---
product_id: 29889590
title: "PopCo"
brand: "scarlett thomas"
price: "₱2782"
currency: PHP
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.ph/products/29889590-popco
store_origin: PH
region: Philippines
---

# PopCo

**Brand:** scarlett thomas
**Price:** ₱2782
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** PopCo by scarlett thomas
- **How much does it cost?** ₱2782 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ph](https://www.desertcart.ph/products/29889590-popco)

## Best For

- scarlett thomas enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted scarlett thomas brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![PopCo - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MIexQciwL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Adventurous, inventive, and powerful
  

*by S***N on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 23, 2010*

This is a love it or hate it book.  Because of the significant social issues contained in this story, such as the mistreatment of animals, corporate misdeeds, and guerilla marketing, this will appeal more to socially conscious individuals and those whose principles stand in opposition to the current CEO-type establishment.  But, even then, counterculture types may still not like it if they don't want to see these issues advanced in a novel.  That said, I applaud Scarlett Thomas for weaving these controversies in without sermonizing and laying on dull exposition.  Thomas is clearly brainy and imaginative.  She is subversive without being cynical, intellectual without condescending.Two storylines alternate throughout the novel, and eventually merge into a complex whole.  As a child, Alice Butler was raised primarily by her grandparents, as her mother died when she was very young and her father took off to find a buried treasure.  Alice's grandfather is a formidable cryptanalyst, cracking codes and ciphers and teaching Alice the essentials of prime numbers, poly-alphabetic ciphers, Vigenere enciphering, and other forms of codes and ciphers.  The reader is exposed to some fundamental lessons that are thrilling and mind-boggling.  The author infuses this in the story so naturally that it feels organically part of the storyline.Alice's grandmother has been working on the Riemann Hypothesis for many years but has not solved it.  Alice's upbringing has made her hyperaware of the layers of complexity that exist in her surroundings, and she is a lover of paradoxes.  She is often alienated from her peers, and develops a tough shell due to the immaturity and abuse she endures from her classmates (as well as some teachers).  I have never read a book that illuminates adolescent behaviors so well--such as taunting, striving for popularity, the desire to fit in.  Not even Margaret Atwood, known for her stark portrayals of teenage predatory behaviors, has illustrated the harrowing anxieties, shame and adversity so baldly and authentically.As an adult, Alice works for the corporate toy company, PopCo, the third largest toy company in the world.  The story opens as Alice is on her way to a "thought camp" retreat.  Her job is coming up with marketing strategies aimed at teenage girls.  Her team is designated to design a new product, with specific potential to become a craze.  Essentially, create a desire where none exists and persuade teenage girls that they have to have it.  The ideation seminars at the thought camp instruct PopCo employees to create identity manias, a veritable fever that infects girls and coaxes them to covet a trend and crave a product.In lesser hands, this could easily become an elongated slogan or a sententious rant.  However, Thomas is a gifted writer with a blazing, generous spirit. She is out-of the box and brimming with provocative, piercing ideas that are fleshed out and powerful. This imaginative novel is unclassifiable and yet compelling. The author has a keen sense of adventure, keeping the reader in suspense. Alice's narrative voice has a vital, dynamic sensibility that is suffused with compassion and wisdom beyond her years.  The prose is eloquent and her characters fully developed.  Thomas is an enormous, brilliant think tank of a writer.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Not as good as "Our Tragic Universe" or "The End of Mr. Y"
  

*by G***H on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 14, 2010*

Although Scarlett Thomas does another bang up job of writing in this one it was not as good as her "Our Tragic Universe" and/or "The End of Mr. Y."  That being said it is about a young woman named Alice Butler who is a "creative" at Popco, Britian's third largest toy manufacturer.  This corporation is very postmodern in that it has no dress code, no set hours, and virtually no rules.  Her days are spent brainstorming ideas for pre-teens to spend their money on.  Then the whole company is summoned to a "thought camp" set somewhere in the wilderness of England.  It is here that she is chosen to become a member of an elite group which is to come up with a new fad for teenage girls.  She and the others live in what would best be described as a dormitory where she receives strange encrypted messages under her door.  Then she begins to have her doubts as to the viability of what she is doing.  All this is mingled with flashbacks from Alice's past where she was raised by her grandparents who were both mathematicians and her necklace given to her by her grandfather may hold the key to a long lost pirate treasure.Although this is all very exciting at times the book drug as when Thomas goes into detail about homeopathic remedies and conversations between characters about how to retail a product.  I couldn't really connect with Alice the way I did with Thomas's other protagonists in "Our Tragic Universe" and "The End of Mr. Y."  The other characters of the book are not well fleshed-out and it's hard to tell the members of the "underground network" from the corporate drones.  The ending is not a surprise you will see it coming from a mile off but overall still a good book just not one of Thomas's best.

### ⭐ 







  
  
    Was amazing, butt hook a turn for the worse.
  

*by S***E on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 16, 2022*

This bookbstarted off as one of favorites. I loved the flashbacks. I adored the learning moments about cryptoanalysis, creativity, mathematics and even homeopathy. What I did not appreciate is the last 30 percent of the book turning into a preaching session. I do not read fiction for this. The weird obsession with how focus groups, and trying to understand children so you can sell them toys they like was insane. Sure. I would much rather companies make products for groups of people without considering what they think, feel, enjoy- at all. Surely that would mean I would have products I like. The demonization of this process even went so far as to equate focus groups to pedophilia. Trying to understand why some children like to play with socks instead of packaged toys is deviant and weird in this book. We even get a weird moment where the main  character chastises herself for falling into disgusting trends of exploiting children by habitually wearing her hair in braids, a style she admits is too childish. In a complete 180 her love interest who was the driver of this whole thing then admitted " haha yeah but i like them, your braids are kinky". Ummm..... what....? No self awareness of the hypocrisy or the fact that calling braids as a hair style childish or kinky is offensive on many levelsBy the end of the book I was just frustrated by how  naive i was to think the main characters pathological obsession with not being like other people would be resolved by the end of the book as something juvenile and shallow. What's the difference between working hard to fit in vs spending all your energy ensuring you stand out ..... It's sad and not something an adult should concern themselves with. Like what you like, not the way the things you like make others respond to you.I feel so bummed out.

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*Product available on Desertcart Philippines*
*Store origin: PH*
*Last updated: 2026-03-10*