Summary

The novel opens in Chapter 1, with the voice of Cal, the main protagonist, addressing the reader directly from the first person, “At home, I’m invisible. At school, I’m bizarre. But to the rest of the world I’m a journalist” (1). He talks about how excited he feels every time he opens the FlashFame app and broadcasts to his nearly half a million followers. He gets off the subway at Times Square and considers what update to give. He begins his broadcast and talks about the Orpheus project, how six astronauts will be selected soon as part of a NASA program to set foot on Mars. Cal despises covering the project, but knows his followers care, and will keep them engaged. He mentions StarWatch and their gossipy coverage. He talks to the reader about how he covers “real [italicized] news. Raw and...