So when you land a job in television, you're ready for anything: pulling all-nighters, leaning on your powerful mother's contacts, keeping your boss happy whatever - and whoever - the cost. In fact, it pulled me right in through its mix of exploring serious topics such as sexual harassment and abuse, but told from the POV of a woman who is smart, sassy and not afraid of seeing the irony in a situation. Rape law and sexism were common dinner table topics in my childhood, and I knew about implicit bias before I knew about blowjobs. 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?

If I thank him for his congratulations and leave it at that, am I demonstrating complicity, failing to practice what I preach? Not Safe for Work explores how women are victimised, judged and silenced and forever having to balance not speaking up when, for example, they’re abused or harassed, if the person who did it to them is more powerful. The writing is fresh and stylish and the conversational tone helps the thought-provoking narrative zip along.

I do not miss any of the above, but I did appreciate the reminder and the confirmation that it happens to most of us. Sometimes it’s easy to preach about what you would do in a theoretical situation, until you are facing it head on. When I drove onto the studio lot for my first day of work, I was 23 years old and considered myself fiercely principled.

So visceral is the narrator's voice that every time I opened the book felt like sliding into uncomfortable heels.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. Isabel Kaplan’s forthcoming debut novel, Not Safe For Work, follows an ambitious young woman trying to succeed in the entertainment industry without selling her soul.

I thought it was important that even characters that were very in touch what what was acceptable or not fell into that trap. A novel which makes us examine our own complicity, while also weaving in threads of tenderness, drive and office-based humour which at times feels delightfully absurd . Quickly becoming embroiled in the day to day discussions, power struggles and gossip in her office, she meets a pretty astonishing array of dreadful people, classic LA/Hollywood characters.

With her sun-bleached Hollywood setting, Kaplan transports us to another world - one which is achingly familiar. 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. When rumours of an assault start to circle the office, and your close friend confesses her own disturbing experience, you know there is plenty to gain from staying silent. Opening sentence: The thing about Los Angeles is that it’s awful and I hate it, but when I’m there, nowhere else exists, and I can’t imagine leaving. I felt personally that I’m just a little bit out of the age range for this as some of the situations in the book were fairly obviously on the way and she just didn’t seem to pick up on the cues.