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A review by maeverose
The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn
4.0
I don’t know that I fully understood it but this book is an experience. It feels kind of like a weird nightmare or dream that leaves you feeling a bit gross and unsettled. I’m not sure if I liked it or not but I think I did? I’ll have to re read this sometime.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
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)