The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam

Rating: 3 stars

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Alas, another book has fallen victim to the curse of 3 stars, how is it that 3 star books feel worse than 1 or 2 stars? Perhaps because mediocrity can be boring, comforting and disappointing all at the same time.

The Startup Wife is a satirical novel that depicts the world of startups and aims to make a wider commentary on the role of technology in our lives. The main characters are Asha, a PhD student and coding extraordinaire, and Cyrus, described as a “humanist spirit guide” (ngl I still have no idea what even means). After a chance meeting, Asha and Cyrus decide to get married and make an app with Cyrus’ friend Jules. The app aims to bring meaning to peoples’ lives by generating personalised rituals for them. Asha, Cyrus and Jules have the best of intentions, but you know what they say about good intentions. Before they know it, Cyrus is heralded as a Messiah and Asha's brilliance is tossed aside - will their relationship last when the lines between business and marriage start to blur?

I don't know much about startups or the tech industry in general so I can’t comment on the representation of that world in this book. But what I can say is that I enjoyed reading about the app design process and thought it was explained well for those from a non-tech background. The struggles Asha faced as a woman in tech is something all women can relate to – it’s not fun being on the outskirts of the boys club.

Although the main plot of the book is the app making, there is a heavy subplot that focuses on the relationship between Asha and Cyrus. Unfortunately, their relationship never makes any sense, or at least it never made any sense to me. Cyrus is described as this awe-inspiring beautiful specimen by Asha, but we as the readers are left scratching our heads. He is as inspiring as cardboard. Their meeting and eventual marriage is described as a "whirlwind romance", but I hardly felt any romance between them. They fell in love with each other for absolutely no reason, and no one in Asha’s life seemed to question her about it. Cyrus is painted from the beginning as an egotistical guy with a propensity for gaslighting, but Asha continually blames herself for Cyrus’ gradual corruption. Perhaps it was the author’s intention to show Cyrus as a villain, but if that were the case, she should have added more layers to him so that we had something to like about him. People are shades of grey after all. There is also a whole host of side characters, most of whom lack just as much personality as Cyrus.

The Startup Wife champions a minority voice but ultimately fails due to its poor delineation of its characters.

Love,