The ethos of Bloom seems to be fast paced and action oriented, but a question keeps niggling Joan. She takes on her new job with a chip on her shoulder, ready to deride the millennial culture and “snowflake” approach to work –– but she is soon won over by the quiet professionalism and efficient workplace ethics of the people. She gets the job but acclimating to her hip new work place takes some getting used to. In her job interview, she is flummoxed when, rather than her credentials, she is asked which Hogwarts house would she want to be sorted in? She begrudgingly applies for a job as a junior copywriter at a fledgling and obscure start-up called Bloom, where she is the oldest person on the payroll and her bosses are at least a decade younger than her. She doesn’t have enough GIFS to react accurately to anything and “none of the same pop culture markers to make any referential jokes.”

Instead, she will be judged by her ability to write listicles based on the trendiest buzzwords and coming up with the best Instagram captions. She now has to assimilate in a market where journalism no longer entails rigorous research and investigative reporting. Joan is one of the last remnants of the era of hardcore journalism. She realizes that at 36 years old, she is a bona fide fossil in a market saturated with people just out of college, sustaining on energy drinks and notifications. So when she is laid off and goes job hunting, she experiences a jolting cultural shock at finding that she is barely eligible for employment in the tech-savvy new wave journalism. Joan Dixon always regarded herself as an accomplished journalist.

Liza Palmer’s new novel, The Nobodies, follows that familiar terrain of a thirtysomething journalist who finds herself to be a fish out of water in the world of start-ups. My favorites in the genre include Startup by Doree Shafrir and Sophia of Silicon Valley by Anna Yen, in which the heroines are navigating their way through an unfamiliar culture saturated by men. There has been a recent surge in smart, entertaining novels that provide insight into Silicon Valley.

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