By This is the book that I picked up in Amsterdam. It’s a novella, I read it on the fight from Amsterdam to Heathrow. This book does fit my rules for regional literature as it was written by Dutch author.
Synopsis: Kayleigh needs money. That’s why she takes a job as a content moderator for a social media platform whose name she isn’t allowed to mention. Her job: reviewing offensive videos and pictures, rants and conspiracy theories, and deciding which need to be removed. It’s grueling work. Kayleigh and her colleagues spend all day watching horrors and hate on their screens, evaluating them with the platform’s ever-changing terms of service while a supervisor sits behind them, timing and scoring their assessments. Yet Kayleigh finds a group of friends, even a new love—and, somehow, the job starts to feel okay.
But when her colleagues begin to break down; when Sigrid, her new girlfriend, grows increasingly distant and fragile; when her friends start espousing the very conspiracy theories they’re meant to be evaluating; Kayleigh begins to wonder if the job may be too much for them. She’s still totally fine, though—or is she?
Novellas are super short, this one is no exception. This thriller is not jump scare frightening but it is disturbing. This is written in first person point of view and the things that the main character sees as they are moderating makes your skin crawl. Overall this story looks at how being immersed day-in and day-out in some of the worst of humanity can change a person.
This book leaves a lot up to the reader’s interpretation in the end. The author does lead the reader to the conclusion but doesn’t lay things out exactly. She wants you, the reader, to consider things just like the main character is forced to.
If you like thrillers, short reads, or stories that will leave you thinking then I suggest this book for you. Happy reading.
INSTAGRAM│TWITTER│YOUTUBE │PATREON
If you like the banner check out this design and others at Canva!
McGee Travel Tales 