‘Ms. Sandberg was right about something. We had to lean in. It was the only way to hear the whispers…’
Sloane, Ardie, Grace and Rosalita have worked in the same legal office for years. The sudden death of the firm’s CEO means their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Each of the women has a different relationship with Ames, who has always been surrounded by whispers about how he treats women. Those whispers have been ignored, swept under the rug, hidden away by those in charge.
But the world has changed, and the women are watching this latest promotion for Ames differently.
This time, they’ve decided enough is enough.
Sloane and her colleagues’ decision to take a stand sets in motion something catastrophic and unstoppable: lies will be uncovered, secrets will be exposed and not everyone will survive. All their lives – as women, colleagues, mothers, adversaries – will be changed for ever.
Book Info: Print length: 354 pages. Publisher: Sphere. Publication Date: 2 July 2019
New York Times bestselling author Chandler Baker lives in Austin with her husband and two small children. A former corporate lawyer, she is the author of the Reese Witherspoon book club pick, Whisper Network as well as The Husbands, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, and a number of YA novels, including her most recent, Hello (From Here).
My Review:
Whisper Network was published in 2019 and almost all the reviews called it “relevant” and “timely” together with #metoo and 3 years later it’s still as relevant and timely and is a powerful story of women in the workplace facing sexual harrassment, pay gaps, male privilege and motherhood and constant guilt.
The story revolves around a company in Dallas called Truviv, Inc and the four women who work there. When the CEO suddenly dies, their boss Garrett Ames is next in line for the job. However all these women have experienced some type of harrassment (sexual or verbal) over the years and decide to file a lawsuit against him and the company to stop his promotion.
However when a tragedy occurs on the 18th floor and a member of staff dies, the police immediately suspect murder and the women are desperate to prove their innocence.
In between each chapter are police interviews, employee statements, news clippings, text messages which slowly reveal the lead up to the tragedy.
Each of these women narrate the story from their point of view and I found each of their stories fascinating and relatable in parts. There is Grace, who has just returned to work from maternity leave and has to express her breast milk 3 times a day and feels guilty for wanting to return to work rather than stay at home with her newborn, Sloane is the Senior Vice President who is the main breadwinner in her household and tries to manage her family like her employees, Ardie is a divorced mother of one, who is trying to get back into the dating scene despite wanting her ex-husband back and finally Rosalita, a single mother and cleaner in the office who is just trying to keep a roof over her head and provide for her son.
Whisper Network is an intelligent, thought-provoking story of women in the workplace and I really enjoyed it.
