The Herd

I was unfamiliar with author Andrea Bartz, for whom this novel is her second outing. The Washington Post reviewer, esteemed Maureen Corrigan, considers it to be the ideal "airplane novel"--if people were still taking airplanes anywhere these days. Corrigan goes on to summarize the plot: "An insular group of well-groomed women becomes drawn into investigating the murder of one of their own, all the while keeping scandalous personal secrets tightly sealed behind their persimmon pink-stained lips." The story gradually unfolds in alternating chapters told by two adoptive sisters; the older (adopted) sister is Hana, a woman of color who is now a successful public relations entrepreneur, and younger sister Katie, a journalist and wannabe book writer. Hana, Mikki, and Eleanorall went to Harvard together and have remained close friends. Katie also became friends with Eleanor and Mikki when Hana jaunted off to Los Angeles right after college. Mikki is a graphic designer and struggling artist. Eleanor first started an ethical line of cosmetics called Gleam and then created the HERD, a membership only club and co-working space for women entrepreneurs. It has become so wildly popular that there is a waiting list to get in, even with the $300 per month membership fee. With success, however, often comes resentment and Eleanor's ventures have generated their own groups of haters, one of which calls itself the Antiherd. A telling aside about the name of the venture is offered by one character who muses, "A herd’s primary purpose is to keep the highest percentage of its members alive. Evolution doesn’t care about the individual, about survival of the least-fit. We team up for the most selfish reason possible: self-preservation." When Eleanor goes missing on the eve of a big announcement about the HERD, everyone is in a panic, and Hana and Katie each set off independently to find out what happened to Eleanor.

The book felt slow to start and I was about half-way through before I really felt compelled to find out whodunnit. The dark secrets of Eleanor, Mikki, Hana, and Katie are hinted at so frequently and with such a heavy hand, that I figuratively had to roll my eyes many times. I would agree with Corrigan that it feels like the characters do not get fully developed and we really only find out what motivates them toward the very end of the book....slow, slow, slow, rush, rush, rush.  However, to be fair, I never saw the resolution coming and once we find out what lies beneath the shiny surfaces of these women, it seems all too plausible. I do think there is a lot of potential meat for discussion here in terms of how women are minimized and perjoratively interpreted in our culture, especially when it comes to business. Additionally, the contrast between who people really are and how they present themselves in social media is dealt with both head on and sideways--which could certainly generate good book group discussion.

Kirkus calls this a "soapy and fun woman-centric thriller."Publishers Weekly lauds it as "a smart, twisty thriller..." The Los Angeles Times says, "A pulpy satire of millennial corporate feminism and a parodic homage to the Wing..."  I had never heard of The Wing and if you read this piece in The New York Times Magazine, it will indeed sound very similar to the setting for this book.