A review by mads_jpg
Careering by Daisy Buchanan

funny lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Pretty mixed feelings, I felt like the author was glorifying toxic work culture for the majority of the book, until right at the end when they condemn it in a very on the nose fashion. It tried to tackle so many different issues, from workplace racism to the grey areas of consent to the exploitation of interns, resulting in none of them being properly fleshed out. While I personally didn't enjoy it I could see other people loving it. But these were my thoughts while reading the book:

Pros:
  • There were a lot of genuinely funny lines.
  • I liked some of the exploration of the destructive nature of current work culture. 
  • It was nice seeing two different perspectives on life as a working woman, one that's new to the industry and one that's already established.

Cons:
  • Tabitha, Mackenzie, the finance girls, and Louise's friends are SO unlikable that they are entirely unbelievable as characters. I've never worked in publishing but I doubt anyone is that unabashedly awful.
  • If I read one more lengthy description of someone's outfit I was going to throw the book across the room I SWEAR.
  • The chapter titles are formatted in a clunky way; each chapter has a number and a title and the name of the character POV, which seems unnecessary since Imogen is always in first person and Harri in second person, the reader isn't stupid, we can figure it out. The chapters are also usually too short to warrant a title as well, just have the chapter number and leave it at that.
  • Imogen is woefully pesimistic about her life. Everything is a competition of who's suffering more (always her apparently) and she's incapable of feeling empathy for anyone else, including her best friend who wasn't willing to sacrifice everything for her career like Imogen.
  • On that note, I would NEVER call my best friend a bitch, and I find it incredibly unbelievable that Jen would call her best friend a slut. If they're best friends then it's very unlikely that they'd have such different views on sex without it coming up sooner, we're given no reason to believe they would ever be friends in the first place. Jen was an entirely pointless character in the end and I wish that their friendship could have been used in a more positive and interesting way.
  • Imogen even gets angry at Harri for daring to give her clear career options going forward. How awful of her to be considerate of what Imogen wants!
  • The focus on sex felt weird to me when I thought the whole point of the book was to focus on toxic careers. The sex scenes just felt out of place despite Imogen's job and
    the epilogue about Harri touching herself felt like such a random note to end on.
  • Louise's friend who ends up being a last minute love interest for Imogen was barely a footnote and I find it AGAIN unbelievable that he would kiss her after one convo. No one in this book acts like a real god damn human being.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings