A book that leaves you pondering and gives great social commentary on the glass ceiling that very much still exists between women and equality in both the workplace and life, is always an excellent read.

I told myself that someday, when I had enough power that people cared what I had to say, I would make a stand for what was right. I was surprised when it ended – this is quite a slim novel and it felt like she was just getting started, when it ended.

I left my job at the TV network to go to graduate school, during which time I wrote a novel about a Hollywood assistant and the slippery slope of complicity. It’s a high-wire balancing act of mixed messaging – no easy feat, but I have so many years of practice.

I remember being 23, anxiously navigating halls where executives didn’t look me in the eye, holding the muted phone to my ear, thinking: if I have the opportunity to speak, I hope I make the most of it. My plan was to work my way into the halls of power and then fling the doors open wide for those who had been excluded. I heard sexist and racist comments and fumed silently, exchanging outraged instant messages with other assistants. If the bar for tolerable behaviour was on the floor before – no, make that underground – then now, it’s hovering just above floor level. People previously unaware of the terms “implicit bias” and “microaggressions” have now attended training sessions about them and know that they are bad.But the truth is that I feel most comfortable and empowered on the page, expressing myself at a safe distance and after extended reflection. When whispers start to circle that your office might have ‘a bit of a rape problem,’ and your close friend confesses her own unsettling encounter, you know there is plenty to gain from staying silent, and all too much to lose through speaking out. I ran open-armed into a burning building hoping if I moved quickly enough, I’d be spared the flames.

But certain gendered instincts – people pleasing, playing peacemaker, considering another person’s comfort a precondition for my own – served me well. While I don’t want to talk too much about the detailed plot, I do want to describe the overall feel of the book. How can I separate my desire to raise awareness and increase discussion about complicity in Hollywood from my desire to be one of the voices in the conversation? behind the glitter and the justice, everyone is tarnished and compromised - including even our narrator. Here, the former Hollywood assistant and current director of book-to-film development at a literary agency reflects on the horrifying behaviour she witnessed as a twentysomething – and how little has actually changed in the five years since the Harvey Weinstein scandal.I understood, in theory, that Hollywood was a hotbed of sexism, racism and unchecked egos, but I had grand ambitions of making change from the inside. Ambition bites back in Isabel Kaplan's Not Safe For Work, a novel that hits close to a few recent news events . To climb the ranks, you do whatever it takes:- Pull all-nighters – Lean on your powerful mother’s contacts – Stay in shape at cult-like fitness classes – Secretly wear your boss’s fitbit to improve his stepcount – and his temper. I was a teeny tiny bit disappointed with the open ending but hopefully it means that there may be more to come as I would love to read more about these characters and their lives.

If I thank him for his congratulations and leave it at that, am I demonstrating complicity, failing to practice what I preach? The writing is fresh and stylish and the conversational tone helps the thought-provoking narrative zip along. Will I try to convince myself that if they are interested in supporting a critique of Hollywood, the ends will justify the means? Not Safe for Work is definitely one of the harder-hitting books I’ve read in recent times, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it.

I get the impression it was supposed to be more hard hitting than it was, and it didn’t really say more than we already know. When I started the job, one of the projects represented by my agency was under option with a production company where I knew a senior executive. The nuances of our lead character’s co-dependent, majoritively toxic, mother-daughter relationship are also looked at in depth and reveal how much this affects all areas of both of their lives.