Just finished a tech-startup thriller by Sarah Pearse, and I honestly don’t know how to feel about it.
The premise is bizarre but interesting: imagine opening a dating app and being asked how you’d feel about having a corpse next to you. The company in the story uses dead bodies as a kind of “product.” The corpses are turned into influencers—accounts are run by the company to simulate personalities so that buyers can “match” with them.
The story follows an investor who initially helps the project gain attention and legitimacy, but gradually becomes uncomfortable with the whole concept. What starts as a supposedly visionary Silicon Valley–style idea begins to feel unethical and disturbing, so he eventually turns against the founder.
Where the book lost me a bit was the execution of the plot. The tech founder suddenly becomes paranoid that the people close to the project might expose him for the unethical practices and put him behind bars. Instead of a slow psychological breakdown or corporate intrigue, he just starts killing associates, sometimes in the middle of conversations or arguments.
There’s also a strange subplot involving the founder’s sister (actually his step-sister, since their parents married). She ends up matched with the investor who is already uneasy about the app. Even though the investor wants a real relationship, she feels emotionally bound to her brother in a way that makes things complicated.
Another odd thread is the mysterious death of the stepfather. It’s presented almost like a suicide, but the book hints that the brother might have been involved—yet the author never fully clarifies it.
By the end, the founder is sent to prison, although the investigation and legal process feel unrealistically fast compared to how things would work in real life. During the police investigation of the sister, some allies suddenly back out of their statements, which makes it seem like she becomes more central to the story than the brother—even though she was never fully supportive of the corpse-dating idea either.
Overall it feels like the book wanted to explore the psychology of a tech founder—someone driven by ideology, ambition, and the culture of startup disruption—but the plot jumps too quickly into violence and unresolved mysteries. The author leaves many interpretations open for the reader, especially regarding the father’s death and the motivations behind the founder’s behavior.
Curious if anyone else has read it and what they made of the ending.
by avolu_theluo