This is a book that is set in the world of logistics which is referred to as movement in the novel. We follow a group of employees that work on the shop floor doing everyday tasks like unloading and filling shelves. We have Meredith who is in charge and at times incompetent, we have Big Will and Little Will , Val, Ruby and Milo. We are given an insight to their personal lives. They are underpaid and are struggling to make ends meet. Each one is in a different situation and the management doesn’t help. The novel covers racism, poverty and injustice. On a positive it gave a good insight to working life in a big corporate company, however I found it difficult to get through as I didn’t engage with any of the characters and I struggled to pick it up and scanned the last few chapters.

Interesting insight into the people packing 'click purchases' in a ' no hours contract' big storage, immediate delivery commercial world.

The mundanity brilliantly brings to life different characters, their relationships with each other & wirh the politics of the consumerist world.

Adelle Walderman can really lift the characters off the page & deservedly brings these 'invisible' daily experiences in front if our eyes, is brilliantly executed.

I have had this novel for a while and kept intending to read it - it wasn't until I read a positive review that it prompted me to get reading.

This is a novel about Town Square, a fictional name for a chain of stores in America, very much like Walmart but more upmarket (or so shoppers thing). It takes place in Potterstown in New York State and here we have a department - Movement - and the ins and outs of their working, and personal, lives. Much of the story is about the dynamics between the 'rank-and-file' staff members, their store manager, Big Will, and Meredith, their department manager, who is likely to replace Will when he moves on.

I really wanted to like this more than I did. There are a lot of characters but they are portrayed as being quite wooden - and even though I wanted this to be more of a parody of the store culture the western world is so familiar with in modern times, I feel that Waldman misses a trick. Characters feel one-dimensional and I am left not really caring if Meredith gets the promotion or not.

This reminds me of the TV hit 'Superstore' but without the strong characterisation and humour. Parts of it work - and it is somewhat bitter-sweet when one thinks about how (in real life, too) people have to manage different jobs, families and complicated personal situations to pay the bills. So, thought-provoking but not massively compelling.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

A darkly humorous satire of work places that made me think of Tom Sharp. Realistic, cruel and well plotted.
A novel that makes play a game like "Gosh, this could be ..." and find that you are also part of the game
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I absolutely loved this story of modern day peasantry in the abandoned American wastelands. Both a profound story of the forces that grind people up and a gripping narrative about people doing their human best in a difficult world. Loved it!

Superstore/'large online retailer' back-office multi-character exposé.

I adored the America Ferrara series 'Superstore', and this felt very much in the same vein - a behind-the-storefront look at the working lives of the employees, the machinations to reach promotions, the personal lives and struggles of everyone, and a 'day in the life' of how a customer-facing shop still functions.

Faced with possible changes to management, we watch the politics at play from the start, start to form empathy for some more than others of our staff, see the different management styles at work, and what seems to be a very realistic workplace, in action. The conditions, subterfuge, poor pay and downright scandalous up-top decisions feel as though this is based on real experiences.

Loved this, a proper ensemble plot where nobody is our one protagonist or hero, and we are never sure how it's all going to turn out at Town Square.

Makes you appreciate whatever you have in your working life that's better than this!

Nicely read, and I didn't feel too confused with multiple characters.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.

Adelle Waldman dives headlong into the not so funny world of big box stores in her new book Help Wanted. The book treads some of the same territory as the workplace sitcom Superstore. And in some ways Help Wanted is a workplace comedy but the individual lives of Waldman’s characters are so tenuous, hardscrabble and bleak that it is difficult sometimes to see the humorous side.
Help Wanted revolves around a Big Box franchise in upstate New York called Town Square. In particular it focusses on the “movement” (previously known and logistics) team. These are the people who come in at 4 am every day to unload the trucks and start stocking the shelves. The lives of the team are thrown into a little disarray when the store manager Big Will announces that he is leaving to head up another store. This puts their boss Meredith (who they all hate) in line for a promotion, something many become interested in as it might open a path to their own movement upwards. As Meredith tries to make herself look better everyone below her is jostling to raise as she does and secure an actual, regular salary.
Help Wanted for the most part focusses on those workers at the bottom of the pile. They working casually and at the whim of their employer which itself is struggling in the face of the success of online competition (Amazon is never mentioned by name but is felt). And their capacity to change their circumstances, given many did not finish high school and certainly did not go to college, many have a second job and some have done jail time, is limited. So it is unsurprising that they are prepared to support Meredith in order to have a chance to get one step up the ladder.
The characters, including Meredith and Big Will are all drawn with some empathy and understanding. Meredith is not a good boss, Big Will knows this but has painted himself into a corner to support her. Meredith is blind to her own failings but has her own drivers. And Team Movement is a mix of people who are just hanging on in a system that does not value them in town that has already suffered through the departure of its major employer.
As noted above, Help Wanted is satirical and looked at from one angle could be considered a workplace comedy. But the lives of most Waldman’s characters are often too desperate for the humour to stick. Help Wanted is if anything, an important reminder of the hundreds of thousands of workers who are just hanging on and have been put in a precarious position due to shifts in power between big employers and their employees but more critically in the way retail works in the internet age.

Brilliantly observationl book about a group of coworkers on the nightshirts as they work collectively and individually to improve their situation.

Funny but also sharp in its social commentary. Help Wanted was mundane, gentle, quiet and thoughful. Nothing much happened and I'm gutted this finished because I could have stayed in that little shop forever.

If there's such a genre as cosy work-opera then this would be centre stage.

My only criticism is that the character' dev relied on some pretty tired tropes and I'd have loved to see less stereotyping and more complexity in people's backgrounds and assumed abilities.

I'd still happily pick up the next one!

I read this as audio and really enjoyed it.

Thankyou Netgalley and Serpents Tail for this ARC copy.

Help Wanted
by Adelle Walkman

In a big box store in upstate NY, Meredith is in line for a promotion which could mean a big opportunity for one of the team, so despite the fact that they really can't stand Meredith and think she'd be an awful manager, the team agree to big her up when Corporate announce they will interview everyone to get a feel for how she will stand up.

More than a few have their eyes on the prize and thanks to the company's view of itself as progressive and their drive for diversity, there is quite the mix of characters involved, and through rotating points of view, we soon learn their backgrounds, their ambitions, or lack thereof, and their often hilarious thoughts about each other.

If you ever spent any time in retail at any level you will recognise the dynamics working between all these individuals. The world of retail has changed so much over the past few decades, but the push to maximise output while shaving down costs, at the expense of the customer, the staff and ultimately the operation itself is laid out so entertaining and so authentic.

Loaded with judgment and social commentary touching on social status, education status, race and class dynamics, hierarchical perspectives, ambition and what it takes to throw someone under the bus.

Publication Date: 21st March 2024
Thanks to #NetGalley and #serpentstailbooks for the ARC

Help Wanted, Adelle Waldman's second novel, has been compared to a certain kind of nineteenth-century English classic, and I can see it. Like upstairs-downstairs novels, Waldman depicts a microcosm of society within a single branch of a US superstore, Town Square, that prides itself on being better quality than Walmart, but is slowly sliding down the rungs due to competition from Amazon (American readers seem to think Town Square is an approximation of Target, and I bow to their superior knowledge). Our protagonists work in 'Movement', unloading trucks every morning then breaking out boxes on the shop floor. They are forced to take part-time hours, with no access to health insurance or overtime, even though there's always more work to do, and they are harassed by unsympathetic manager Meredith. When a more senior position opens up at the store, the team realise that if Meredith gets promoted, she'll be out of their hair - and this might also offer some of them a chance to move up the ladder - so the plotting begins.

I was honestly fascinated by the inner workings of this superstore alone, and the intricate knowledge that the older workers have of unloading its products, so I was absorbed in Help Wanted from page one. However, if you're not quite as keen on getting a glimpse inside Target, the main attraction of this novel is its cast. Once again drawing from nineteenth-century attitudes to fiction, Waldman is determined that no character, even Meredith, should be portrayed as wholly good or bad. All have their complexities, and all are aware of the hierarchies they sit in both inside and outside the store. Inevitably, certain characters come through more than others. Travis and Raymond were blurry for me, Ruby cliched, Diego, Val and Nicole clearer. For my money, though, Waldman's best creation is Milo, a goofy middle-aged man who acts as the 'thrower' at the warehouse, chucking products onto the line for the others to sort, and enjoys choosing the order carefully to tell a story: 'Milo began dramatising the human life cycle. He pushed out boxes of baby food and powdered formula... six sets of Candy Land... a children's bike... a Nintendo Switch... cans of Red Bull... Adulthood - a letdown in Milo's estimation - was a set of pots and pans, a box of Tide Pods, an alarm clock...' Milo is one of those men who monologues at women he's interested in, but Waldman gives this a sympathetic and insightful reading: 'It wasn't that Milo wasn't interested in what Callie had to say... Milo cut her off because he took for granted that she was accomplished and desirable. He instinctively felt it was incumbent on him to prove himself to her'.

As this quote suggests, Waldman's writing can be a tad clunky, and I wanted a slightly more dramatic final act than we got, but then again, that might be the point - in the cyclical world of Town Square, there is never really any escape. There's just more stuff coming down the conveyor belt.

I found this book quite dense at the beginning. There was a lot about the characters and their lives and the work. This is actually the crux of the book. It is about the nature of work and the interplay in an organisation. I actually got really into it and it clicked for me about half way through. A really clever book.

I really enjoyed this novel which has shades of the TV show Superstore - I loved the shifing perspectives which made me realign my sympathies with every chapter or so! It's funny, clever and very well-written, with a perfect ending. Highly recommended and many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Serpent’s Tail for a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Help Wanted is a novel that very much sits in the here and now. We find ourselves in an American superstore (it could be any of the big ones), following a group of workers, the early shifters, the movers and unpackers, who get stock ready for the day of selling ahead. This group are called Team Movement. They are run by a useless boss, and some changes are being made to the higher ups. There is about to be a big shuffle in job roles, and management want their minnows to help point out the ideal candidates. This is personal, though. Team Movement shouldn’t recommend just anyone. They must point to specific people who deserve the job. Will they choose someone who benefits the business on a wide scale, or are they trying to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them?

There are some aspects to this novel that could feel like sticking points to many. Mundanity, slice of life, normal in the extreme. These are niche in terms of where a reader finds their enjoyment. Contrary to what may be expected, the book does well to remain so normal and simple throughout. The sticking point, really, is in the way that Adelle Waldman chooses to tell this tale.

Most novels will usually struggle get away with introductions of characters lasting more than the first few chapters. A reader is likely to switch off, unless there is a real cutting edge to the writer’s style, if they are constantly being introduced to a new trait of a character on every page. Why, then, does Waldman choose to spend around 75% of this novel explaining the backstories of each character whenever the narrative moves? Something happens, a quick spot of backstory is needed. A character says or does something slightly out of the ordinary, this must be explained with a handful of pages on how they’re anxious, worried, stressed, or struggling.

Maybe there are reasons for this. Drip-feeding the reader with information builds the case for them being promoted or achieving success. We change our minds throughout the book, and sometimes change our minds on how certain characters act. Perhaps it magnifies how stressful the rat race is in a capitalistic world; how community work and partnering up against the higher power can provide something more beneficial than individuality. In this case, however, it doesn’t make it any less tiresome to read when it strobes you in the eyes so obviously.

Going back go the mundanity, however, and I feel that’s where the book stands up for itself. Remaining in the world of normal, the world that you and I can relate to completely, is an extra large pill to swallow. It stings when we can see regular people coping with regular troubles on a day to day basis and being overcome by these issues in a way that feels inhuman and cruel. It shows the true negative side to being swallowed up by the world of capitalism; where everything action is navigated by the next pay cheque, every person you meet is competition, your life is controlled and steered by your career. To some, perhaps that’s perfect. It’s all they want or need, personal success. But for others (most) it can only lead to failure.

Help Wanted is a novel that meets it’s potential downfalls head on and steamrolls over them. It allows for an honest, microscopic look at what life is like for most of us, being a gear in the system. Keeping an eye on these potential hurdles has allowed for neglect in other areas. The book is always real, never exaggerated or overblown, but it unfortunately read like an introduction walking through sludge, without ever saying much that could justify its marathon climb up the hill to its climax.

I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback. Thank you NetGalley!

A story following the members of the movement (logistics) team in a superstore in Upstate New York. We follow them as they complete their daily tasks under the scrutiny of their boss Meredith. That is until the store manager role opens up and the team decide to come together to try and get Meredith promoted up and away from them.

It felt like very familiar territory to me as someone who worked in retail for years and spent a lot of time in stockrooms. The cast of characters were very realistic, I feel like we have all worked with a combination of these characters at some point in our lives. I know I have definitely worked with a Marcus and a Meredith!

I really enjoyed the writing style and the theme of (reluctantly) found family. There is something special about the bonds that are formed while working together - especially when faced with difficult working environments and trying to navigate workplace politics.

This book is perfect for fans of the TV show Superstore, and I really felt like I was working amongst the Town Square movement team. What is quite a simple plot gave so much more. Adelle Waldman has made what could be a very mundane subject into something captivating. I wanted to carry on reading to find out more about my colleagues!

I related to this book so much from my current work place corporate life, and this book hit all the right spots. Dark humorous and very funny but touching. I loved it.

An oddly captivating and very human story, offering detailed look into a world I’ve never thought about. There were times when I was reading that I thought, reading about unpacking boxes and extremely specific office politics is objectively boring, why am I not bored? Waldman has executed this story beautifully, if perhaps introducing one too many characters. HELP WANTED is surprisingly charming and on the whole, enjoyable.

I read 35% of this book before deciding that I was going to DNF it. To me, the story had too many points that felt similar to the TV series "Superstore", including the backstory and character of several characters. Even the description of the uniforms that the guys in movement have to wear seemed taken from Superstore both in terms of the color scheme and the 'feel' of the materials. I was not looking for something in this vein. Based on the synopsis, the plot seemed quite interesting, but the pacing of the book was too slow for me to be able to get into the flow. I read it on my kindle, and there were about 7-10 pages dedicated to describing in detail the unpacking of a truck that to me felt forced and too long. I do like the worldbuilding, but I think that in the case of Help Wanted it would be beneficial to shorten the initial descriptive passages in favor of increasing the pacing of the plot.

I am still interested in reading this book, but I have realised that I need to be in a different state of mind. Right now, my imagination is craving faster paced and less 'seen' books.

The premise is interesting but I couldn't warm to the prose style. It all just felt too ordinary. Voice is a personal thing so others will no doubt feel differently.

Help Wanted takes place in a large chain "big-box" store in upstate New York, and shifts focus between the employees of its "Movement" (aka Logistics) team as they race to complete their repetitive tasks in the early hours of the morning, snark about their awful middle-manager Meredith, and eventually plot to attempt to have her replaced.

The novel is a realistic depiction of the sad state of the world of late capitalist employment, with the rank and file team members employed on an hourly basis, with their bosses strategically ensuring they work just few enough hours to miss out on key benefits, and leaving many needing to work a second job to survive. In this sense, it's a timely book in that it shines a light on the reality of life for huge numbers of normal people across the world in 2024. It manages to squeeze in a few pointed remarks that highlight (the unnamed) Amazon's role in driving down workers' rights at other employers like this one, which again is accurate and worthy of attention from fiction.

Unfortunately, beyond this overall nobility of purpose, I didn't get much else from this one. Its characters were believable, but thinly drawn and hard to care about (over and above the basic grimness of their situation). The writing felt laboured and overly expository, with an excess of telling rather than showing, and far too much left to uninspiring dialogue. Its central plot amounted to little more than everyday office politics, familiar to almost everyone no doubt but lacking both fresh insight and humour.

It had its moments, and certain characters worked better than most, such as the genuinely awful boss Meredith, and the socially stunted but ultimately sympathetic geek Milo. But for me, the subject matter (worthy as it is) needed to be treated with more teeth - either sharper humour or more vicious critique. As it is, the book presents the workers' status quo as sad and inevitable, but lacks any meaningful insight as to what might be done to break the cycle.

(4/10)

I enjoyed Waldman's writing style and the almost anti-found family vibes this book portrayed. Rather than all the employees pulling together, it felt like they were very much looking out for themselves. I thought Waldman did a great job of portraying a diverse range of characters, and appreciated how each chapter brought a different perspective, but overall the plot felt too slow/sparse to hold my interest, and I was always waiting for something else to happen.