A brilliant commentary on social hierarchies and invisible service workers. This novel is both funny and disturbing.

The cleaner - who is never named - is unreliable and, sometimes, relatable but her actions are completely misguided. She's far too involved in the job and what I found most frustrating about her was that she had opportunities to make her life less about work but failed to act on them. She's far too involved in her job - and meddling in the lives of the people she cleans up after.

Although there is an element of "crime" to the novel, it does not read like a thriller. It is, however, an entertaining, easy read that I felt compelled to return to. A searing social commentary on modern economics, 'Cleaner' is multi-faceted but I would have liked a stronger conclusion.

This is kind of creepy. The cleaner works nights at an unnamed company. She really believes that the things she does in addition to her normal cleaning, make the lives of the people who work on the fourth floor better or worse, depending on whether or not she likes these unseen people. She has names for them - Buff guy, Cheery #1 and #2. Sad Intern etc. The characters real names are never known and you get to know that the office is all that the cleaner has in their life and can't understand why other people don't feel the same.
All I can say is that I'm so glad that our cleaners come in the day and that I lock my desk drawers when I'm not there!

I loved the premise for this book and was so excited to start reading it. Sadly it didn't draw me in and I found myself skim reading it

Disturbing and funny in equal measures! The unnamed cleaner of an office block gains a perceived insight into the people who work in the offices by what they keep on their desks and in their drawers. Often with good intent, believing she cares for their welfare, she interferes with their lives by leaving, removing or switching items on their desks and in some cases, logging onto their computers to clear their diary or read their email - both business and personal.

As nameless as she is, she gives them names, based on their desks and so Sad Intern, Yarn Guy, Mr Buff and others become the focus of her life.

It is thought provoking in that in the important lives of these executives, the cleaner is largely invisible. In fact, one character is surprised to hear they even have a cleaner! This exploration of societal hierarchy is poignant, highlighting that often, these "invisible" people have a larger insight into the lives of those they provide a service for than they might imagine.

4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Brandi Wells and Headline for an ARC in return for my honest review.

Slightly disturbing but engrossing your-cleaner-sees-all debut.

Your office is clean in the morning. It's like magic. What was tea-stained or dusty is now sparkling. Your mugs are back in the kitchen, washed and ready for use. The bins are empty.

Every day, the unseen are acting as fairies for offices and workplaces and the daytime staff usually don't give it a second thought. And that's how our unnamed Cleaner quite likes it.

She takes pride in her job, but not only keeps the office up to standard, she'll take care of those daytime office users too, worrying about the supplements they're taking, noticing the lonely and the unappreciated and doing what she can to help them in their lives.

The cleaner even looks through emails and documents - she's very thorough.

This made for a very intimate-feeling audiobook. Breaking through many taboos and unwritten rules, the cleaner is the nosey fairy we all wish we could be. She knows everyone's secrets, tweaks things around the office to encourage relationships and success, takes petty revenge on those she doesn't like. And still can't work out who the Secret Shi**er is!

Living for her job and what she sees as her mission of looking after her daytime colleagues, the audiobook gets up-close-and-personal with our protagonist. We see the other night staff's reactions to her and her interactions with particular office workers as she tries to influence them for the better.

I really liked it. It satisfied my own nosey tendencies - don't we all want to say what we really think to other people and 'help them' with the changes we see as obvious that they don't see themselves?

Everything is kept very anonymous, from the names of characters, to genders. It takes place in an unnamed city. You can't even picture the cleaner herself.

It felt unnerving, picturing someone snooping, interfering, 'helping', but also fascinating and quite deeply satisfying. The cleaner was relatable, unappreciated and observant, the changes she makes and action she takes would leave you questioning your sanity at times.

Makes you appreciate those around you who quietly keep the status quo. And made for a very entertaining listen. I'd love to watch these goings on over a CCTV over time, see the psychological effect on the office workers.

Great idea, and nicely executed. I like the non-descript female voice who brings the cleaner to life on the audio, she doesn't give you much to work with, plays it without a lot of emoting, is logical and factual and helps you see why she blends into the background.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.

I recently finished "The Cleaner" by Brandi Wells. It started off strong with such a brilliant opening line and a really interesting premise that had me glued to my e-reader for a whole night. However, I found that the consistency of the work dropped off towards the end.

The book is about an unnamed office night cleaner who is obsessed with her job and controlling the lives of the workers who inhabit the building during the day. She spends her nights obsessing over the narratives she has crafted around each office worker and their desks. Her only company is L, the night security guard, and M, a delivery person.

The protagonist is utterly delusional and unreliable in all the best ways. She's pretty unlikeable, but I really enjoyed sinking into her very ridiculous, controlling, and hypocritical headspace. This is an odd little book about obsession, capitalism, and a person's need to control their surroundings when other elements of their lives haven't quite worked out.

However, I don't think that same wonderful oddness stayed true to the end. The narrative seemed torn between plot and vibes, which ultimately left it lacking in both. Because of this, I gave it three stars. It's an enjoyable read with glimmers of brilliance, reminiscent of "Convenience Store Woman," but I felt it fell a little short in trying to be too much of a thriller.

Regardless, Brandi Wells feels like one to watch, and I'll look forward to more of their work in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and Headline Publishers for the advanced reader copy of this book.

I was really keen to read Cleaner by Brandi Wells - it sounded such an interesting read.

The cleaner works night shift cleaning corporate offices. She just doesn’t wipe down desks and empty bins, she looks through the draws and computers of the office workers. She prescribes nicknames and traits to the office workers and starts to view them as friends and colleagues.

I initially found it really interesting. But I have to say I started to find it a rather uncomfortable read as it became clear that the cleaner had at the very least an unhealthy obsession with her work and the office workers. Things start to take a darker turn and the cleaner feels justified in her unreasonable/questionable actions based on her interpretation of events she's made up/interpreted.

I’m grateful to NetGalley and the publishers, Headline, for making this e-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review. I just don’t think this was my bag.

Labelling the book as appealing to fans of Ottessa Moshfegh and Halle Butler was I think a little ambitious.

The protagonist has a similar tone of voice to the one in The Maid by Nita Prose, but it’s a bit slow, a slog to read and became quite repetitive. I didn’t look forward to picking it up. And I do not enjoy an unreliable narrator!

The second half picked up pace but built to an ending that just didn’t deliver on its promise. Disappointing.

Ah this is a bit disappointing, really wanted to like this book more!
Nothing overtly wrong except it was a bit meh?
I think it was interesting commentary on capitalist work culture, amusing in parts and I will definitely be making sure to keep my desk tidy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wildfire.
3/5 ⭐️

The premise of this book is really interesting, similar in tone and feel to the Maid by Nita Prose, I was really excited to get stuck in.
The protagonist is a night cleaner in an office block and the story follows their experience of cleaning an office and getting to know colleagues despite never meeting them.
The narrative does not have a fast moving plot, it is more a commentary on society through the eyes of an unreliable narrator. As such, after a solid and promising opening, I found the middle of this novel a bit sluggish in places. I really enjoyed the last few pages of the book and I was delightfully surprised at the ending.

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Cleaner
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Brandi Wells
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Literary Fiction
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 31st August 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★ ¾

”Like most people, she’s fine with someone cleaning up after her, but she doesn’t want to think about the actual person who does it, what they see, what intimacies they’re granted.”

This was a genuinely fascinating read.

This book introduces readers to a socially disconcerting and wholly sociopathic main character who interestingly remains nameless throughout the entire novel.

I say interestingly because I found myself subconsciously referring to the main character as ‘the cleaner’ in my head, enforcing the toxic corporate culture and career hierarchy present in this social commentary piece.

The perspective of the main character is superior and funny yet sad all at once. Her inability to form connections was evident throughout the book, all I wanted was for her to make one friend. The things the main character got up to ‘fixing’ the lives of ‘her employees’ were sincerely ingenious and I loved every moment she messed with someone.

Overall, this book gives me the same vibes as Nita Prose’s The Maid, without murder and quite a lot slower, but the same message applies; a little appreciation goes a long way.

—Kayleigh🤍

Cleaner is a character study on how someone can give too much of themselves to their job and invest in things that they believe is part of their life. The unnamed narrator is someone who takes small aspects of people that she percieves (from their desks) and builds a whole character and narrative that she believes to be true. An aspect I am for sure guilty of. Her narrow mindedness in her belief of her influence and role is at times saddening when she is actually just a ghost to the people in the building she cleans. The 'mystery' that wasn't so much a mystery was a nice device to move the plot along as it was something written mundanely I felt. I liked the charcters of L and M and how the narrator portrayed them. I could picture them very clearly and I too felt irritation towards them but knowing it's just the narrators perspective. While I liked how the book was written I found the ending to be a little eye rolling but I got why the author/narrator did so.
3.5

Overall, I liked this - but I didn't love it. I enjoyed the overall idea that the cleaner is pulling the strings in the workplace, unseen, but for some reason this fell slightly flat for me. Maybe I thought the main character was a little too hard to relate to? And generally speaking, nothing big enough really happened in the storyline..

I really liked this one! I found the unreliable narrator of the cleaner to work incredibly well. From the start, this was a real page turner. Although there’s no fast moving plot, and a little of it feels repetitive, it still left me questioning the people in life society often looks over, and their true motives. It was creepy, a little disturbing, and I tore through it!

This was an interesting read! I totally see the comps to Convenience Store Woman. I felt like the beginning was a bit repetitive, but once you get in the way specially once the Cleaner is more focused on fixing the company it gets more gripping!

Absolutely brilliant, loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending.

"That's how most of these people know each other. It's all very surface level: faces and names. Not much else. It must be an empty way to live, to be so vapid and forever unknown. But of course, I know them all. I understand them, for better or worse."

The Cleaner is a subversive, speculative commentary on human connections and corporate culture that both engrosses and alienates it’s reader at the same time. It’s full of irreverent, dry humour and uncomfortably strange prose that just gives it such character and charm.

Our faceless, nameless narrator speaks right to us in a crude, blunt voice — a voyeur that we watch as they watch others. This singular narrator has a strange quality, with limited interaction with others and just one location — just a single moving strand of thoughts that move fluidly from one moment to the next. Their personality remains largely a mystery to us, only ever seeing what they want us to see. It’s isolating and eerie, especially as the mystery starts to take hold of the story and the uneasy tensions almost feels like they are really holding into our own secrets.

For the first half of the book, it’s almost plotless, a repetitive cycle of night shifts and subtle observations — something that usually would bore me with its slow, quiet pace but was actually quite charming. And when it picks up, it remains quiet and calm but with an added intensity and feverishness as our narrator finds more secrets, more problems to fix under the cover of night.

This wickedly clever story makes you wonder; how many people do you know, do you think about — but in return you’re a stranger, a faceless nameless figure especially in a hyper-connected world? And how much of your personality, of yourself, has been borrowed or stolen from the people you’ve known?

A delightfully strange and deeply unsettling read - if you don't absolutely love this, at least it'll make you think about checking your passwords aren't left on your computer monitor.

The narrative idea behind "Cleaner" is brilliant. The story is told from a first-person perspective which results in a very fragmented landscape of what's really going on. Because we don't know-is the cleaner the villain or the silent hero of this story? On one hand, she's convinced everyone will benefit from her interventions, on the other-perhaps she's just wreaking havoc in lives of people she only fantasies about. Still, the novel masterfully creates the protagonist from the character that on the surface would seem unimportant.

That being said, I found events in "Cleaner" repetitive at times. Maybe it was purposeful, to actually showcase the monotonny of the job, but I found myself losing focus from time to time.

Our narrator works the night shift, cleaning an office block, giving the occupants of her favourite floor nicknames reflecting the personalities she assigns them. She shifts papers she thinks need attention, leaves treats for Sad Intern who’s clearly struggling and a vanilla candle for Yarn Guy who she’s convinced makes exquisite pieces from the craft supplies in his desk drawer. Those who offend are likely to have a thin film of mayonnaise sprayed under their desk. When she discovers a phone hidden in the CEO’s office she sets off on a trail which will eventually lead her to a scandal explaining the company’s downturn.

There’s much to amuse in Brandi Wells’ debut but her story is also a sad one of loneliness and isolation. Our obsessive cleaner has very strong opinions, taking increasingly baroque revenge on those who offend her. While she sees herself quietly overseeing the smooth running of the company, the office workers, who think themselves superior to her, barely register her unless there’s something to complain about. Little do they know how much they owe her, but the cleaner plans to put them right. An entertaining novel, if a bit too long, with a satisfying ending and a salutary message: we don’t give enough time or attention to those who quietly do the dirty work, cleaning up the mess we leave behind us.

sorry, this will be a DNF for me. The excrement laiden first paragraph put me right off, I can't read on to find out if I might like it. Sadly, not for me.