This fast-paced account of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter arrives after Walter Isaacson’s biography of the famed entrepreneur and in the midst of Musk’s latest controversial position, supporting a tweet about “replacement theory.”

...[a] fast-paced account of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter... The result is a book that is immensely readable [as] Mezrich attempts to put Musk into context."

In BREAKING TWITTER, bestselling author Ben Mezrich recounts the months leading up to and following the acquisition from the composite points of view of several ex-employees. (Musk refused to be interviewed.) A note at the beginning states: “This is a work of creative narrative nonfiction based on interviews and reporting done by the author…. Dialogue and some character perspectives have been reimagined, and the dates of some of the events have been adjusted or compressed to improve the narrative.”

The result is a book that is immensely readable but also slight, in that it shows us one side of a man who invented and reinvented not just several companies but entire industries. Still, Mezrich attempts to put Musk into context. Former colleagues (and perhaps current employees) talk about a man who is brilliant, engaging, funny and always contrarian. He is also alone, lonely and, after a year running the company, seemingly unsure of how to right his ship.

Mezrich admits that Twitter was already having problems fiscally and perhaps as a result of its groupthink policy decisions before Musk took over, but the downhill trajectory has been alarmingly steep. Firing half the staff by email, giving the remaining employees a few hours to decide if they were willing to sign on to his bizarre work ethic, and mandating changes in long-established policies, such as who gets a “blue check,” quickly boomeranged. Then there were his outrageous tweets, polls and personal vendettas, such as the one against an ex-employee that forced the executive, Yoel Roth, to move to a secret location for months.

As for the fate of Twitter, now rebranded as X, no one knows what will happen, and Mezrich avoids speculation as to its future with --- or without --- Elon Musk.