Y’all the amount of anxiety this book caused me was WAY too high. It was a wild ride for an office based debut novel. It’s hard to put my finger on why this one gave me such anxiety, even after our book group discussion! I mean clearly credit is due to Sue for writing a novel that has a relatively narrow setting, character list and scope, but like oof.
At its core this book is a book about Jolene Smith, a mid-30s professional trying to come to terms with so many things from processing a traumatic incident in her childhood to generational guilt and first generation expectations. I truly appreciated how much Jolene grew from the beginning to the end of the novel and the fact that she came out healthier in the end, but DAMN I did not need the stress or the anxiety she caused me (inadvertently gaining access to her colleagues’ email and messaging apps).
There were so many moments throughout the novel when I was like WTAF is she thinking and I could never put my finger on it. And that’s having worked nonprofit office jobs for over two decades at this point. I guess they’re slightly (?) better than the soul sucking corporation that Jolene worked for.
My favorite scenes of the novel included her fellow Iranian-Candian coworker Armin. He was the only one who figured out she’d gotten access and the prank he played on her was hilarious. I think he also brought some much needed cultural similarity to Jolene. I don’t think she realized it at the time, but by the end of the novel it definitely felt like she’d absorbed it. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Jolene/Caitlin friction, but if I’ve learned anything working in an office it’s that you WILL have a nemesis whether you want one or not. As with Armin I felt that the resolution of their relationship wasn’t great, but it was realistic. I 100% believed Caitlin did what she did in the situation, but I wasn’t happy about it one bit.
And last but not least, I found Cliff and Jolene’s relationship believable. They connected in a way that was different than anything else in the novel and it forced Jolene to face her past and have real and painful conversations with her parents and to ultimately seek out the help she needed to become a well adjusted human and not the shell of a person she’d been previously. And the fact that she turns to youth counselling as a career brings her full circle because she definitely could’ve used a counselor or therapist of some type when she was younger.
Recommendation: I’m mixed on this one. I definitely read it very fast because I love a good office drama, but I was also so anxious and a bit weirded out by some of Jolene’s decisions. There was also a bit of a struggle connecting with any of the characters at first because we’re only seeing them through Jolene and she was not a fan of people in general. So, in that case I’d give Sue credit for writing a character that not only tested my patience but then changed enough to show that all the characters she had little grudges or bad observations of were full characters in their own right.
Opening Line: “There will be questions.”
Closing Line: “And right now, that’s all I can see.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)
