Zoey's Villain Arc
I want to get this theory out and on paper before reading/finishing Zoey Is Too Drunk for this Dystopia. This will reference plot points from the first two books in the series and contain nothing from the third.
I believe the ultimate arc of the Zoey Ashe series is her slide into villainy. And that this will happen without her internally feeling like a more callous or bad person. It will be an example of the political idea that there is no ethical way to be a billionaire, and that privilege inherently corrupts in a way that can't be fixed by putting a "good person" into power.
In the first book, Zoey doesn't want Athur's money, power or privilege. She's forced into situations at the threat of her life, and spends 99% of the book just trying to survive. At the end, it's only vaguely hinted she might stick around instead of just going back home. But there's scenes and hints of her changing things- like the pizza scene in squatterville. It's something of a left-leaning/liberal power fantasy. If a poor (or at least "average") person got access to billions of dollars, they'd fix the system, they'd be more humane, they'd use that power for good.
Then there's book two. And arguably, Zoey is fixing things. She's a lot less directly violent in her business than Arthur ever was. She's arranging public transit for folks who need it. She's divesting from unethical practices.
Except.
The entire point of the book is how much bigger the machine is than her. There's a running joke (/not a joke) that Zoey owns several businesses without knowing what they are or what they do. That her innocuous actions (like asking about a noise in the AC) have drastic ripple effects. She's doing better than Arthur, but hey, Arthur's dad was even worse...
I see the opening scene (and the conversation with Shae afterwards) as super critical to this. The young woman is as terrified of being in the Livingston house as Zoey was in book 2 (this is explicitly stated). And Zoey tries to reassure her with all the things the reader knows/is likely to think at this point: Will isn't that bad, they're trying to improve things compared to Arthur. But critically, Shae doesn't buy into it. As she points out, Will is still terrifying to the average person (and not seeing that says something about Zoey). And in terms of cleaning up the business, Zoey has kept the suits around, AKA the people that did all of the worst things for Arthur. After all, as Zoey points out, they're the ones that know how to run things...
So yeah, that's what I mean by villain arc. Not becoming the cannibal caricature that Zoey's harassers assume her to be, the cartoon villain. But I don't think the philosophy of these books can really allow Zoey to become a "good billionaire" and fix the system from the inside.
