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kmhst25's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
carojust's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
"The Employees" is a collection of recorded statements from a group of workers on a ship traveling space, who are a mix of human and humanoid. They have mundane tasks like doing laundry, or incinerating the dead, and are judged by their productivity. There are ambiguous "objects" that are treated with reverence and even love, and in my mind they're like living rocks. Things get tense, and go awry, and you feel this from the very first page.
I love that Olga Ravn uses this format to allow for the unsaid -- you fill in the blanks easily and curiously. Everyone is anonymous, so you start to think of them as a collective, as a concept of humanity, but also as a company viewing its nameless workforce.
It evokes harsh questions about capitalism, AI, biotechnology, ethics and human frailty. I recommend this if you like Emily St. John Mandel (the writing feels so similar to me), and sci-fi that's more focused on psychological and moral consequences.
Graphic: Death and Mental illness
heyheyhaley's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Confinement and Death
Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
maeverose's review against another edition
4.0
It’s very abstract and nothing is explained to the reader. There’s multiple povs but few of them are named and we don’t have any way of knowing how many there are or when exactly it switches to a new person. This is done intentionally. It’s very disorienting, and I was left at the end not fully knowing what I just read. My main takeaway is that people, whether human or not in this case, are not meant to spend their lives working and are meant to live for themselves. How we need connections to other people and to nature and the world around us. It’s not natural for any living thing to dedicate their entire life to work. That’s not living. And of course it also explores what it means to be human and whether AI can become human.
Definitely check content warnings. Body horror, trypophobia, and questioning of reality are the main things I would say to be aware of.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Gore, Violence, and Blood
Graphic trypophobia descriptions. A significant theme throughout the whole book is existential questioning of reality and what makes someone human. It’s also a very abstract book and is very disorienting, with a lot of body horror (most of which isn’t exactly gory, but some is)vessel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
With a purposely murky and unclear timeline outlined by unreliable narrator after unreliable narrator, the story leaves the reader to fill in the gaps left out by the characters' confessions. It could be a frustrating reading experience for those looking for clearly defined characters and a classic plot arc with clearly delineated beats, but The Employees is more of a poetic exploration of the meaning of "humanity", and definitely more of a mood piece. It left me with a profound sense of sadness, and many lines I still think about regularly.
Moderate: Death
Minor: Mental illness and Murder
eri002's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Medical content, and Pregnancy
meaghanelizabook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Mental illness
Moderate: Death
Minor: Murder