Pearly Whites!
Adult; General Fiction (including literary and historical); (Market)
Meet Liz Cleaver, the heiress to a marijuana empire who's on a mission to find a budget-friendly dental solution for her foundation's clinics. But beneath her altruistic façade lies an embezzlement plot. To cover her freewheeling spending, she sets her sights on biotech startup TeeGentics. Meanwhile, Werner Brandt, TeeGentics beleaguered CEO, is struggling to keep his company afloat as the company’s genetically created teeth inexplicably keep dying. He is forced to navigate around hazards; a bossy misanthropic investor; an inept project manager; two Klingon culture fans; and last, but not least, Werner’s attractive administrative assistant. As tensions rise and investors grow increasingly impatient, there is plenty of distraction—from love affairs, political maneuvering, FBI investigations and side effects ranging from bizarre to disastrous, the story takes you on a riotous journey through the unpredictable world of experimenting with genetics for profit.
Plot/Idea: 5 out of 10
Originality: 7 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 5 out of 10
Overall: 6.25 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Goldstein delivers a rollicking read centered on entrepreneurship and genetic engineering, as an heiress to a cannabis empire sets her sights on the struggling TeeGentics, a biotech company creating genetically engineered teeth. The plot is lighthearted, and readers will be entertained by the book's turns, though a handful of scenes stall out midstream.
Prose: The prose is straightforward and structurally sound, with instinctive dialogue that makes the interactions between characters feel spontaneous.
Originality: Goldstein's combination of genetically engineered teeth with greedy corporate grabbing makes this plot line amusing and distinctive.
Character/Execution: Goldstein's characters are, for the most part, well-to-do and shallow, filling their days with excess of every kind. Readers may empathize more with Billy, the story's guinea pig for tooth experiments, whose implants cause him ongoing physical difficulties.
Date Submitted: August 15, 2024
