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There are currently 26 member reviews
for The Cleaner
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Anke
The Cleaner, Brandi Wells
The cleaner, by Brandi Wells, is such an odd book. The story is told through the eyes of an unnamed office cleaner who works the night shift. She is seen by few colleagues and appreciated by none. Sharing her work with the reader, we learn from the beginning that she is unreliable and falls into chaos in her efforts to help colleagues she feels responsible for, and to save the company from the CEO… at least this is what she thinks she is doing.
The general premise of the book sounded promising. But the constant invasion of people’s privacy (searching desk drawers, removing/destroying documents and personal belongings, even hacking computers) in order to sabotage those she thinks are ungrateful was bizarre, making her character unappealing. Unfortunately, the novelty of the story wore off quickly. There was no bombshell, just minor ebbs and flows that felt repetitive and went nowhere. The ending was a letdown.
Many thanks to Bookbrowse and NetGalley for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review!
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Jennie Reece
Anticlimactic read…
The author drew me in with this rather bizarre character/narrator. You know almost immediately she has some real mental health problems. Delusional, paranoid, feelings of superiority, obsessive…just to name the first that come to mind. Unfortunately, I thought the story was going somewhere…the narrator was getting so close to cracking. But…the big or surprising event I was expecting never happened. There were some interesting styles of writing …the fact that all the characters were either idientified by an initial, or a nickname the narrator made up for them, usually based on what she found when scouring through desk drawers. Imaginative meting out of ‘punishments’ if she decided an employee needed it. An unusual book, but it ultimately left me unsatisfied and wanting something more to happen.
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Marybeth T. (Bellingham, WA)
Not for me
I just couldn't get into this book. It was slow and plodding. I got tired of the main character and her boss. I'm sure there is a audience for this book, it just wasn't my cup of tea.
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Molly A. (Pryor, OK)
Negative On The Cleaner
I'd give this book negative stars if I could.
To summarize, The Cleaner is about a janitor who takes it upon herself to snoop in other people's things in the building where she works. She plays matchmaker, crochet enthusiast, morality judge, corporate embezzlement investigator, and mother hen. For some employees she leaves little tidbits to encourage their professional growth, relationships or hobbies; for others, she sabotages their employment or their marriages. She is sociopathically meddlesome, narcississtic, and benevolent, all at the same time.
Not only was the writing dull and monotone, but the characters were never fully developed, or even named. It became confusing trying to remember who was who (characters were named with an initial or some nickname, like Yarn Guy). Most people like to gain something from their reading, but my experience with this book was creepy, painful, boring, and tasteless. I'm pretty sure the janitors that I know would all be offended that they were represented in such a derogatory way.
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Ruth O.
A Very Unsatisfying Book
‘The Cleaner’ is written in first person by an unnamed person who cleans office spaces at night. No one is named in the book except for an initial or a made-up name such ‘The Intern’ or ‘Yarn Guy’. She (I THINK the writer is a ‘she’) feels she is intimately involved in the lives of the office workers because she goes through their desk drawers and uses their computers. She also takes things from their desks and sometimes leaves things or gives them to others. This deeply offended me on many levels, especially because I dealt with this situation many years ago. I reported what I suspected—that the cleaning person was using my computer and moving things on my desk (the drawers were locked). Security set up a camera to catch them, and they were fired immediately. Other than this, the ‘cleaner’ was invading the privacy of people and trying to ‘fix’ their lives. I struggled to finish the book because I intensely disliked her, nor did I like the writing style. Not recommended.
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