Review: The Start-Up

The Start-Up by Sadie Hayes

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Description: Adam and Amelia Dory spent their childhoods bouncing around foster homes. Now finishing their freshmen year on scholarship at Stanford, Amelia and Adam keep to themselves…until Amelia’s breakthrough program catapults her into the limelight. Surrounded by people that want to exploit their start-up—from T.J. Bristol, a young and ambitious entrepreneur angling to get back at his billionaire father, to Patty Hawkins, Amelia’s aristocratic bad-girl roommate—the twins are seduced at every turn, until the only people they can trust are enemies.

Review: My favorite movie is The Social Network. If you go on my tumblr (and I advise not going on it, being I'm not as formal on there), you'd see graphics of Jesse Eisenberg's character and Andrew Garfield's character. C'mon, they LOVED each other! Anyone with eyes could see that!

Besides the ""love"" scenes, The Social Network remains one of my favorite movies because of the greed, envy, and how money can come between best friends. Attractive, young, geniuses are very interesting. If you fall in this category, please e-mail me immediately. But also, The Social Network shows how businesses work, and how they could steal from you, and manipulate you, and turn you against your friends. All of this is included in the excellent novella, The Start-Up.

The Start-Up tells the tale of Adam and Amelia Dory, twin siblings who are freshmen at Stanford. They are not like their classmates, all of whom have alumni parents and large bank accounts. The Dorii (as they call themselves) are on full scholarships. Amelia is studying computer science, and Adam is undeclared. Also unlike their peers, they are not involved in the business of Silicon Valley, but all that's about to change.

Computer Science is very interesting, as well as foreign to me. I though I was a big deal for knowing common HTML on tumblr and blogger, but these people are creating websites based on nothing. No template, even! Amelia has created an app for her iPhone, which allows her to control any TV from her phone. She happens to be testing it out in front of Tom Fenway, who is starting a group of young achievers who want to venture into business. However, Amelia doesn't want in.

Amelia is a very likable character. She is strong-willed, and determined to do what's right. She doesn't want to sell out, and give her prized talent up for money. But Adam thinks she should do what she loves, and make money off of it. He feels that it could pay for their tuition, and get them out of trouble, if the time comes. Oh yeah, it's coming.

Adam is a bartender and one night on the job, gets to meet Silicon Valley's Poster-Boy, T.J Bristol. He is the son of a business mogul who, after investing money in Gibly, is supposed to be making $3.8 billion. Until Amelia hacks into Gibly's server, and realizes they aren't using their information for good. I would not have had the guts to do what she did. She stands her ground when Mr. Bristol, Ted, tries to blackmail her with $100 million.

I love the world that Hayes created. I'm not sure why I'm saying 'created', since that's what actually happens, but I have not been exposed to the greed and theviery of the real world yet, so it's new to me. They live such privileged lives, and it's really a slap in the face when he see how these rich kids live. And then there's Adam and Amelia, who are new to the scene, and get thrown in by accident.

Little is said about the Dorii's past, except that their parents died. I'm hoping to see more about that, because I felt as though I didn't know that much about them besides the main characterisitics. Although there is a secret that the twins keep mentioning, and The Start-Up did end on a cliffhanger..

The Start-Up is a short read, and the dialogue is sharp realistic. This story is something that I've never seen in Young Adult fiction, so it's different and unique. I highly recommend it to someone who enjoys stories about backstabbing, pretentious college students who are involved in the business world.

The Start-Up is a great start to an amazing series. I'm totally looking forward to reading the second installment, The Anti-Social Network.

"But here’s the thing, Amelia, these millionaires-no, billionaires-they’re smart, they’re super smart. But you know what? They’re no smarter than you. And I realized last night, Amelia, that you could program something and we could get a venture capitalist to invest. We could be one of them, Amelia. We could start a tech or Internet or computer or whatever company and be freakin’ millionaires."

- The Start-Up; Sadie Hayes