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hayleybeale 's review for:
The Very Nice Box
by Eve Gleichman, Laura Blackett
I thoroughly enjoyed this workplace novel set in the head office of an IKEA-like company where Ava Simon is a senior engineer whose passion project is the Very Nice Box (which is also, of course, a metaphor for Ava's life). When the founder of the company retires, 26-year old slogan-spouting MBA-flashing Mat takes over as Head of Product and disrupts Ava's quiet work practice. Meanwhile, the company is adding a giant new tower to its campus on the site of a community garden and protestors are infiltrating company systems.
There's a very definite whiff of Eleanor Oliphant about Ava which absolutely charmed me. Her tragic backstory is beautifully crafted and gradually unfolds over the course of the book. The support characters are quirky but still feel like real people. Much of the workplace plot is humorously observed and feels authentically modern corporate (though without the tedium of a real work day) and though it does get a little farfetched with a slightly surreal resolution, that didn't worry me too much.
There's a very definite whiff of Eleanor Oliphant about Ava which absolutely charmed me. Her tragic backstory is beautifully crafted and gradually unfolds over the course of the book. The support characters are quirky but still feel like real people. Much of the workplace plot is humorously observed and feels authentically modern corporate (though without the tedium of a real work day) and though it does get a little farfetched with a slightly surreal resolution, that didn't worry me too much.