I think I just expected too much from this book.

This book follows a group of young colleagues who work as moderators for an unnamed social media site. Between the atrocities, they see daily and their messy personal lives, the violence seems to affect them a lot more than they cared to admit.

I sped through this book. Not only because it was short but because it was weird and I had a type of morbid fascination with the blase way Bervoets describes what the moderators have seen.

I guess what I found lacking was the depth in which certain things were explored. I felt that a lot of what happens was by inference and there was a lot of areas that needed more development, especially in terms of the relationships between the main characters.

I would have overlooked that because it was short and I understand that certain things cannot be explored in that many pages but the ending ruined it for me. It felt rushed and I was left wanting more but not in a good way. The final page especially just felt like it was unfinished.

Overall k would recommend it but be clear not to expect too much. I was hoping to like this book a lot more than I did. I would also like the mention the translator Emma Rault who captured the tone beautifully.

A short, brutal novella about the dark side of social media, and how the content we see affects us and our relationships. Imagine No One Is Talking About This but with all the humour sucked out: We Had to Remove This Post is uncompromising, bleak, and it packs a real punch even in its short page-count.

I would give this book a 3.5, I think it could easily have been a 4 with a couple of tweaks. I read this all in one sitting, and when it was over wished that there had been more. After having to check on character names briefly at the beginning, once the story focussed more on the two leads I found it very easy to visualise everything that was happening. I find trauma is a very difficult subject to write about but this was done very well and the writer was great at simultaneously giving information and leaving you guessing. I would read more from them. I recommend this book.

You know when you read a book and throughout you're like, "ok I don't really know what's happening and I'm holding out because it's a short read and the synopsis sounded *really* fucking interesting", and then the book just ends and you're left a little ?????

Well this is what happened here.

I'll start off by saying that his book is short, a quick and fairly easy read. I actually first saw this book on Tik Tok and was so intrigued, so I'm very fortunate to have been able to read it on NetGalley, but the whole time I felt like I'd missed something.

I found that it was all quite surface level. For a group of twenty-somethings working at this huge corporation moderating horrific content, I felt like I wanted to be disgusted, you know? I wanted that really tense thriller vibe and how it affected their personal life's. Call me a sadist but I was disappointed when there wasn't much of it.

Don't get me wrong, the story covered mental health and how the nameless corporation treated their employees like shit, but I wanted more. 3/4 through the book there was conversations between characters about how the earth is flat and how the Holocaust might not have been real and, again, I was just 🤨

As grateful as I am to have received a advanced copy of We Had To Remove This Post (which comes out May 26th) this one really wasn't for me.

There were elements of this book that I very much enjoyed in particular the sections describing the life of people who’s job it is to moderate posts for a large social media company and to check them for content
The potential for moral injury in people who are daily seeing potentially triggering and often distasteful content was very clearly described as was the sometimes arbitrary basis of their decision making
Where I felt the book fell down is in fully describing how this job effected the life of the main character .I felt her character was only looked at in a very superficial way and not fully padded out .Because of this I struggled to really connect with the character and was not invested on what happened to her
The first sections of the novel showed a lot of potential that I felt wasn’t fully achieved .I felt I was reading the start of a longer novel which would introduce me more fully to the out of work life of the main character.I felt this had only just started to happen when the book finished rather abruptly leaving me feeling I wanted more
The novel is very topical and timely and had the potential to be very interesting
I read an early copy on NetGalley Uk the book is published in May 2022

We had to remove this post // Hanna Bervoets // trans. from Dutch by Emma Rault

A decisive look behind the curtain at the toxicity of internet communities. Hannah Bervoet manages to incite the anxiety of doomscrolling through a feverish story of moderation.

We had to remove this post straddles reality and a very near future, it is set at a non de script office building where bus loads of shift workers clock in to witness the horror of unchecked social media, doing the leg work for big tech that has yet to automate the process to decipher what a human can both create and tolerate.

An almost deceptively on trend premise that could easily fallen prey to gimmick, however Bervoet captures the humanity behind the screens and gives us much more than a tech horror story.

It attempts to understand the psychological impact of the underbelly of the internet, the very real trauma acquired in toxic work environment. It is an analogy for the current condition of labour; what we sacrifice of ourselves to pay the bills .

A controversial ending that I wished pushed a little further but still, a lot to digest in under 200 pages.

This book had so much potential but I just couldn't dissect it deeper due to the shallow nature of the discussion surrounding each of the coworkers mental health.I wish the author had delved into this gruesome story to bring up the aftereffects of watching all these horrible posts online. The ending was very abrupt and didn't leave me with a lingering sense of dread like I hoped it would- it was just very much okay overall.
I do wish we had seen more from Kayleigh whether that was regarding her mental health or her co-workers and how they'd fared after working for Hex.
Overall it was compelling enough for me to keep reading, but could definitely have had some sharpening of the plot.
(2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars)

3.5 stars rounded up.

A clever, well-paced look into those who work as moderators, viewing offensive and distressing content everyday.

I liked how it didn’t lean too heavily into the distressing content itself , but more on the impact of this on their behaviour , use of language etc. and relationships with others. The parts about working in a call centre were very relatable!

One thing I did find was the ending was quite abrupt. I did question whether it was a dodgy edit or whether I’d missed something. It left me abit dissatisfied after a fairly enjoyable read.

I have ordered a copy of this short, impactful novel for my college library. The effects of disinformation and disturbing content on internet users are becoming harder to ignore, especially post-Covid, and this novel helps to humanise the dehumanised- extremists who hold views that no sane person would entertain. The fact the narrator is unreliable (and unlikeable!) did little to lessen the horror I felt as they felt victim to addiction, toxic friendships, abusive relationships and unsafe working conditions. The stark prose and minimal setting emphasise the feeling that 1. this is happening everywhere and 2. this can happen anywhere.

This is a strange little novella - part psychological mystery and part documentary. Kayleigh is a former moderator for an online social media giant (think Facebook) who has been approached by a researcher looking for the inside dope.

Kayleigh explains how she was attracted by the slightly higher pay rates than those offered by other call centres she manually reviewed reported videos and memes against rigidly pre-determined criteria. The guidelines left no room for common-sense, it was just the application of mindless formulae to decide what should stay and what should be taken down. All while being measured against strict performance criteria - 500 reviews a shift, 90% accuracy and no longer than 7 minutes away from her desk on a toilet break. Interesting though it is to see this illustrated, it is not going to surprise anyone.

Against this backdrop, we see Kayleigh's relationships and friendships.In particular, we see her form a relationship with her co-worker Sigrid, and watch as it disintegrates in a mess of paranoia and anaesthesia to normal social boundaries. Kayleigh and her colleagues are exposed so regularly to bizarre social media content that it becomes normal. Constant exposure to the m most noxious conspiracy theories result in the moderators accepting them as the truth. They apply the social media guidelines of acceptability to their own encounters - whereby violence is perfectly acceptable if it is merely implied, or has an educational purpose, or was contained in a different post to the consequences.

This half-life world is cleverly done. The moderators never know quite what they are encountering in work or in life - is it real or staged? Is the narration faithful or unreliable? Is Kayleigh deceiving the researcher who is interviewing her or is she deceiving herself?

We Had To Remove This Post is a short work that can easily be read in a single setting. There is not much room in it for deep character development and, apart from Kayleigh, none of the characters really has enough space to develop an independent existence or narrative arc. At the same time, the brevity of the work doesn't quite give the reader time to miss this extra depth. It is only at the end that there is a bit of a sense of having been preached to; of research having been turned into fiction rather than the story leading the way.

Overall, this was a good way to pass a couple of hours but I'm not sure how much it offered beyond the investigative texts it references at the end.

Content moderation is the job we all know is done by somebody but can never imagine doing ourselves, forced as we would be to wade through the worst dregs of social media. One such person, Kayleigh, finds her life changed, for good and bad, in Hanna Bervoets’ shocking and surprising book “We Had To Remove This Post”.
This is a short book but it is incredibly pacy, powerful and prescient, with an unexpected twist ending. Kayleigh is a strong, believable protagonist who gradually becomes more and more affected by the things she sees. The supporting characters are all distinct and solid, and Bervoets writes lucidly and concisely throughout.
Bervoets breathes life into a world that will be all too recognisable to anyone who frequents social media. “We Had To Remove This Post” is the book that the world doesn’t necessarily need, but must have, right now.

I.... don't know how to review this book? I read it all in one delicious gulp whilst getting a tattoo - but I can't figure out if my ARC was corrupted because it finished halfway through a scene? If that was intentional, I'm upset that the book didn't go as far as I wanted it to, and if it wasn't intentional, I can't look up the ending for fear of spoilers.

Really enjoyed this novella about Kayleigh and her job in the grimy world of content moderation. After a relationship leaves her needing more money, Kayleigh takes a job moderating posts that are flagged as offensive. The poor work conditions and the way they become desensitised to the content begins to have a damaging effect on Kayleigh and her relationship. A short, immersive read that leaves you with questions about the detrimental impact of the internet.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy.

This is the book Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke wishes it was. It's messed up and done so well, the shock just kept coming and coming. So creepy - definitely check trigger warnings! thanks for the ARC!

REVIEW: We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

We Had to Remove This Post follows Kayleigh. She needs money after getting into some debt, so she takes a job as a content moderator for a social media platform. Her job is to review all the content that gets reported. Kayleigh and her colleagues spend hours watching horrific and hateful content on their screen and evaluating them.

This is really short novel, more of a novella, so I think it’s best read in one sitting. It is disturbing, graphic and dark, so definitely don’t read it if you’re squeamish and check trigger warnings if you can.

We see the toll it takes on Kayleigh and her colleagues mental health, as well as becoming desensitised to violence and just thinking about how to categorise and evaluate things Kayleigh was experiencing in everyday life rather than being present.

It had a really abrupt ending which I know will frustrate many.

Overall, a disturbing read that was interesting but I didn’t feel fully satisfied with the story.

A short and quick read that exposes the emotional and mental struggles of people who are social media content moderators. I can only imagine how dealing with such horrible content day in and day out would affect ones psyche but this book does a good job of describing the experience and the toll it takes. I am often overwhelmed by the sheer number of hateful, brutal, sadistic and perverted humans we hear about in society through all forms of media and personal experience that I despair for humanity. So to have to deal with this sort of thing for many hours every day must be totally soul destroying.

What a stunning novella! I was relieved to find it didn't lean heavily on shock value, or detailing too much of the content of the posts these moderators are having to see each and every day. I think anyone that spends time on the internet can imagine, but for people who's job isn't to look at this stuff at least you can just report and click away from it. But this shows the mental toll, and rough working conditions for those who then have to look through all the horrible stuff. It's thought provoking and intelligent, a well crafted narrative with characters that could be any of us. A truly worthwhile read.

I’ve read it in one sitting. It’s sure a quick story. I couldn’t connect to it, but I’m still grateful to the opportunity that I could read before pub date.

To be a content moderator is to see humanity at its worst - but Kayleigh needs money.

It’s Ironic really, as I'm posting this review on social media, but for the most part I don’t like social media.
We can all agree that it has brought lots of good things into our lives and helped us make new friends, but also there is a solid toxic and scary part to it that looms over everything.

Now imagine that we only see a snippet of that. There are people who’s entire job is take in ALL OF IT. The content moderators who are the first line of defence when this stuff tries to hit the internet. Day in day out they watch the worst humanity has to offer and filter as appropriate. This book is a peek into the toll that must take on a person.

I will begin by saying my biggest gripe about this novella is that there isn’t more of it. I would have liked more to work with and I think it would have allowed for a much fuller story.

That being said, what we do have is fantastic. It’s well written and while bleak and uncomfortable at times, it doesn’t just use the shock factor element to hit you over the head with terrible things. Oh they are there, but they are the punctuation to the narrative of the story. Sprinkled uses to convey the weight as opposed to needless torture porn.

This is a sad book, but it’s a realistic book. I found myself for the first time thinking about the people who do this job and how damaging it must be.

we had to remove this post is about a content moderator and how her exposure to disgustingly graphic images slowly has an affect on her and her coworkers' lives. it's gory and uncomfortable, but so quick it leaves you wanting more. definitely would recommend if you want something a bit messed up to read in one sitting.