India, May 20 -- Money, race, familial bonds and the bustle of New York City have been at the heart of author Rumaan Alam's work from the get go. These themes feature as heavily in his 2016 debut novel Rich and Pretty and his runaway hit Leave the World Behind, as they do in his latest. Entitlement follows a young woman in the glitzy New York of 2014 - one where Instagram hasn't yet fully taken over, but still draws lines in the sand between the haves and the have-nots.

We meet the protagonist, Brooke (described by one character as "Black, gorgeous, serious, [and] passionate") in the middle of her commute to a swanky new job. At first, we get the sense that she's driven and optimistic about potentially being given the chance to do some g...