A review by abbie_
Hard Copy by Fien Veldman

funny reflective medium-paced

3.25

thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!
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Pitched as ‘a story of girl meets printer’, I think Hard Copy might end up suffering from heightened expectations. I think that tagline suggests a more a salacious vibe than what you get, which is more a hybrid of Convenience Store Woman and We Are Light. Contemporary Dutch novelists seem to enjoy narrating from the POVs of inanimate objects, and I’m here for it frankly.

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The main character of this book is working a tedious office job - her main duty is printing documents nobody reads - and she finds solace in talking to the printer she shares her tiny room with. When she is forced to go on leave after a colleague sets her up, her already-intense anxiety spirals and she struggles to cope without her inanimate pal. To be fair, he also seems lost without her - we get to hear from him in the middle of the book and that was probably my favourite part!

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I wasn’t entirely sold on the secret that’s revealed slowly about the protagonist’s past throughout the book. I’m not someone who needs a massive amount of resolution, but it seemed too flimsily tied to the present narrative.

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Overall a decent workplace novel with the critiques of capitalism you’d want from a novel with a corporate setting. It was funny, oddly heartwarming at times, and just a little bit different. Perhaps just a tad underdeveloped for me!