A review by fleeno
Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán

3.0

Estela García is a house keeper and nanny for a well-to-do family in Santiago, Chile. Their child is dead and the cleaner - who of course is the prime suspect - has been locked in a room, where she begins to tell her story. Is it a confession? And to whom is she speaking? What follows is Estela’s account of her time working for the couple, whom she refers to as “the señor and señora.” Estela clearly resents her wealthy employers and both are condescending snobs, alternating between chiding Estela for every mistake and ignoring her existence. Estela has spent seven years being belittled, becoming smaller and more silent. 
 This is a story about class as social, economic and political troubles brew in the country. News of protests and public disturbances happen regularly in the backgroun until the family suffer a home invasionwhere Estela is cruelly humiliated. It is described as a literary horror and while there is an uneasy feeling in the home, with tensions rising, I never felt anything that sinister going on. In fact I was more worried about the homeless dog that visits the house than the child who dies (possibly because the dog was nice and the child was a horror). The ending was somewhat anticlimactic and I didn't feel like it reached the levels of tensions other reviews have described.