We Had to remove this post is my first 5 star read of the year - I keep thinking about it! Written in the form of a letter to a lawyer that is prosecuting her former employer, Kayleigh is an ex content moderator for an unnamed social media platform. Daily Kayleigh and her colleagues see the worst of humanity and this sharp novella explores the effects of seeing this kind of content. I loved the way the story unfolded and seeing our main character join the dots in real time. I was absolutely hooked from start to finish, reading this in one sitting. Thanks so much Pan Macmillan for sending me an early copy to review - it publishes on 26th May in the UK.

'Content Moderator' is a job that attracts people who need the money and Kayleigh is no exception. Their job is to review content on a social media platform that users have deemed offensive. They spend all day watching horrors on their screens. Slowly, they find it harder to separate themselves from the hate they view as their thresholds for 'acceptable' are continually challenged.

This is one of those books that has a compelling concept. You want a book in this style to run with that idea, to deliver through a complex, layered plot deep exploration of these points. This began well with setting up the difficulties that Kayleigh has but then it started to feel lost. Each new plot point felt like a scramble to find a foothold, slipping every time.

As is explored in the first chapter, the intrigue of these dark events is a very human characteristic. We are fascinated and perplexed by the darker aspects of humanity, particularly those that we do not share. So when we encounter somebody who has experienced these we wish to interrogate them, learn from them. However, this defeats the objective of having a team that sensors and monitors the internet. This led to some good comments about free speech, recognising that we do not remove everything just because someone may think it is bad. Yet this could have been taken further, as it felt like the conflict between the characters took a long time to be established, even for so short a book.

The subject of characters is an interesting one. One sees the issues they're experiencing but all of them lacked depth and to establish distinctive features or personalities. Even Kayleigh lacked enough differentiation from the other female characters to encourage the reader to connect with her. It's a shame as the crux of the plot hinges on empathising with their struggles, both in and out of work, but the emotional connection failed to materialise.

I'm not entirely sure how I felt about this novella. It had a good premise - we are told, via correspondence between our protagonist Kayleigh, and some unseen lawyer who is seemingly acting on behalf of her former colleagues, about their time spent acting as moderators for a social media site.

There is a lot of discussion prompting content in here, about the impact of social media, the things that people are willing to share, or try and promote, and the effect it has on us, as the consumer, and the moderators who have to filter through and remove any content found to breach their prescribed rules.

We see the impact on Kayleigh predominantly, but also on several of her colleagues, including one with whom Kayleigh has a relationship with. Social media gives us access we would not normally have into the lives of others, and we are confronted by the darker aspects of human nature that we would not normally see. This book shines a light on that.

I do feel that the concept could have been expanded further, into a novel length book, but I suppose that's the author's prerogative and a short, sharp novella length story can often have a different, more punchy impact.

Perhaps not one I can say I really loved, or even enjoyed in places but I will admit its stayed with me.

This was a really quick read for me but a really cool concept. Equal parts engrossing and disturbing. Really enjoyed it but not for the faint hearted!

The story follows Kayleigh's life as a content moderator for a social media platform, reviewing dark and disturbing content and deciding what should stay online for public view and what should be removed. It's interesting to consider the rules given for when and why content is deemed 'unsuitable'. It's also interesting to see how someone in this position, seeing thousands of these flagged videos a day, could have their views on the world altered, and the toll it takes on their mental health.

I found the story very compelling, but the ending was too abrupt and left me unsatisfied. I would have been happy to read further about these characters and their stories.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Death, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence
Moderate: Antisemitism, Sexual content, Vomit, and Sexual violence

A dark, intriguing little novel about the disturbing side of social media we often don’t even think about. In this we follow Kayleigh as she tells her story of her time working Hexa, a company that hires employees to moderate posts for a social media platform. She is sent hundreds of flagged posts a day and has to decide if and why they should be taken down.

The story is a lot to do with plot in the surface: Kayleigh’s job, her friends, her relationship. But it is really about how this affects her psychologically and permeates each part of her life.

Genuinely one of the most interesting and engrossing books I have read recently. Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Hanna Bervoets for allowing me to read an e-arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and PanMacmillan for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

It's a bit ironic to say I enjoyed this whenever it's about such dark content (please check TW in this one!), but I did! As someone who spends a lot of time on social media, it was chilling to read. A fantastic look into the psyche of people spending such a large amount of time on darker areas of social media (as Kayleigh does). Gripping but dark!

Oh my, this is definitely a read that gets you thinking!! I love books that centre around social media and this book was unlike anything I had read before. The main focus is the content moderators and their job. This had never really occurred to me before and I found it fascinating to read about. I loved how the author conveyed it and felt that even though it was translated fiction, it still packed a punch.

The first half of the book was the better half for me and I felt a little let down by the ending of the book. Perhaps the author intended it to be this way but I felt it could have done with something punchier to finish it off with.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an advanced reader copy of this book. I was very intrigued by the concept and found the discussion around social media use and what content is restricted very thought provoking. I found the ending quite abrupt and jarring which I didn’t like at first however after thinking about it more I feel like it fits the tone of the book. Overall it is one I will likely think about more over the coming weeks and months. Definitely feels like a book for this current time and I would encourage anyone interested to pick it up.

I really liked this compelling novella about a group of content moderators and the perils of looking, looking, looking at the things people will post online. Reading this felt like doomscrolling Twitter: everything is familiar and inevitable and terrible and yet you can't look away. I wish the ending wasn't so abrupt, but it felt in keeping with the jolting, uncomfortable sensation of the entire reading experience. I thought this was very good!

An unsettling, page-turning, weird little novel following a group of colleagues who work as social media content reviewers - seeing the worst of the worst.

Honestly I'd recommend going in blind to this, its very horrible and compelling - but obviously it has CWs out the wazoo.

Would def recommend it if weird n unsettling n just kinda grim is your thing.

Big big big thanks to netgalley, Pan Macmillan, and the author for this e-ARC. Available on the 26-5-22.

There is both much and not much to say about this book. I loved the gruesome premise: the workers who are tasked daily with removing all the vile and inappropriate content on an unnamed ‘social media platform’. The descriptions of what Kayleigh and her peers saw made me physically repulsed, and the exploration of mind control, conspiracy theories and exposure to violence written like a letter was incredibly interesting. Many scenes were hard to read through though, due to violent language and graphic images. My main issue with this book was the ending!!! Without spoiling, it was very open ended and left me unsatisfied with the character progression and final plot. It definitely could have done with another 90 or so pages.

This could have been a really great book but the ending felt really rushed and stopped very abruptly. Another 50-100 pages could have turned this into a 5 star read

A one-sitter, which has been nice seeing as I had been in somewhat of a slump for a while there. This is, as I described on twitter, a nasty little book about freaks doing weird shit — which, I’m coming to realise, is my favourite genre of literary fiction. The novel navigates heavy, disturbing topics (violence, trauma, the cruelties we inflict upon one another) with an almost jovial lightness, heightening the tension as characters seem to become more and more detached from reality.

I was drawn to this book because of its interesting title and thought provoking theme. The novella brought awareness and empathy to those people that have to monitor social media accounts and remove harmful content. I hope that in real life there is mental health support for these workers as they must surely see some harrowing material and deal with the random unfiltered postings of sick and disturbed individuals. I hadn’t also thought of the impact of having to watch all these conspiracy theory and hypothesis material that could potentially indoctrinate them.
It’s interesting given what does get allowed, what the criteria is for removing posts and what gets rejected.
If we didn’t have these roles I can imagine most rational people would abandon social media to avoid the horrors within.
Definitely a starting point for a conversation and debate about freedom of speech and social media for reading groups.

‘We had to remove this post’ has been on my tbr for a while and it did not disappoint! It was a short read, however I believe it was the perfect length, as it being any longer would have spoiled it!
The task of content moderation is a highly debated topic, content needs to be moderated - but what about those who sacrifice themselves to such brutal content in order to protect the wider public online?
It was interesting to watch it the gradual decline into radicalisation by the employees after their exposure to conspiracy theory material, leading them to be unable to separate online hate speech from real life.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc!

Everyone should read this translation, and the excellent follow-up references provided at the back of the book. It’s a bleak insight into the hidden world of content moderation. Fittingly, I finished it the night that Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover was announced. Topical, tense, and enough to convince me to take a break from social media for a while!

I really enjoyed this novella. It's a short book but covers a relatively deep topic in current discourse. Content moderators are needed more and more as our lives spill onto social media, and they're a group of people that I haven't read anything about. This book planted a few really interesting seeds and then gave the reader space for us to come up with our own ideas about what happened. I loved the narrator, I felt like I connected with her, and then things switched - a reflection of what I imagine happens when content moderators realise they have become de-sensitised to the horrendous content they watch day-in, day-out. I would love to read more on this topic, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the author writes next.

This was a really shocking and real look at social media and what goes.on. its a terryfing read but you have to read this. Brilliant and not like any other book I've read xx

This book follows the narrator, Kayleigh, who is a moderator of internet content, so as I’m sure you could assume, there is some graphic descriptions throughout the story and I would tell anyone to look up content warnings before picking this up.
That being said though, I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. Kayleigh feels like a comforting presence at the start, levelheaded but realistic about the graphic nature of the things she is about to recount for us. She is ready to guide us through it, but there will be no sugarcoating. However, as the story progresses, you can see just how Kayleigh’s job is affecting her and those around her.
The only two gripes I had with this book were the ending and the depth. The ending felt abrupt, and whilst I didn’t like that, it felt like an appropriate conclusion to what really is only a brief glimpse into Kayleigh’s life, leaving you with room to give further thought to the characters and events once the story is over. In terms of depth, the side characters didn’t feel particularly fleshed out. If the book was longer - a novel rather than a novella - there would have been more space to explore these other people, but ultimately this story is about Kayleigh and the things she experienced, and the book did brilliantly at making that work.

Overall, this story is a fascinating study into how the things we are exposed to online and the things we become accustomed to seeing can affect us in more ways than we realise. A short but thought provoking read, this is one of the very few books I could see myself picking up and re-reading and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is comfortable with descriptions of the darker sort of stuff that is available is online.