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Generation Desperation: The must-read memoir of trading your way to a million dollars via Robinhood and WallStreetBets
Wealth, poverty, and what it means to live a 'good life': this is the must-read story for fans of The Trading Game and The Psychology of Money.
'A fantastically compelling personal story that is also the story of a generation . . . Told with perfect timing.' - SIMON KUPER
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AFTER THE RISE, THERE COMES A FALL.
In 2020, Alexander Hurst was 29 years old and broke, living as a writer in a cramped Paris flatshare. There were murmurs that a global pandemic was coming. Financial stability seemed unattainable, so far removed from his reality - the reality of the generation who came of age during the 2008 financial crisis.
On a whim, he poured his meagre savings into highly risky options trading. Within a year this small set of stocks was worth $1.2 million. Enough to turn his life on its head - but not in the way he had imagined, as he began a slow-motion descent into losing it all.
In exploring Alexander's remarkable rise and fall from wealth, Generation Desperation grapples with the vital questions of our what do class and status mean in a late-stage capitalist society? Can everyone really build the life they want? Or is there a cost to pursuing money above everything?
Generation Desperation is an urgent, unmissable fable for our times.
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'Has an appealing timelessness . . . Hurst weaves the personal and the generational together with seamless ease in a thrilling book.' - SEB EMINA
'A riveting, tender, and painfully timely epic about what really matters.' - ANGELICA FERRARA
'Clever and brutally honest.' - LINDSEY TRAMUTA
'A fantastically compelling personal story that is also the story of a generation . . . Told with perfect timing.' - SIMON KUPER
--------
AFTER THE RISE, THERE COMES A FALL.
In 2020, Alexander Hurst was 29 years old and broke, living as a writer in a cramped Paris flatshare. There were murmurs that a global pandemic was coming. Financial stability seemed unattainable, so far removed from his reality - the reality of the generation who came of age during the 2008 financial crisis.
On a whim, he poured his meagre savings into highly risky options trading. Within a year this small set of stocks was worth $1.2 million. Enough to turn his life on its head - but not in the way he had imagined, as he began a slow-motion descent into losing it all.
In exploring Alexander's remarkable rise and fall from wealth, Generation Desperation grapples with the vital questions of our what do class and status mean in a late-stage capitalist society? Can everyone really build the life they want? Or is there a cost to pursuing money above everything?
Generation Desperation is an urgent, unmissable fable for our times.
---------
'Has an appealing timelessness . . . Hurst weaves the personal and the generational together with seamless ease in a thrilling book.' - SEB EMINA
'A riveting, tender, and painfully timely epic about what really matters.' - ANGELICA FERRARA
'Clever and brutally honest.' - LINDSEY TRAMUTA
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Published January 29, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 30, 2026
Could NOT put it down. If you’re a Millennial, it’s a *MUST READ*. This book completely rearranged my brain and now I can’t unsee generation desperation (great title). His columns in the Guardian are also amazing.
If you’re Gen Z…don’t make the mistakes we made. Read this to learn how to find stable ground when it feels like the world is moving faster than should be humanely possible.
If you’re Gen X or a Boomer…what are you even doing on Goodreads? Joking. But seriously, call your millennial kid or younger sibling and ask if they’re ok.
The author totally gets how it feels to have been promised so much in exchange for our childhoods, our intelligence, and our naïve willingness to taken on student loans. Instead, it’s taken me 15+ years of therapy to even realize that I don’t even know who I would have been without the requirement to perform for some invisible admissions board.
That kind of pressure only makes sense when the cost justifies the gains. Instead it feels we’re like lobsters in a pot, and someone else’s hand has been turning up the burner this whole time. There are so many great references in this book, but his descriptions of Robinhood’s emoji-fueled UX is seared in my brain for its particular brand of f*cked up.
Also, his parents sounds amazing and I’d have a beer with them. I actually think they might be the only people I’ve ever heard of who have managed to achieve a life that is totally in line with the values they hold.
Maybe that’s the biggest hat trick of all. For the rest of us…there are a million and one ways to soothe that desperation. Actually I should say, 1.2 million ways.
If you’re Gen Z…don’t make the mistakes we made. Read this to learn how to find stable ground when it feels like the world is moving faster than should be humanely possible.
If you’re Gen X or a Boomer…what are you even doing on Goodreads? Joking. But seriously, call your millennial kid or younger sibling and ask if they’re ok.
The author totally gets how it feels to have been promised so much in exchange for our childhoods, our intelligence, and our naïve willingness to taken on student loans. Instead, it’s taken me 15+ years of therapy to even realize that I don’t even know who I would have been without the requirement to perform for some invisible admissions board.
That kind of pressure only makes sense when the cost justifies the gains. Instead it feels we’re like lobsters in a pot, and someone else’s hand has been turning up the burner this whole time. There are so many great references in this book, but his descriptions of Robinhood’s emoji-fueled UX is seared in my brain for its particular brand of f*cked up.
Also, his parents sounds amazing and I’d have a beer with them. I actually think they might be the only people I’ve ever heard of who have managed to achieve a life that is totally in line with the values they hold.
Maybe that’s the biggest hat trick of all. For the rest of us…there are a million and one ways to soothe that desperation. Actually I should say, 1.2 million ways.
October 26, 2025
Got to read a preview copy. Surprising and fantastic. So much more than a book about investing gone wrong. Don't miss it.
February 1, 2026
Easy to read book with great honesty from the author & relatable discussions of class identity
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews