech could do something it absolutely could not do. Then a few years later the Hulu miniseries “The Dropout” came out, which is about the same thing with Amanda Seyfried as Holmes, and my husband (who had been following the Theranos scandal in real time) watched it and really enjoyed it. So when I found an offer to read “Anna Bright Is Hiding Something” by Susie Orman Schnall in my inbox, the story alone caught my attention, as it definitely sounded inspired by Elizabeth Holmes and her shenanigans. And given that I love a scandal and a mess, I obviously had to read it.
For people familiar with the Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes scandal, this will follow some similar beats, but that isn’t to say that it just lifts that story completely and makes it fiction. In part we follow Jamie, an intrepid and ambitious reporter who starts to investigate Anna Bright, the CEO of BrightLife whose upcoming ocular implant is boasted to change the way we see and gather information. Jamie starts to hear rumors of unrest at BrightLife after initially being in awe of the CEO, and when she smells a story that could define her career, she jumps on it. I liked Jamie’s character, as it’s always refreshing to see a flawed but easy to root for character take the reins in a story like this, and Jamie is all that and more. She has every reason to strive to prove herself, whether it’s because she’s a woman in an environment that can be sexist in a lot of ways, or because of being worried about being the shadow of her journalism giant father (and with whom she has.a tricky relationship). And I liked seeing her get the scoop, and enjoyed the suspense of wondering just what she was going to find, and what consequences there could be should she REALLY cross Anna and her own ambitions.
And then there is the choice to follow Anna, a choice that could have been a bit dicey as having our primary antagonist a perspective is a risk that can, in general, go really well, or really poorly. In this instance I thought that it was effective, as we not only get to see what kind of manipulative sociopath that Anna is, and not only do we get to see how she’s buying time and shutting all naysayers down, but we also get to see her start to realize that Jamie is on to her, and what lengths she will go to to stop the story, and the truth, from coming out. Schnall walks a really fine line, as she never makes excuses nor sympathizes for Anna’s unethical and downright dangerous lies and fraudulence, but she also isn’t painted as a cartoony villain. It’s very fun to watch these two women play a game of cat and mouse, while also watching the narrative critique some of the aspects of the scandal as it unfolds that could apply to real life (misogyny towards women in tech, the way that BIPOC women are especially targeted, the way that men who do similar things don’t receive the same level of scrutiny, and so forth). I also appreciated that while this is more of a contemporary novel, the suspense and thriller elements are still well done with the intrigue and as these two women set out to take each other down.
If you are looking for a page turner this summer and enjoy a good tech company scandal, “Anna Bright Is Hiding Something” ought to be put on your book pile. It’s very enjoyable.
Rating 8: Gripping, timely, and a little bit soapy (in a good way), “Anna Bright Is Hiding Something” is an entertaining page turner and a grand cat and mouse story.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Anna Bright Is Hiding Something” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but if you want the real life parallels I would recommend “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup” by John Carreyou.
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