Justin Feinstein presents 'Your Behavior Will Be Monitored'

Third Place Books welcomes Justin Feinstein to our Ravenna store for a conversation about his debut novel, : a story told in questionably obtained company emails, chat transcripts, TED Talks, training sessions, and more that wrestles with vital questions of our time: sentience, purpose, life, death, and how to make a really good commercial. Justin is joined in conversation by writer Carolyn Abram.

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This compulsively readable novel wrestles with vital questions of our time: sentience, purpose, life, death, and how to make a really good commercial. Told entirely through questionably obtained company emails, chat transcripts, TED Talks, training sessions, and more, this all-too-probable future pits emotionally intelligent AI against emotionally stunted humans.
"Woven with sharp humor, clever advertising satire, and hopepunk optimism, this novel is both thought-provoking and unexpectedly heartening."
—Library Journal (starred review)

"Brilliantly inventive and thoroughly entertaining...a story that will make you think twice before you click "accept" on your next user agreement."
—Antoine Wilson, author of Mouth to Mouth

Megacorporation UniView is poised to cement their reputation as "the most trusted name in AI." After pioneering the world's first widely adopted AI bots, they are barreling toward an audacious new launch. That is, if they can pull it off in time.

Enter Noah. A down-and-out copywriter reeling from a midlife crisis, he isn't the typical hire for a groundbreaking tech company full of brilliant engineers and run by a cutthroat CEO. But Lex, UniView's Head of HR and one of their greatest successes, makes no mistakes--her algorithm ensures it.

UniView's latest venture--a bot named Quinn that creates revolutionary personalized advertising--needs expert training. Noah needs to teach Quinn--which is a much better student than he ever could have hoped for--the finer points of consumer motivation and the art of writing a catchy tagline.

But when corporate competitors force UniView to accelerate its timeline to market, guardrails around the AI loosen just as Quinn seems to be learning a bit too much.

Addictively readable and ridiculously entertaining, Your Behavior Will Be Monitored is a page-turning, hilarious romp through the promise and perils of an AI-driven future that we probably deserve.

Your Behavior Will Be Monitored is Justin Feinstein’s debut novel. He has previously written about jazz for the Associated Press, about the UFC for VICE, and about being a celebrity doppelgänger for Salon. His work as an advertising copywriter and creative director has received accolades from The New York Times, Adweek, and BuzzFeed. Justin works as an editor and writing coach, and is an instructor for the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. He was a Berklee-trained professional hand percussionist in a past life and performed, recorded, and taught music for ten years. More recently, Justin earned an MA in media studies from The New School. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, writer Julia Fierro, their two children, and two dogs.

Carolyn Abram is a Seattle-based writer, editor, and teacher whose work focuses on the intersection of technology and everyday life. Her fiction has been nominated for Best of the Net awards, as well as shortlisted for Uncharted Magazine’s Novel Excerpt prize. Her nonfiction has appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Business Insider, and McSweeney’s Internet tendency. She is currently a guest editor for The Citron Review and a regular instructor at Seattle's Hugo House. She is the author of all eight editions of Facebook for Dummies and her debut novel, Little Men, will be available in 2027 from Bridge Eight Press.

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events.

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