1414°

Paul Bradley Carr has set 1414 degrees as the starter to an amazing series if so chosen to do one. I heard the audio version of this book and I had never gone through an audiobook as quickly as I did 1414 degrees. It discusses some tough subjects, subjects that are a reality to some, and the responses to those subjects that we also see happen in the media. Lou is a reporter that has put her career on the line more than once to get the real truth published, even if her boss or powerful men in Silicon Valley try to stop her. In 1414 degrees she puts more than her career on the line, her life and the life of others are caught in this mystery, with multiple layers and players to be uncovered. I felt like I was holding my breath through chapters especially once we got to the middle of the book all the way to the end. If you're a fan of mystery, and tech thrillers you will enjoy 1414 degrees.

I enjoyed this takedown of big tech with a strong feminist undertone (huge props to the male author!) and slight murder mystery/investigative drama. What a terrific compilation! My favorite was learning the meaning of 1414. I ate that up!

I found Lou interesting and likable.

Thank you to Snafublishing and NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for a review!!!

First, I want to give a trigger warning about this book, especially for those who choose to listen to the audio.

TW: Suicide, DV, SA (possible others, but these are the themes that stood out to me)

This feminist tech thriller was much better than I was expecting. At the start of the story, I wasn't too sure I wanted to continue BUT I was happy to be reading this book via its audio version rather than reading from the physical book. When I listen to books, it's much easier for me to really engage with the story because I can listen while walking or moving around and something grabs my attention. What hooked my brain and piqued my interest was one word: defamation. Still coming down from the high of watching the long-awaited JD/AH trial, I was immediately intrigued by the plot.

Lou McCarthy, a tough-as-nails reporter, is barking up the wrong tree and shaking Silicon Valley to its very core. Raum is just about to announce its IPO when its CTO, Alex Wu, dies by suicide in the middle of the party. Lou is there to witness the event and begins digging into the why and finds herself deep in the heart of conspiracy and puppetry. Someone is pulling the strings...Fate...and Lou needs to see this story to the end, and so did I!

The story is incredibly fast-paced and oftentimes a little hard to keep track of, what with so many details being thrown at you as each page turns. I highly recommend this title and am so happy to have had a chance to read it!

1414° by Paul Bradley Carr (Audiobook)

Snafublishing LLC
Audible Release: April 25, 2022
Listening Length: 11 hours 52 minutes
Narrator: Emily Lawrence
Genre: Thriller
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this audiobook for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Paul Bradley Carr is the author of The Upgrade, Bringing Nothing To The Party, and Sober Is My New Drunk. His first novel, 1414º, was published in October 2021. He spent 20 years covering the dark side of Silicon Valley for publications including the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, Private Eye, PandoDaily, and Techcrunch. He was also the founder and Editor in Chief of the infamous NSFWCORP in Las Vegas. Paul was born in Dunfermline, Scotland and currently lives in San Francisco and Palm Springs, California.

“Correlation was not causation.”

Lou finds herself caught in a dangerous and quickly turning deadly game of cat and mouse when she tries to take on Silicon Valley bigwigs. But as the truth starts to emerge, the game gets hotter and hotter.

This was an interesting book. I am generally not one to read tech-heavy books, but there was a nice element of suspense to this one, and I enjoyed it.

The character development was well done, and we get to know each main character reasonably well throughout the novel. I loved that intelligent, capable, formidable females led this book. That was incredible to see.

The storyline is intense the entire time, with bursts of escalation and several twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

I enjoyed the performance of narrator Emily Lawrence. She did a phenomenal job bringing each character to life. I would listen to her narrate a novel again.

I had a blast listening to this book. It was full of tech, mystery, a female POV, and a great storyline. I could not stop listening because I needed to find out what happened next.

I read The Circle years ago and this had some similar vibes to that book. It also had some Blake Crouch vibes (which is always great) and even a hint of Gillian Flynn with some of the twists and turns.

If you want a modern story that feels relevant to our not-so-distant future, this is a great option for you. It’s about a tech company, but it’s really about people and the choices we make. How will the Y/N options in our lives shape our future? Are we in control? Who is driving the platforms we use and trust? Those are crucial questions that we need to wrestle with as we continue toward a future where select companies run our entire lives.

This book was gripping. I enjoyed the forensic takedown of the 'tech bros' of silicon valley and it was satisfyingly visceral. I saw some of the twists ahead, but not in a way that spoiled my enjoyment,

I found the online mob riled up by alt-right hate speech pretty chilling and it is great to see a thriller with some terrific female characters which unpicks both the danger and the potential of our instantaneous online culture.
The end became a a little far fetched, but by that point I was so deep into the story that I wasn't coming out no matter what!
Overall, fun, exciting and an excellent beach read that stays with the reader for a long time afterwards! Would recommend,

1414° - the melting temperature for silicon - is a twisty, inventive and fun story about avenging women who take on Silicon Valley’s toxic bro culture, Stanford University (and all university IT programs where women are belittled and harassed), and a Saudi Crown Prince.
Within quick succession, a current tech titan and a former one commit suicide. Lou ,an investigative reporter, publishes and then is forced to retract her story revealing that one of those men was a serial rapist. A corporate fixer/crisis manager working for the board of a giant tech company about to go public rescues Lou when she’s targeted by men’s rights social media woman-hater and his group on like-minded nut jobs. A mysterious avenger known as Fate seems to be pulling everyone’s strings. These characters and many others (Lou’s mom is fearsome) work to change the big tech mostly men-only world and somebody’s got the algorithm to do it.
A terrific book that takes #MeToo to the next level.

1414° is the melting point of silicon. It is an apt title as the female characters want to burn down the patriarchy of Silicon Valley.

This book definitely had me wondering - does the end justify the means? Three females are tackling the misbehaving males of tech companies. Each approaches it in their own way, but they aren't really making any headway in getting justice. They each operate in some gray areas, but how great of lengths are they willing to go to topple the patriarchy?

Lou McCarthy is a journalist and exposes the men's deeds on the pages of the local paper. But the men still win. First, she lost her apartment and now she has lost her job. And the men come out smelling like roses. In the instance of her apartment building, they compensated homeowners with relocation money. However, none of the tenants in the building were actually owners so they didn't see a dime.

Helen Tyler is the woman companies hire when the men get the bad publicity from people like Lou. Why would she help these despicable men? She knows it is highly unlikely that the victims will win against them but she hopes she can balance the scales a bit by financially compensating the victims.

And then there is the shadowy figure known as Fate. She is definitely pulling strings to make sure these men pay for real.

When two men who Lou exposed and Helen has been hired to fix their company's image wind up dead, these three women are brought together to burn it all down. But is that enough if nothing better arises from the ashes?

Now, 1414° is not necessarily a story that will have you on the edge of your seat but it is definitely full of twists and turns that keep you guessing. I listened to the audiobook, which is wonderfully narrated by Emily Lawrence, and I found that I really had to pay attention. The characters aren't upfront about who they are, what they are doing, or how far they are willing to go. It is important to pay close attention to the details if you want to figure out the end game.

Though it is slower-paced in some ways than your typical thriller, it definitely held my interest. As the dangers these women face become more intense I found myself more and more singularly focused on the story and felt that the pace was also speeding up.

If you enjoy intricate stories with complex characters, then this is a book you should pick up.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Wednesday - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2022/06/can-you-solve-mystery-in-these-two.html

I really enjoyed 1414, whip-smart, fast-moving, and a delightfully refreshing murder mystery. Carr creates a dramatic tech-bro atmosphere in which nothing is as it seems and journalist Lou stops at nothing to get to the bottom of it all. There were several laugh-out-loud moments and I would highly recommend this book!

This book was a rollercoaster. I trusted no one and had a hard time following along with some of the tech language and all the characters.

I liked the mystery at the beginning, but the more things were revealed the harder time I had keeping track of what was happening.

I feel like there was a lot of build up and then the ending was super quick. I was listening to the audiobook and I think with all the characters I needed to read the ebook or physical copy to have the visual reminder of the names.

Overall I thought this was pretty good. Badass women taking down disgusting men in tech and holding them accountable for all the awful things they’ve done.

I listened to an audiobook of 1414 by Paula Bradley Carr and really enjoyed it.
The narrator was EXCELLENT and brought the story to life.

Lou McCarthy is a reporter who always seeks the truth and often puts truth in front of safety.

The story takes place in a San Francisco. This techno thriller was exciting.

The characters were well written and complex. The story exceeded by expectations.

This was a FANTASTIC audio book!

I listened to this tech thriller audiobook over the last 3 days. I absolutely loved the main character Lou. She's resilient. She's smart. She's a quick thinker.  She's just plain bad ass!!

Sorry, I got side tracked 😆 I like how the story combined both journalism and the tech world. The character development was good as well. I enjoyed the plot line and listening to the story unfold.

The author tells you in the story why the title is 1414° which I appreciated. It may seem trivial but I needed to know! 🤷🏻‍♀️

It was narrated by Emily Lawrence. I love the way she reads the story!

Read/listen to this book if
👩🏻‍💻 you love strong female characters
👩🏻‍💻 you like books set in California
👩🏻‍💻 you like books involving technology
👩🏻‍💻 you like murder/thriller books

I'd recommend this book and mark it is as a BUY or BUD on the scale of Buy, Bargain, Borrow, Bud (audio) or Bust.  (And yes I came up with the scale. I'm oddly proud of it!)

Many thanks to NetGalley and Snafublishing for gifting me an audio ARC of the debut book by Paul Bradley Carr and narrated by Emily Lawrence - 4 intriguing stars!

Lou McCarthy has spent her career exposing predators in Silicon Valley as she works for the small Bay Area Herald newspaper. But it's all been for naught - the tech boys always win while she has lost everything. But when two of her subjects died by public suicide on the same night, she is thrust into the world of online and real world trolls. She discovers something that she wasn't prepared for while investigating that throws everything for a loop.

This is an interesting book - a story of bad tech boys and the Silicon Valley patriarchy written by a man! It's a thriller - and a scary one considering how much of our privacy we already give up to our phones, our Fitbits, our home systems. I thought the narration was great but I did have a little trouble keeping people straight - mostly because there was a lot of subterfuge in the characters. I loved the title - 1414° is the melting point of silicon. How apt. Definitely worth checking out!

I'm personally done with all finance bros and all tech bros: their stories of how everything started in their parent's garage or how they make their way up from first day of internship to C-suite... How they are all self-made, not like their parents pay their way into Ivy League colleges or become their first angel VCs. I just want to scream at their faces every time they try to give their "TedTalk". Sorry buddies, everything is served to you on silver, no gold, platter and you used labor of so many who wouldn't even recognize to get where you are.

1414° is melting point of silicon. 1414° is story of melting of everything corrupt in Silicon Valley. 1414° is story of how toxic bromance of few white, privileged boys need to be stopped. One way or another, everyone will face karma and get what they deserve - whether it's because they took away credit from rightful owners or they caused some level of harm to others. These once academically gifted young Standford "men" who made a simple mistake due to their youth got all they deserved (I'm sure first part of that sentence is very familiar).

If you want to see powerless got their voice back (even in fiction world - you know one can dream), you will like this book. And it's funny and tragic that I'll be promoting this book on one of the creations of Silicon Valley...

A journalist gets stung after one too many articles about another man in power who was accused of - and exonerated for - rape. Following the unexpected deaths of two known offenders, Lou finds herself allied with a mysterious woman who has a heck of a plan to bring men like this down once and for all. If justice can't reach them, Fate will. Fans of twisty suspense should enjoy this.

Lou is a journalist dedicating her life to bringing down the corrupt high powered businessmen in the tech industries at all costs & embarrassments.

Helen was hired by one of those corrupt organizations to clean up their image.

Fate is the tech knowledge behind this wicked team of three & her tech prowess is messing with RAUN.

This is a fun quick wild techno thriller ride! I imagine you’re wondering what 1414 means. 1414 degrees is the temperature at which silicon melts.

Thank you NetGalley & Snafublishing LLC for the free copy of the audiobook.

Lou McCarthy is a journalist who has seen the dark side of Silicon Valley and has made it her mission to take the elite down one article at a time. Unfortunately, after going after a high profile abuser she loses her home, her job and is pulled into a mystery she never expected.

I really enjoyed this face paced tech thriller with a twist on the usual murder mystery. The story is complex, well written and intriguing from start to finish.

I really enjoyed Emily Lawrence depiction of the characters. Her voice was distinct and her reading style really brought the book and characters to life.

I want to thank NetGalley, Paul Bradley Carr and Snafublishing for the e-ARC of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are honest, my own and left voluntarily.

I went into this one completely blind as to what it was about and I think that contributed to the fantastic roller coaster ride that followed. So forgive me for not really talking about the phenomenally paced plot in detail, but I'd like new listeners/readers to get the same explosive experience. Just a trigger warning that sexual abuse plays a significant role.
The plot seems huge and touches on some major themes, but focusing on down-on-her-luck journalist Lou grounds the story and helps add to the impact of its events. It's honestly a bit terrifying to think that there are a lot of real-world parallels that inspired the story and that it could conceivably be a thing that is happening right now.

I have to give props to the excellent narration by Emily Lawrence as she excels at filling the scenes with just the right tone and emotion for them to hit even harder.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Snafublishing for the incredibly engaging read.

Ok so this was a different one for me but I thought it sounded so interesting. It was my first an audiobook so that was interesting too. It took me a second to get used to it but as soon as I got in to it I was sucked in! It was a really good read and very different from what I usually go for. It's a suspense kinda read based in Silicon Valley. It was about the underbelly of the tech industry and the corruption and male dominating field that it is. The suspense of what would happen next and rooting for the underdogs of the story which end up being females. Thats what I liked about it, it was good read but had a good point about the importance of diversity in the tech industry. Very good book!

The narrator is compelling and keeps you listening to Silicon Valley thriller. Free press verse corporate greed. The title and cover do not do justice to this audiobook.

A journalist goes about exposing two high profile people from Silicon Valley who do not want their secrets exposed people try to warn her to stop but she doesn’t . And it cost her everything.
I wasn’t sure what to expect at first from the cover but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a murder mystery about the Tech world which Does interest me. And you will find out the meaning of the title in the story At first I thought the story was going to be a little slow but by chapter two Lou was in the middle of everything murder, mystery and high tech money. This was a fascinating story about the tech world and I liked that the journalist was a strong female character thank you NetGalley for letting me listen to the audio version of this book.

Firsts Impressions

This one was so intriguing, I mean Lou was awesome and reporting the truth no matter the cost was a very good starting point in this one.

The plot was very compelling and it did enveloped me very quickly, the conspiracy and the half truths that were coming every page were so grand that I was like omg then what's next. Total page turner this one.

You have a ghost killer that doesn't seem is wanting to be found or maybe it is? but then how and why are the killing connected really, it will hook you since page one.

Characters

The characters were so fascinating, their motivations not always clear since they deal in a lot of gray areas of life and such but you could feel they were trying hard really hard to be there for others or maybe only to gain something.

Helen was so relatable in a way, she was trying her best to help people in her own way, at times she did seemed maybe deranged in her ways but her heart was in the correct place.

Lou was so complex, she wanted to do the right thing who doesn't and then it got so twisted in the road and she was still trying to just be true to herself.

Lou mom and her friend Carol were so badass, I was just expecting to hear what else were they doing and who they were educating next, so cool really.

Themes

This one did dwell in very hard themes, like rape and predators in big companies and how our culture is so male that nothing seems to go fine for the victims only for the perpetrators, but they did have a very good antagonistic force on this one, very powerful women that are best at what they do and try to stop all this cycle of violence in their own terms and with any available weapon.

Final Thoughts

By the end even the title take on a new whole level, it was so awesome for me to learn what it was and how did it related to the whole story, it was genius really.

I was enthralled by this plot, it had a lot of twists and turns and unexpected revelations that I couldn't be bored even for a second, it was a superb thriller.

This book was nothing like I expected and everything I didn't know I needed. To start off the plot was genius and it was unlike any book I have ever read ( or listened to ) before. I think the author did a wonderful job at bringing to light issues with Women in STEM careers but did so in a modern way by incorporating Silicon Valley and all that it has to offer. I really enjoyed the diversity of characters and I particularly enjoyed how the author showed that while most men in the STEM field take advantage of Women not all men do. The way the author showcased this did a really good job at delving deep into the character development with the side characters but especially with the main character, Lou. Speaking of the main character; she drove me absolutely crazy and I was not a fan of her in the beginning of the book but I really enjoyed watching her grow and I loved how she became less judgmental as the story went on. I also thought Lou was really relatable for any Woman but especially for Women in the Journalism field ( myself included ) because you have to learn the balance of fighting for change by breaking hit stories and reporting the truth but you don't want to tear down or hurt other Women in the process. Most importantly the author did a really good job at bringing to light issues with Rape and Sexual Assault on College Campuses as well as the ever increasing rate of Rape and Sexual Assault in our society + the way technology plays a factor in this increase.

5 stars

Add this awesome, suspenseful thriller to the top of your hot new books to listen to this summer!

Imagine a San Franciso-based British investigative journalist covering the bro-tech culture of Silicon billionaire hotshots and stumbling across untold instances of covered up sexual abuse by these new captains of industry. Over his 20-year career working for traditional established press (The Guardian, TechCrunch, Wall St. Journal, The Sunday Times) he’s unable to publish all this bad behavior, either from lack of definitive evidence, threats of retaliation, or the cowering of publishers avoiding lawsuits. Well, there we have Paul Bradly Carr, who turns around and writes a debut novel featuring a woman investigative journalist just like him who gets caught in a treacherous web of bad-boy cover-ups due to her expose writing on their acts of misogyny.

Lou McCarthy has wrapped her professional life as a reporter for the Bay Area Herald around covering Silicon Valley’s tech industry and writing brazen exposes calling out the white-men-ego-tripping sexual abuse. She’s also fought off a hot tech corporation’s takeover and destruction of her rent-controlled building in order to clear the view around their new skyscraper, which ultimately renders her homeless, sleeping in her office. Her latest expose targets that same tech company heading to IPO, Raum, who’s CTO has a long-standing pattern of self-abuse based on all of Lou’s first-person interviews of his victims. But before she can write about any of these past instances, each victim gets bought off with vast sums and goes radio silent on her.

When an anonymous source sends Lou a copy of a sexual assault suit about to be filed, she publishes a piece. But the copy of the suit turns out to be a mysterious hoax: Lou’s called out for it, her editor is beside himself, the Herald’s legal counsel up in arms about a potential defamation suit. From her the plot rockets into action, with the CTO Lou covered killing himself in spectacular fashion at a private party hosted by Ruam, flinging himself from an upper floor and impaling himself on a ice culture in the inner atrium. Mayhem ensures, a death call from a fringe men’s rights internet group gets put out on Lou, and she’s rescued by a bad-ass corporate-fixer, Helen, a hired-gun who is quietly retained by boards of tech companies about to go public with the task of outing the bad boys. Add on top of this a murderer, who may be systematically and stealthily taking out these bad boys of tech as retaliation for their heinous, unpunished acts.

As Lou and Helen kick into gear, and kick ass in the process, this feminist thriller enthralls while condemning the start-up tech culture in Silicon Valley that turns a blind eye to abusive behavior in the constant quest for the next IPO unicorn that will make all of the investors rich beyond imagining.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced audio version of this book.

I love a good thriller and this book kept me on my toes! Paul Bradley Carr wrote a fast paced thriller about a silicone valley VIP suicide and a reporter who is ruthless. If you love a good whodunnit mystery this is for you! Thank you Snafublishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

Well that was an interesting and entertaining read/listen. This book is a hard look at the ins and outs of the tech world - where it's notoriously difficult for women to get a good foothold, especially when it comes to being up front on the programming side. It starts as a murder mystery, then morphs into a revenge story. The protagonist, Lou, is a reporter for an online news site whose determined to publish what she "knows" to be true (even if she doesn't have as much corroboration as her editor would like), and that determination has already cost her a lot, including putting her career in jeopardy. It's also made her a prime target for someone who wants to use her as part of a murder/revenge plan, and leads her to investigate just who has used her. This book is fast-paced and while I don't have a lot of real-world experience with most of the subject matter here, the author does, and it shows. Well-written and well-narrated.
Thanks to Netgalley and Snafublishing for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

What a ride!!! Didn’t know what to expect from a book titled 1414 Degrees, but boy did it deliver. The premise is rich bad boy techs are committing crimes and getting away with it. The courts let the victims down then the court of public opinion sees them on the t,v. with their sorries and excuses then they forgive them. . Victims are victimized all over again. One such victim becomes Fate who was raped, police didn’t believe her, the rapist also stole her ideals and made billions with the technology. She recruits a journalist who helps her take them down. There are lots of twists and turns, the woman remind me of Charlie Angels without the need for Charlie. It was fast paced, nothing was dragged out, well thought out dialogue, characters that you could imagine and relate to. II can’t wait to read more books by Paul Bradley Carr.

Summary: Reporter Lou McCarthy has spent her career trying to hold the "brociopaths" of Silicon Valley accountable. But no matter what she uncovers, the execs of San Francisco's top tech companies never seem to take a hit. Then two of her previous reporting subjects die of apparent suicides on the same night, and Lou is plunged into chaos as an army of internet trolls tries to brand her as responsible.

The more she digs into the deaths, the clearer it becomes that someone behind the scenes has been pulling the strings that ultimately unraveled the technocrats' lives. Lou finds herself on a quest to unmask the puppet master that will force her to consider how far she is willing to go to see the industry pay for its crimes.

Review: 1414° is a whip-smart thriller full of Silicon Valley intrigue. Though it draws on elements of biting satire and dystopian prescience, the book's undercurrent of realism makes it clear from the start that this story is written by an actual journalist who is intimately familiar with the world he explores. Carr takes on toxic masculinity, the surveillance state, the Me Too movement, unchecked power and the hubris of Big Tech, all with a flair for wry humor that makes for a supremely enjoyable read.

Despite some reviews that criticize the author's portrayal of feminists and feminism as one-dimensional, I found the characters to be complex, quirky and authentically-crafted. The tension between "right" and "wrong" is a constant backdrop to the twists and turns of the inventive plot, and even the "good guys" of this story are faced with decisions that make them question the absoluteness of their morals.

It takes a few chapters for the real action to begin, but once this story hits its stride, you won't be able to put it down.

A fast-paced, interesting, gripping murder mystery that is relatable since it is placed in today's high-tech world. Really enjoyed the women lead characters who ruled this story. Excellent audiobook.
Thank you to NetGalley and Snafublishing for ARC. #1414, #Snafublishing