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Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

For readers of Leila Slimani's The Perfect Nanny or Ling Ma's Severance: a tight, propulsive, chilling novel by a rising international star about a group of young colleagues working as social media content monitors—reviewers of violent or illegal videos for an unnamed megacorporation—who convince themselves they're in control . . . until the violence strikes closer to home.

Kayleigh needs money. That's why she takes a job as a content moderator for a social media platform whose name she isn't allowed to mention. Her job: reviewing offensive videos and pictures, rants and conspiracy theories, and deciding which need to be removed. It's grueling work. Kayleigh and her colleagues spend all day watching horrors and hate on their screens, evaluating them with the platform's ever-changing terms of service while a supervisor sits behind them, timing and scoring their assessments. Yet Kayleigh finds a group of friends, even a new love—and, somehow, the job starts to feel okay.

But when her colleagues begin to break down; when Sigrid, her new girlfriend, grows increasingly distant and fragile; when her friends start espousing the very conspiracy theories they're meant to be evaluating; Kayleigh begins to wonder if the job may be too much for them. She's still totally fine, though—or is she?

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 17, 2022
      Bervoet’s fleeting yet magnetic English-language debut offers a glimpse into the world of social media content moderators. Kayleigh, in need of cash to pay off credit card debt, takes a job at Hexa, a subcontractor for an unnamed video platform. Along with a ragtag team, she spends her days watching disturbing videos and flagging those that break the platform’s guidelines. While adjusting to the job, she meets Sigrid, a fellow moderator, and the pair start dating, but as weeks pass, exposure to thousands of horrifying videos—among them graphically described clips of self-harm, animal abuse, and praise of the Holocaust—takes its toll, pushing some moderators to their mental edges and inspiring others to subscribe to “flat Earther” conspiracy theories. After Kayleigh quits, a lawyer hounds her to join a lawsuit against the platform along with other former employees, and Bervoets frames the story like a mystery, slowly revealing the fractured relationships and circumstances that drove Kayleigh away from her job. Whether carefully dissecting ever-evolving corporate rules or chronicling a night at the bar with her workmates (“we pour our leftovers into each other’s half-empty glasses”), Kayleigh is an engaging narrator. The story is brief, but it packs a wallop. Agent: Lisette Verhagen, PFD Literary.

    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2022

      In her first book to be translated into English, award-winning Dutch author Bervoets takes readers on a disturbing journey that reveals the psychological strain of employees who monitor social media and are tasked with removing offensive posts. Attracted to the pay, Kayleigh becomes a content moderator at Hexa. She reviews social media posts and removes offensive videos, pictures, etc., following a rigid set of rules. Kayleigh and her colleagues see the worst humanity has to offer, day after day. Working conditions are horrible, yet there is kinship among the moderators. Kayleigh falls for a colleague Sigrid, and their relationship seems strong until a disagreement based on a series of posts reveals problems. What seems reasonable and normal shifts as the characters lose touch with their personal beliefs and ethical anchors. Narrator Khristine Hvam is utterly convincing as the emotionally damaged Kayleigh, who takes us through the highs and lows with bravado and an emotional disconnect that becomes clear as the story unfolds. VERDICT This provocative and disturbing story with excellent narration is recommended for public libraries.--Christa Van Herreweghe

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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