As someone with a keen interest in economics and a close follower of the events of the GameStop short squeeze in real time, I really wanted to like this book.

However, I struggled to get into the narrative unfortunately, as it was too reliant on flowery prose and lacked in substance or relevant detail. There were also too many tangents that detract from the cohesion of the narrative, causing a rather disjointed feel. Overall, it was an interesting read for someone interested in finance and economics, but I am not sure that I would recommend it for most readers I’m afraid.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Confusingly this was previously titled The Antisocial Network. I think it’s the same book. Certainly I seem to have both titles from NetGalley. My inattention, obviously, but I still find title changes irritating. And that isn’t the only thing I found irritating about this book. Ben Mezrich’s frantic, hectic style becomes wearing to say the least. “Thrilling, pulse-pounding prose…” as I’ve seen it described. Well yes, indeed. However, when I managed to ignore the style, there’s a germ of an interesting book here. I never understood what all the GameStop fuss was about, and now I do. Well, at least I sort of do. Maybe. My inability to grasp financial matters rather than Mezrich’s explanations, probably. Certainly I gained an insight into a completely, to me, opaque world, with the behind the scenes narrative and the portraits of the key players. I think he achieves his aim, that is to make clear the whole GameStop malarkey, but I really don’t think it needed quite so many words to do it. I assume he wanted to make the story human, and thus put in plenty of detail about the people involved – but why did I need to read about what they had for breakfast, what their rooms looked like? So much of this book was sheer padding, just filler – to get the word count up maybe? Anyway, I did learn something so that’s all to the good. Just would have preferred not to have to wade through so much feverish prose. And I’m still completely bamboozled by the Elon Musk chapter….

I really struggled with this. It’s taken me ages to read across many sittings because it didn’t explain all the workings of the trading in a way I could understand and the narrative jumps around between so many people that it’s hard to keep track of all the characters (although some of that might be because I read it across such long period although I did start over several times). Just not as engagingly written as other books I have read in a similar genre about particular moments in culture/business.

A David and Goliath story of social media, a pandemic and nostalgia for a gaming company, combined with resentment towards large financial organisations, coming together to create a perfect storm.

The story is told through the eyes of a few individuals who experience the roller-coaster ride, and the effects on large investment funds.

I really struggled with this book and it has taken me ages to read. I found the author very frustrating as was looking for more depth and analysis.

I was given a free copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

I thought the premise and concept of this book sounded incredible. I was fascinated to learn about the taking down of Wall Street but this book didn’t do it. It’s so long-winded and the character development seemed king-winded and went off on irrelevant tangents. I’m sure for some, this will be an enjoyable read. For me it just was uninteresting and a little boring.

I do want to thank NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing with the opportunity to read this in return for an honest review.

The Antisocial Network is an interesting read that certainly makes you think about the world and businesses we use on a daily basis. A must read for people who enjoy reading about and finding out about how businesses are structured, how they operate and the impact they have on society.

The Antisocial Network was an interesting read. I think almost everyone online heard about the GameStop stock drama when it happened, and having seen that a book was now there to read all about it, I jumped at the chance to learn more about something I really didn’t have much knowledge about going in. And I was right in some ways, I definitely know more now about the stock market and what happened with GameStop specifically, but the book itself was really quite a let down for me, which was disappointing.

If we start at the beginning, the book just had such a long introduction to the characters, making up literally 25% of the book. It was written in the style of a fictional novel, but even so, most fictional novels don’t entirely focus on introducing characters so solidly without really getting into any kind of story (maybe because all in all there wasn’t much story to tell?). Even as we got further into the book, it ended up being that there was a huge amount of repetition about the same things from the perspectives of different characters, but not really in an interesting way.

I will say that the book was unique as you were able to see all the decisions made by people, whilst knowing the ending of the story and their outcomes at the same time given that it was based on the real story. It made me quite invested, more so than if I hadn’t known the outcome, so I was engaged. There was also an odd and unexpected chapter from the perspective of Elon Musk, which was a surprise.

Overall, the book felt a little rushed into production just to still be relevant when it was released. Even just with little things, for example there were a number of very long sentences, sometimes a whole page long on my kindle, and it took a lot of brain power at times to figure out what was being said. I was interested enough in the story to keep reading to the end, but I did find myself a little bored at times and it became a bit of a chore to pick up unfortunately. I really did want to love this story but it just wasn’t right for me. 2.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for very kindly sending me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

"The Reddit crowd took that to mean that the only way to win was to try to tear that system down. What they didn't realise was that there was a simpler path to victory.
You didn't tear the system down - you became the system. And once you were the system, the rules were there to protect you."

Gamestomp's short squeeze in Jan 2021 shook the hedge funds system (once again) where a group of people on social media took on the investment houses. The frenzy in those few weeks died down eventually and people went back to other things and the book picks a few people and their life who were part of the "revolution".

Ben Mezrich is probably the only writer who could have taken this position without a newsreaders approach of reporting what happened. What made the people be part of this, their inspirations and fears, their reactions when shit hit the roof.

Unfortunate but true, the people chosen are such ordinary people that the magnitude of what was happening was more exciting than their responses. The hedge fund, the trading platform (Robinhood) and the big bad guys were too gray - feeding into the greed stereotype. It's a way of wealth creation and so the entire position of reddit investors seemed a bit - uninformed.

Maybe a reflection of the people who elected Trump to make America great again - the entire spectacle was for the people on the sideline. The players - not so much.

Did not work for me.

An intriguing read, told from different perspectives, I found parts hard to understand due to my lack of knowledge but never less very interesting to read! It is well written and correlated!

3.5 stars
Knowing nothing about finance or the stock market I was intrigued to hear about GameStop which was all over the news with regards to Reddit and the following it had gained. This book explains things from a human perspective of the ordinary (non finance world) people who took a chance and played the market.

This was a very interesting book about the real events that took place; at times it was a little dense for m as I have no knowledge of the stock market but i enjoyed the descriptions of the real people involved and the impact that it had on their lives.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Ben Mezrich has written a few books on topics that have interested me. They've been interesting and given me insights into events and stories I followed in the news. So, a book about the recent short squeeze on GameStop seemed promising. And the first half of the book was enjoyable. It meandered slightly through various characters, both some of the high profile names from the news at the time and some everyday people who were simply part of the journey. I enjoyed a lot of this background, it was the story behind the headlines.

And then, as the story built, Elon Musk appeared. And took a flamethrower to sentient AI before plugging himself in and sleeping in a pod... And it all was too much. I can accept a degree of artistic license in telling these stories, and I guess on some level the absurd fantasy told me to take all the stories with a pinch of salt, but it just burst the bubble of belief. And way too hard. The joke implication of Ken Griffin sitting upon a throne of bones had a place. Until the joke crept into virtually every mention of the man. It became cliched and detracted from the more factual aspects.

And that's where the book falls flat. Those two aspects cast a cloud over the rest of the book for me. It broke the connection I had with the story. It was Fonzie jumping a shark on a motorcycle. The real story deserved more respect. It may have been gamestonks hodled to the moon but it was also a story about many other important things. The over-eager way we're writing of bricks and mortar retailing. The accessibility for laypeople to invest in the stock market and the risks that are mixed in with the rewards. It was potentially a very good story about the legislation of investing and the people who oversee it. There were many angles that could be told, and indeed those threads are included and looked at, but those few whimsical lines lost my trust. In truth, it makes me rethink his earlier work too and that is one of the hardest aspects I face after reading this.

If you want a summary of what happened with the GameStop short squeeze, this covers the basics in a simple and digestible manner. It's got a number of good chapters and, if you're happy to jump on the ride it will tell you a story. I don't see the "definitive take" on events that the blurb promised me though. It has been analysed enough to get the facts elsewhere, even if they are drier and less exciting. The Wikipedia article would be a quicker read and, at the time of writing, has 257 cited references for anyone who wants to delve deeper. This is entertainment. I'm not even going to rule out watching the movie when it gets made. But as a non-fiction book? I find myself disappointed.

This is definitive take on the wildest story of the year— the David-vs.-Goliath GameStop short squeeze, a tale of fortunes won and lost overnight that may end up changing Wall Street forever.

Bestselling author Ben Mezrich offers a gripping, beat-by-beat account of how a loosely affiliate group of private investors and internet trolls took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, firing the first shot in a revolution that threatens to upend the financial establishment.

It started on a subreddit forum called WallStreetBets – a meme-filled, freewheeling place where a disparate group of investors shared their shoot-the-moon investment tips, laughed about big losses, and posted diamond hand emojis. Until some members noticed an opportunity in Game Stop – a flailing bricks and mortar video-game retailer – and somehow rode a rocket ship to tens of millions of dollars in earnings overnight, simultaneously triggering unfathomable losses for one of the most respected funds on the street.

In thrilling, pulse-pounding prose, THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK offers a fascinating, never-before-seen glimpse at the outsize personalities, dizzying swings, corporate drama, and underestimated American heroes and heroines who captivated the world during one of the most volatile weeks in financial history. It’s the amazing story of what just happened—and where we go from here.

I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down as it drew me in immediately and before I knew it I was in the middle of the book!

I must have picked this up at least three times, starting from the beginning each time, in an effort to understand what the heck the author is saying. I have now given up as I just can't get onto his ebullient wavelength.

I really wanted to understand the furore surrounding the Gamestop thing – what happened and why, and who was behind it, but I found so much unnecessary detail – do I really need to know the minutiae of the player's lives? I realise the author is fleshing out the characters, but enough is enough. He loves detail and florid description – he refers to a city as a “pincushion” on at least three occasions, and this is the first two chapters! Then we're treated to a lengthy passage about 22year old Jeremy Poe standing in line awaiting a Covid test. There is more padding in this book than my 13.5tog winter duvet.

Two chapters in and that's it. I can't take any more, which is a shame because I'd really like to know exactly what all this Gamestop stuff was about.

My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC

Rating 3.5

A non-fiction book (or could it be fiction as the writing makes it feel like it) of the rise of a stock called Gamestop over a short time on the New York Stock Exchange during 2020/2021.

It follows a hedge fund as they bet against the company and small investors who believe the company can turn its self around, who buy shares and see the stock rise to dizzying heights, making at least one retail trader a paper millionaire.I

It also includes the small investors platform, and what happens when they limit, neigh stop, the buying of this stock and the congressional hearing in the aftermath - though that doesn't come to any conclusion.

I enjoyed reading about this event, I had heard some things about it through the news, so this added more detail to my knowledge. Like I said before this feels more written as a fiction piece rather than non-fiction.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

I am really sorry, but I have tried to get into this book several times, but have found it extremely difficult. I appreciate that the author is giving us an insight into each of the characters at the beginning of the book, but I founds this confusing as it skipped very quickly from one to the other and I didn’t need to know about a laundry room or a daughter on a slide. Apologies to the author, but I didn’t finish the book.

Like many others, I was fascinated by the Game Stop disruption that made headlines and found myself learning more about the Subreddit WallStreetBets. When I saw Ben Mezrich's The Antisocial Network focused on the event I was sold. I did enjoy this one but there was a lot of padding that stopped me loving it - I think perhaps I'm not the ideal target audience as somebody who had more of a passing interest than a deep understanding of the mechanics of what happened and how investments work.

For a friend or family member who is deeply interested in investments, in the stock market, and perhaps in economics as a whole this would make a great gift and it was well-written and entertaining throughout.

The Antisocial Network tells the story of the most interesting and relevant financial battle of the year - GameStop and the so-called Apes, against huge Wall Street head funds.

It's clear that this book wants to be the new The Big Short. The way Ben Mezrich tells the tale is very humanized, taking detours, to really make the multiple players of this story stand out on their own. I'm just not sure he was successful in this endeavour.

Instead of endearing, the extra personal elements added to this story makes the grander scheme of things feel convoluted. It also added a layer of questioning, in each we don't know what actually happened, or if at some point the author was taking liberties and filling out the blanks.

Overall, the story itself is intriguing. But I think, as it unfolds, we'll see more content about this case put out there. It stands to see how Ben Mezrich's book will hold up when this new content comes to light.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy in exchange for this review

"truly successful firms were defined by how the death with failed positions, not how they celebrated when things went right. Like any good trader, he'd learnt that lesson the hard way."

Mezrich outlines in a lot of detail the events that led up to the GameStop short. As someone who hadn't followed the story until the very end, I was disappointed to find the book filled with backdrop and scene setting for the players, instead of explanations and analysis of the events that occurred.

The book could work well as a novel but as an informative short, it's somewhat lacking in precision and relevant detail.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a very humanised version of what was probably the biggest financial story of 2021 to date. The David vs Goliath story of the Gamestock shares. The author is a great story teller telling us that story from a variety of viewpoints on both sides of the divide, the hedge fund sharks and the wallstreetbets band of comrades. It certainly leaves the reader with a better understanding of what happened but assumes a knowledge of the financial world and while he does eventually get around to explaining things it leaves for a confusing and frustrating read at times. Issues about clearing were mentioned early in the book and proved significant but it wasn’t until much later did we get any sense of what exactly it meant. And the use of acronyms without an explanation was very annoying although I was grateful for an immediate explanation of VAR otherwise I’d still be wondering what a football video referee had to do with it all!
Overall an enjoyable and informative read but could have done with less convoluted sentences that often required reading and as for the Elon Musk scene…………..well that was when I lost a bit of faith in the author, just seemed unreal. Still worth a read though.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy in exchange for this review