Estela has moved to the city to become housekeeper and childminder to a wealthy family. She sleeps in a room off the kitchen and is treated like a slave by the parents and the spoiled daughter.
The writing style is quite light but it becomes relentless. Estela doesn't get to visit her sick mother because she has to help the family. She is dehumanised by the way the family treat her.
Her only friends are Carlos from the petrol station and his stray dog.
The book is written by Estela after the death of the daughter, but despite her experience, Estela is not a victim, she has a strength and self awareness that keep you interested.

Clean is told from the perspective of Estela, a housekeeper who was working for a wealthy family when their young daughter died. Recalling her story to an unknown person (you get the impression it may be the police) she reflects back on the events that lead up to the death and what occurred in the house during her time there.

This was a very claustrophobic story, you knew what was coming and the build up felt uncomfortable - a pending sense of doom almost. It was very well written and for the most part I did enjoy it but I didn’t like the turn the ending took and the way it finished, I think it had potential to be a really brilliant book but the last 20% let it down.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!

I had high hopes for this book as I loved the author's previous novel translated to English, The Remainder. But while some parts of Clean were strong, others fell flat for me, and given it's only short, I can't say it was particularly impactful overall. A lot of the early editorial reviews mention reading it in one sitting, holding their breath, but for me the opposite was true. It took me almost a week to finish it and I didn't feel compelled to pick it up a lot of the time.

It's told in the format of a cleaning woman telling her story to the police, after someone in the house she works in dies. I do not feel like this technique added much to the plot. She could have been writing a diary or retelling it to a friend, for all the effect the police report had.

The strongest part is the commentary on class in Chile. Estela is essentially invisible to her employers, despite being essential to their daily life. Without her, their lives would fall apart. The degradation she suffers at the hands of her employers, particularly the young daughter, was chilling to read. It got a bit tedious at times, but that could be a good reflection of Estela's daily grind.

This was a speedy read for me on holiday.
An obvious comparison is Leila Slimani’s Lullaby which was a book I absolutely loved in 2018.
I really loved the narration of this, and I loved the depiction of the characters as well as the setting.
Beginning with the little girl’s death is a sure-fire way to build tension throughout, though I was a tiny bit disappointed how the book ended given also the tension built.
A quick dark 4 stars from me.

This was an unnerving portrayal of class, money, family and desire in contemporary Chile. The novel starts off as a slow burn, with the maid Estela telling unknown listeners her life story and how it came to be that the girl she was looking after died, but the tension and suspense gradually build to a climax. The family Estela is working for objectively treat her well but the societal structures and inequalities result in Estela being perceived as functional, invisible and almost less than human by the world around her. I really enjoyed this exploration of domestic work and class and would highly recommend this novel to people looking for a thought provoking, chilling thriller.

A monologue told by a cleaner working for an upper middle class family in Santiago. The story takes place over 7 years, the duration of the cleaner's relationship with the family. While the main plotline, in my view, covers the relationship between the haves and the have-nots in contemporary Chile, and the way some of the haves struggle with happiness and familial cohesion, the story also covers the psychological state of the protagonist cleaner, and the small ways in which the lives of those participating in this model are corrupting everyone involved.

I loved the experience. The story, despite is multitude of nuances, is told like a mystery, and the protagonists are incredibly powerful. I saw so many of the people and I know (and myself?) in some of the behaviours and people described. It was like a mirror was put in front of me asking me - is this how you also live your life? and if so, are you really thinking about the various ramifications.

I recommend to anyone. There is no person I can think of that will not find something in this book to relate to and learn from.

My thanks for Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

It's been ages since I've read a translated novel and this one really felt like it was translated so well.

Clean is a claustrophobic literary thriller told directly to you by main character Estela. Estela is a maid to a family, from very early we know a girl has died and Estela is telling the story of it to someone, we don't know who. But what is the beginning of the story, where does any story start?

Estela recounts various events from her time with this unnamed family, some seemingly irrelevant, some weird, some sad. I was so drawn into this story at first but after a while it did start to drag a bit. The monotony of Estela’s routine felt suffocating (intentionally I imagine) and she had little life outside of this house and family. At first the novel built suspense very well but I felt the reveal and ending were not worthy of such a build up.

I enjoyed the social class commentary and I enjoyed Estela as a character but at times this did feel like a much longer book and a chore to read.

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

3.5 stars

This is one of those books that by the end, I was impressed with the choices the author made, and appreciative of how everything wrapped up, but it was an arduous journey to get there. For a ~150 page novella, I felt like I was reading for an eternity. The narrative is upfront that the story will be meandering and circuitous. The focus on Estela's mundane, repetitious domestic work is intentional. But despite those being purposeful writing choices, they were still a slog to read. The final third of this is where everything really comes together in a powerful way but I wouldn't blame anyone who tapped out before they got there.

Although this is categorised as mystery-thriller, it is most definitely literary fiction.

Exquisite.

The narrative is perfect and has so much going for it that the scathing takes on class and modern life drip off the page.

Just beautiful.

4.5 stars
Original and full of tension, this was a whirlwind from the start. I loved the unreliable narrative, it made the entire story feel incredibly uncomfortable. The way this story was told, almost back to front, along with the unique writing style made for a book that was impossible to put down. I loved the commentary on social class that was subtly weaved throughout the book. There was something so haunting about her almost loving the girl and almost making it through. The entire reading experience felt like I was teetering on the edge of a cliff in the best way possible.

Clean is about a housekeeper who at the beginning of the book is trapped inside a room and is speaking to an unknown audience. She tells the story of the family she once worked with for almost a decade, and the child that she both looks after and despises.

This was a really easy read and super captivating, I read the whole thing in less than 24 hours because I got really sucked into the story and I found the prose really inviting. I loved the main character and how flawed and psychotic she felt at times. It was also cool to read an 'unhinged' book from the perspective of a 40+ year old woman instead of a young woman.

I'm really excited to read more from Zeran now as this was an excellent read and a great translation. It had such strong undertones of violence and oppression without being outright in it's horror. The explorations of horror were done quite subtly but in a way which kept you on the edge of your seat waiting for what was going to happen next. The structure of how it was written with the cleaner narrating it from a place of captivity was just genius. I really recommend this to fans of dark literary fiction.

'Clean' is one big monologue in which cleaning lady Estela takes her time to tell in detail 'what happened to the girl'. As in Garcia Marquez, we learn on the first page that the girl is dead.

What follows is a large flashback of how Estela entered the household of a well-to-do, correct but slightly strange married couple in Santiago de Chile. The story reminded me of those domestic French thrillers, as things slowly unravel.

But it is also a social criticism of class differences. I noticed in Madrid, and maybe in Chile it's the same, that it is not uncommon to have a nanny living with the family, in a small room, not necessarily treated badly, but not having much of a private life of her own either and spending more time with the children of the family than her own.

I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece but it's a well-written and engaging read. Especially the relation between Estela and the couple was very well done.

Clean opens with the death of a young girl and the interrogation of the family’s maid, Estela, who is finally ready to speak. For seven years, she’s lived with the family, tending to their needs and keeping their secrets, but now she must recount the events that led to the girl’s tragic death.

Estela left the countryside, and her mother behind, to work for the wealthy señor and señora when their only child was born. Their ad called for a housemaid with a “smart appearance” and full-time availability, and Estela, needing the money, took the job to support her mother. Over the years, she not only cleaned their home, but she also raised their daughter, all while witnessing the hidden tensions within the household—the rats scurrying in the ceiling, the poisonous secrets in the cabinet, the father’s distant glances, and the mother’s coldness.

Through shocking betrayals and devastating revelations, Estela finally breaks her silence. Her story reveals much more than just a tragic death; it is an incisive exploration of power, class, and domesticity. Is her account a confession or an act of revenge? As each layer of the family's secrets is uncovered, the tension builds, exposing the brutal realities of class disparity and the isolation that comes with a life of silence.

With one of the most raw, honest narrators I’ve ever encountered, Clean explores the false intimacy that can arise between a maid and her employers, the loneliness that pervades such relationships, and the societal forces that shape our destinies. The book’s opening is gripping, and its themes of power, betrayal, and survival will leave you breathless.

The cover is stunning, and the novel stands out as one of my most unforgettable reads of the year—brutal, unflinching, and brilliant.

Read more at - The Secret Bookreview.

It took a while for me to get into the “confession” style of the book wherein our main character regales us with a huge monologue detailing her side of events following the death of a young girl. We learn that our narrator was the housemaid for the young girl’s family.

I was kept on my toes for the majority of the story as I tried to piece together exactly what happened. The housemaid’s voice was very strong throughout as topics like power, class and domesticity were explored. And there was a dog that I grew very attached to as well.

A really well-paced and well-plotted out literary thriller that I would definitely recommend! 4 stars.

A tense and thrilling read! The depiction of the main character, driven to a shocking act after years of dehumanising work for a wealthy family, was fascinating and I was rapt the whole way through.

This was a tense tale of a Chilean maid who seemingly ends up involved in the death of the girl of the family she looks after... or is she? Narrated in the form of a confesional of Estela in a locked room, Alia discusses themes of class and resistance through the sharp POV of Estela.

This was pretty dark and tense.
The story of a live-in maid for a wealthy couple and their daughter in Chile. We know something bad has happened but we do not know what. Estela, the maid, tells us her story whilst trapped in a room. It is all pretty uncomfortable but very well done.

When I started reading this book I was completely at a loss, I wasn't expecting anything... but It was breathtaking. This book makes you feel cold and numb,it makes you feel like youre Estela's body and feel what she feels, to think what she thinks.
I can guarantee that you will be a completely different person after you finish reading the book.

The only negative:
It was a really slow book and took a long time to finish

This is, by the end, a powerful story of resistance and confrontation set in Chile but the pacing in the first half is slow and for a book of only 200 pages, it took days for me to finish it. I've seen this categorised as a literary thriller which is not where I'd place it: for me this is a politicised narrative about class, capitalism, agency, violence and how forms of resistance may differ.

The story arc cleverly and self-consciously plays with our expectations: 'Estela Garcia, forty years old, single, domestic worker' tells this story to an invisible and sinister audience - we wonder whether she's in court or being interrogated by the police as she addresses her listeners behind a glass wall - and, interestingly, we are aligned with that audience as we, too, listen to her tale.

We know that a girl-child dies and so it's easy to jump to the conclusion that this is a [book:Lullaby|35437614]-type story but, like [author:Leïla Slimani|8555975], Zeran is more politically aware than that and situates the narrative amidst a nexus of concerns about class, labour and on a spectrum of power and powerlessness.

I was especially struck by the use of voice as a marker of control and how Estela wields mutedness to withdraw from a system that renders her all but invisible, only to reclaim her voice towards the end as an instrument of transgression and rebellion flung against invisible authorities - even as she knows her agency is all but illusory, an assertion of selfhood that has no traction against the powers stacked up against her.

It's a shame that it takes so long - about half the book - before this tale really gathers momentum: I'd considered not finishing it because of that glacially slow start but am very glad I persevered as the second half jumped up hugely in my estimation. So a definite recommendation from me, but maybe be patient with the beginning.