Kismet

Luke Tredget's perceptive debut novel, Kismet, features upwardly mobile, post-college Londoners employing a wildly popular matchmaking app called Kismet to meet potential romantic partners. Anna is a journalist dissatisfied with her job at a media company. On the cusp of turning 30, it feels like a seminal moment in her life. She wonders if her live-in boyfriend, Pete, is "the one" or whether someone better matched for her is still out there. So she logs on to Kismet.
 
Spanning the nine eventful days leading up to Anna's birthday, Kismet explores the implications of a world in which a powerful social media company has access to all of its subscribers' data. The matchmaking app knows which websites Anna visits and is continually compiling and sifting data on the playlists she creates, the items she buys, the pictures she likes and the people she befriends. Anna seems unconcerned with granting Kismet access to so much private information; she is far more preoccupied with maintaining an attractive online persona. Thus she avoids visiting websites that might label her as boring or unintelligent on Kismet's algorithms.
 
Why give a corporation access to that much personal data? The answer lies in Kismet's clever seduction: it peddles in hopes, dreams and insecurities to promote the notion that one's true soulmate or a better romantic match could be out there, just a click away, so why settle for less? With multiple plot twists and vivid descriptions of London life, Kismet is timely, entertaining and possibly even a predictor of the next big thing in social media. --Shahina Piyarali, writer and freelance reviewer
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