cover image The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network

The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network

Katherine Losse. Free Press, $26 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4516-6825-4

Losse offers an insider's look into the early years and growing pains of Facebook in this compelling, but ultimately unenlightening book. Anyone who's seen The Social Network or read a shred of gossip news regarding the king of the boy kings, Mark Zuckerberg, will be familiar with Losse's decoction of Facebook's potent mix of youthful exuberance and Silicon Valley hubris. The author was hired as a "customer-support rep" (the company's 51st employee), and was promptly given the "keys to the kingdom%E2%80%94" the master password that gave her access to every user's personal information. But Losse's professional place in the fledgling company was tenuous%E2%80%94she was at once attracted and repelled by the power she wielded, but she also never quite fit into the "Paolo Alto club" culture of the company. Eventually, she served as the official ghostwriter for Zuckerberg, bringing her close to the action, but not quite involved in the action. As such, this reads less like a whistleblower's revelatory tell-all, and more like the personal grumblings of a discontented former employee. Right before Losse quit her job (she also worked on the company's internationalization efforts), she made a final trip down to Sao Paolo with Zuckerberg to bring Facebook into Brazil. There, a security detail tells her that she is "only important because [Zuckerberg] is;" unfortunately, so is this book. (June)