Flash Boys

How it reads

Flash Boys is narrative nonfiction (business nonfiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are justice, power and politics and class and society. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 274 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.