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heyheyhaley's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- 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
How does one go about rating a book that was good yet you did not enjoy?
I always have this problem when I find books that I can acknowledge are good and have good themes and are well written, but I did not enjoy reading nor do I want to read similar books. I tend to just rate upon my enjoyment with the acknowledgement of its good features
The Employees cemented that poetry is not for me. It explored some very interesting ideas regarding what it means to be human and feelings of isolation but while I could like individual poems or lines, I could not fully connect as poetry is not a medium I enjoy.
3 stars but it would be higher if I liked poetry.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Confinement
Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Body horror
maeverose's review against another edition
3.0
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. I’m pretty sure the 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 exploring what it means to be human and whether AI can become human, which yes is an overdone theme in sci fi but personally I’m not sick of it yet.
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. I’m pretty sure the 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 exploring what it means to be human and whether AI can become human, which yes is an overdone theme in sci fi but personally I’m not sick of it yet.
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: Mental illness, Body horror, Death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Blood, Gore, and Violence
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)azureumbreon's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death
directorpurry's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Murder, Medical content, and Body horror
Minor: Violence
savvylit's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
4.0
The Employees is bizarre and spare, leaving so much to the reader's imagination. What details Ravn did choose to include are just enough to clearly depict a distinct capitalist hellscape. At the beginning of the novel, there is an almost-frustrating amount of ambiguity. Readers are only provided with as much context as each brief report provides. This structure eventually reveals the toxic and isolating workplace environment aboard the mysterious Six Thousand Ship. Human workers and their humanoid colleagues toil endlessly. Their employer seems to refuse to empathize with any and all non-work feelings or impulses. Eventually, this comes to ruin the efficiency of the project as the employees develop a sense of solidarity among themselves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Death, Violence, and Murder
tree_branch's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, and Body horror
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Child death, Pregnancy, and Violence
evelphysicist's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book is a little unusual and requires a lot of thinking around the text to fit the story together.
In some ways this worked okay as it’s a short book and the cryptic nature allows readers to draw their own conclusion, however I think the story would have been improved with just slightly more fleshing out.
In some ways this worked okay as it’s a short book and the cryptic nature allows readers to draw their own conclusion, however I think the story would have been improved with just slightly more fleshing out.
Content Warnings
Minor: Murder and Violence
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