What do readers think of The Cleaner by Brandi Wells? Write your own review.

What an intriguing concept for a book— the nightshift cleaning lady getting to know the employees she never sees, through her discoveries (and snooping) while cleaning the company floors and desks. It's also amazing that her behind the scene efforts actually make some profound changes in the company. However, she's not always accurate in her analysis of the individuals or their situations. She did evoke emotions from me in respect that sometimes I felt empathy for her, and at other times, I was rather disgusted with her. It wasn't my favorite book but I find myself thinking about the main character often so it evidently made an impact on me.

The Cleaner is a fascinating look at one woman's perception of her place in the work world. She cleans an office building but feels a responsibility for the people for whom she cleans up after, especially those on the fourth floor---the highest level employees. She wants to clean their desks AND their lives. I loved seeing how her mind worked. One thing is certain: I'll never take office cleaners for granted again!

Imagine reading the innermost thoughts of a cleaning woman as she sweeps and dusts an office building under the embrace of darkness. At first, her thoughts and actions appear mundane. However, it quickly becomes evident that she is actively searching through desks, gaining access to employees' computers, and reorganizing office items, all while pretending to "help" the company. Creepy, eh?

As the story unfolds, the main character's delusion becomes more pronounced, blurring the lines between reality and her distorted perception. With each page, I was left questioning the authenticity of the events, creating a sense of unease and anticipation for a shocking twist that could turn everything upside down. Except there was no shocking twist. The book was disappointing.

Office workers, from the CEO to the nightshift security guard, may enjoy this tragicomedy. Wells decided that her heroine should remain nameless, the “every-cleaner” in the “every office.” As an intelligent, imaginative, under-appreciated mother hen who harbors a generally low opinion of office workers, she is nevertheless dedicated to her job and to her sense of self-esteem. She is obsessive about her duties and responsibilities for “cleaning” up the workplace and its workforce. Her fantastical nightly escapades lead to surprising conclusions for her employer, her co-workers, and herself. Laugh out-loud reading plus an opportunity for introspection! I can envision this as a weekly tv series (with a few tweaks).

This is a strange book. I can’t recommend it to anyone really. There were parts that rang true. In actual circumstances the cleaner could never got away with all her spying because someone from the company would have placed someone late at night to catch her in the act.

The Cleaner by Brandi Wells imbeds the reader into the life of an unnamed office cleaner. Concepts of class, respect and morality are intertwined in this first person narrative.

The Cleaner is at times quite humorous but the incessant sardonic comments are repetitive. The void between the cleaner’s place in life and that of these 4th floor denizens is often harsh. The author missed a chance to explore deeper issues of class by delving into why the cleaner escapes into fantasy.

Finally, a cleaning crew did clean my office for many years. I could not imagine my potential feelings of violation if I became aware my desk and computer being fair game. It certainly soured my assessment of The Cleaner.

Overall I found this book to be rather frustrating. It had a main story line of course and a few secondary story lines that it was trying to pull in but I feel like I was left wanting more resolution on two of the three.

The main character was someone who at first I thought would be very interesting and entertaining but by the end of the book I felt that she was petty and self-important. She alone knew what was right for everyone and everyone needed to follow her rules, obey her wishes and play her game even though most of them had no idea they were part of her game at all. And if you didn't play along the consequences range from petty and juvenile to extreme. Only once did her behavior make her feel bad and it was about a plant not a person. The complete and total invasion of privacy of her clients and her thinking she was completely justified in doing that was disturbing and I'm someone who has my office cleaned twice a week. Maybe it's just because that hit me on a different level but I couldn't imagine the person I know coming into my office and rifling through all my drawers and reading my private emails as though they were entitled to that part of my life.

The secondary story lines weren't very interesting other than her potential romance and it was a very difficult book for me because other than m there was not one single likable character in the entire book.

As I started to read this book, I was intrigued by the inventive writing style. The author chooses to let the "cleaner" gives us her thoughts on her evening work and on the people who work in the office during the day. By the end of the book, my feelings are that the "cleaner" is a bit delusional in her thought process. While I found the writing to be interesting, the ending was rather banal. Not the best read for me.