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Gail G. (Hernando, FL)
Different
This book was not what I expected. It is an unusual format. There are no chapters at all and is simply a running account of the night shift cleaning lady at a large office building. She has the idea that she controls what happens with the company and it's employees. She seems very needy and lonely, but very self absorbed. I found it extremely boring and repetitive. Would not recommend.
Cheryl R. (Jeannette, PA)
No one sees
What you see isn't always what you get. The night shift cleaner fills her life by "taking care" of the people who work on the fourth floor, her floor. She realizes that she is doing this in the dark of night without them knowing what is happening. But she doesn't realize that she is in the dark too. She makes a day visit and realizes that her relationships are shadows.
I didn't feel like the story had an ending. Life just went on. Maybe that's the point.
Barbara C. (Riverside, CA)
Book had great start!
The cleaner had very strong opinions on everything in the office and manipulated that world in order to help. Difficult to not give away too much in review. The middle dragged in my opinion. Had to finish it, in order to find out what finally happened to cleaner. She had totally wrapped herself up in the lives of the office workers. An aside, the plural pronoun for M annoyed me, no end.
Cathie D. (Pelham, NH)
Nothing mysterious
What a strange book. The Cleaner is a nameless person. In fact, nobody in the book has names. The security person is known as "L" and the delivery person is known as either "they/them/their" or "M".
The Cleaner works at night cleaning the offices and cubes of workers in an office building. "I watch over everyone. Sometimes they make the wrong decisions, and I help them see their mistakes. They just need someone to force them to do the right thing."
Based on things she finds on the desks and in the desk drawers, she comes up with nicknames for the employees. Such as Yarn Guy (he has spools of yarn in a drawer), Mr.
…more Buff (he has several containers of protein powders in a drawer), Sad Intern (self-help books, probiotics, dry shampoo) and Scissors Guy (he has several scissors). She takes things from the desks and puts them on other people's desks. Sometimes she brings things in to leave on desks. She even accesses the CEO's computer.
This is labeled as a mystery/thriller, but I didn't get any suspense out or mystery out of this book. I kept waiting for something to happen but all she does is clean and move things from desk to desk. (less)I am reluctant to say that I did not have a good opinion on this book. The description sounded very interesting, but I could not develop an interest in the story as it unfolded. I started to want the cleaner to stop some of her cleaning practices, to start being more in touch with other people, and not to be the person she was. It is one of the very few books I ever gave up reading.
Anke
The Cleaner, Brandi Wells
The cleaner, by Brandi Wells, is such an odd book. The story is told through the eyes of an unnamed office cleaner who works the night shift. She is seen by few colleagues and appreciated by none. Sharing her work with the reader, we learn from the beginning that she is unreliable and falls into chaos in her efforts to help colleagues she feels responsible for, and to save the company from the CEO… at least this is what she thinks she is doing.
The general premise of the book sounded promising. But the constant invasion of people’s privacy (searching desk drawers, removing/destroying documents and personal
…more belongings, even hacking computers) in order to sabotage those she thinks are ungrateful was bizarre, making her character unappealing. Unfortunately, the novelty of the story wore off quickly. There was no bombshell, just minor ebbs and flows that felt repetitive and went nowhere. The ending was a letdown.
Many thanks to Bookbrowse and NetGalley for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review! (less)The author drew me in with this rather bizarre character/narrator. You know almost immediately she has some real mental health problems. Delusional, paranoid, feelings of superiority, obsessive…just to name the first that come to mind. Unfortunately, I thought the story was going somewhere…the narrator was getting so close to cracking. But…the big or surprising event I was expecting never happened. There were some interesting styles of writing …the fact that all the characters were either idientified by an initial, or a nickname the narrator made up for them, usually based on what she found when scouring through
…more desk drawers. Imaginative meting out of ‘punishments’ if she decided an employee needed it. An unusual book, but it ultimately left me unsatisfied and wanting something more to happen. (less)I just couldn't get into this book. It was slow and plodding. I got tired of the main character and her boss. I'm sure there is a audience for this book, it just wasn't my cup of tea.
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