Eve Gleichman

File this one under the heading of one of those books which has enough good parts to it to keep you reading to the end pretty propulsively despite all of the elements to it that don’t work. Ava is an engineer who works at an Ikea parody called STÄDA, where she focuses very hard on designing minimalist boxes, leading a very constrained life, and studiously avoiding her grief. Then new hire Mat—handsome and full of energy—shows up and upends her life in what seems like a good way, but of course All Is Not As It Seems.

Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman clearly set out to write a parody of contemporary corporate culture and marketing speak, and when the satire hits the mark (the self-satisfied, self-justifying misogyny of the men in the Good Guys Group, for instance) it does so well. Ava’s grief is also generally well-observed. But the authors didn’t manage to thread the needle of having both a world that’s more heightened than our own and having characters who felt truly believable as people in their (inter)actions—Severance this ain’t. The twist ending was both pretty predictable and didn’t truly work for me on an emotional level.… (mais)

At the beginning of The Very Nice Box, by Eve Gleichman and Laura Blackett, Ava, feels a bit like The Cactus or Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. She's a successful product designer at STÄDA, who divides her existence into 30-minute units and never deviates from her routine. Her life seems sad and limited, but at least she's at work on her passion project, the Very Nice Box, which is, uh, a very nice box to put your things in. There's a hint of the Quirky Girl here, although not nearly as much as the blurb and the cover art suggested. (I'd actually postponed reading this one because I need to be the right mood for a Quirky Girl who just Sees The World Differently kind of storyline.) Mostly, Ava is getting through a terrible tragedy as best she can, which makes a surprisingly relatable protag, even though if her methods are somewhat depressing, restrictive and repetitive.

The world of STADA is Cheerful Pint Glasses and Dependable Chairs, and Ava has fully embraced that, with exactly enough STADA-made work outfits to make it to the next laundry Saturday, and exactly enough STADA-made kitchenware to cook her simple meals. But it's also a tech startup world of personality colors and teambuilding parties, and Ava is significantly less interested. The slightly meaningless titles and themes felt like pretty much every hip tech job, just more, and when Ava meets the handsome new hire, Mat, he feels like every marketing bro, just more.

Full review on my blog… (mais)