This book was a bit of a let down. I was expecting more than I got. The writing style felt very distant so I couldn’t connect to it. Also the ending felt very rushed

Was an interesting look into the minds of the individuals who moderate online posts. They see so much darkness and that must impact them in unimaginable ways.

I think this book had a lot of potential, but I think it got confused and overwhelmed with what it was trying to do, and what it was trying to do, and so unfortunately fell very short of the mark and was quite disappointing.

Major trigger warnings for this books, some upsetting descriptions of animal abuse, child abuse, violence, self harm, racism, and more

I feel like the premise of the book is about Kayleigh's job at this firm which screens reported content to see if it needs to be taken down or not. She has a lot of training into what is acceptable and what isn't and the seemingly strange caveats around these rules. And it's clear that this distressing content she sees impacts her, and her colleagues, as you would expect.

But then I feel like almost separately to that is her relationship with a colleague, Sigrid, and how this deteriorates and breaks down over time. And I know that the author is trying to link the two, and show how consumption of this type of content can affect your personal life, your mental health, induce paranoia and have other effects... I don't feel like this link was made well enough in the writing for the two aspects of this story to be linked.

I also feel like the descriptions of the upsetting content were sometimes shoehorned in, possibly for the shock factor for the reader, but didn't actually relate too much to the plot or really added anything to the plot. Because in the way that it was written, Kayleigh could have had a totally different job and this still would have been a similar story about her relationship breakdown. Because the job and her reaction to it were not linked in the writing to her reactions. Does that make sense? I feel like partly that was intended because Kayleigh would not have realised the link to the relationship breakdown or the detrimental effects her work had on her, but as a reader this should have been made clearer in the writing. It felt like a story of two halves and the two halves never quite met.

Also, that ending made me want to throw the book out the window. Except I was reading on my kindle so I wanted to go out, buy the book, and then throw it out the window. It was as if the author just stood up in the middle of writing the book to answer the door or the phone and never went back to finish it. I actually though there was something wrong with my ebook copy until I went to Goodreads to find other people discussing the ending too.

Thought provoking, interesting and timely. I found this book immensely readable and really enjoyed it!

Short and snappy. Accurate insight into content moderation veered into interesting commentary on impact of same

I really enjoyed this story about a woman who has to watch bike videos, see awful photos and read disgusting comments on social media and decide - through a set of rules - whether they are offensive or not.

I liked the storytelling, the characters and the vibe if this book. It is much more character based than plot and is a fun short read!

"We Had to Remove This Post" by Hanna Bervoets keeps you guessing with its unreliable narrator, adding a dash of mystery to the story. While this can be intriguing, it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

The book's strength lies in its ability to keep you on your toes. The narrator's unreliability adds a sense of mystery that hooks you in. You're constantly questioning what's real and what's not, which keeps the story engaging.

However, the unreliable narrator might leave some readers feeling frustrated or confused. It can be a bit of a challenge to piece together the narrative and make sense of it all. If you prefer straightforward storytelling, this might not be the book for you.

In summary, "We Had to Remove This Post" offers an intriguing read with its unreliable narrator, but it may not appeal to everyone. If you enjoy being kept in suspense and don't mind the ambiguity, give it a shot. But if you prefer a more straightforward storytelling style, you might want to pass on this one.

I found this book difficult to read - but I think that was deliberately so, because it offered a real and visceral insight into the life of an online moderator.

An unsettling and searing read that dives into the heart of the Internet and its darker realities. Couldn't put it down, nor can I recommend it highly enough.

We Had to Remove This Post is a very short read but it packs a serious punch in its pages. It is a stark and brutal look at the darkness on the internet and what that says about us as a society. I would highly recommend this intense little book to anyone looking for something a bit different and full of incisive social commentary.

An insight to the impact of working as content moderator that unpicks our relationship with social media and its affects on our “IRL” interactions and ideas. At the start of the novella our narrator Kayleigh reveals that several are bringing a joint lawsuit against their employer for their many complaints. The narrative takes the form of a letter to a solicitor requesting her side.

Kayleigh takes the job because she is desperate for money, no doubt a common motivation for a job that few people would want. The complex and frankly useless guidelines change constantly that their performance is constantly monitored. At first Kayleigh adapts well, has a knack for the job, makes some friends, gets a girlfriend. But with the gruelling work, the constant stream of hate, conspiracy theories and violence, attitudes that were once clean-cut begin to flex, destabilising the work and friendship groups and wreaking havoc on their mental health. Alongside this Kayleigh tells us of her numerous failed relationships, all of which had some dubious dynamics.

Bevoets successfully creates an unsettling atmosphere of desensitisation as the content they moderate begins to creep into their heads and their conversations. Unfortunately, this often lacks subtlety in a way that is familiar to anyone who had ever delved too deeply into one of the worse twitter discourses. Perhaps this mirroring is deliberate but it makes the dialogue wooden and unconvincing, with each point clearly flagged to the reader. The truncated length means that the surface of the issues is only just scratched, leaving us with shocking instances of the ways the characters have been infected by what they monitor but little analysis or deeper consideration.

A short and sharp look at the dark underbelly of social media and it's effects. A thought provoking and gripping quick read.

Full review to come.

Whilst this book was uncomfortable, I feel as though it was hyped to be more than it was. I don't think it is necessarily a bad read but it wasn't as horror inducing as I expected it to be

This is a fascinating novel about what it is like to moderate big social media platforms... and it is dark. I've never really thought about what it must be like to do that kind of job before so this book was eye=opening. It's such a good read - a gripping story and also thought-provoking. I recommend this one!

This is a horrible, disturbing and fascinating novella, on something we all know exists but probably know nothing about.

Internet moderators. Oh what a job. It's the sort of job you can't bear to think about (like police scouring the internet and dark web for the horrors that reside there).

There was fantastic potential to go deep and dark if this had been a full-length novel, and in the right hands. I was expecting an insightful dive into the impact of doing this job, the type of company employing people to do this, and so on. Unfortunately, it left me hungry for more as it sidetracked into a personal story that I wasn't particularly interested in.

Great cover and book title though. Sadly, the content doesn't live up to the promise.

Excellent read

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

I was one of the few that fell in the middle with this book, neither raving about it nor completely disappointed. I can see what the author was trying to achieve, but ultimately it fell flat for me.

Short but significant .....
We all know that someone does the job but do we know the effects it actually has on these people ?

Kayleigh takes a job as a content moderator for an online site (it isn't mentioned but facebook comes to mind) , on a daily basis she is witnessing horror stories which range from sexual abuse, animal abuse, violence ...basically anything and everything that should not be viewed by the pubic . Herself and her colleagues then have to make the decision of what is deemed viewable .

The book is quite disturbing yet you find yourself engrossed , what these people are seeing is having a huge impact on how they view everything , let alone the toll it's taking on their mental health .

Alongside the main theme of content moderation the novella also highlights issues such as bad working conditions , relationships , sexuality and the general overuse of social media . It is such a current read , gripping and one to provoke discussion for sure . I would definitely be keen to read more stories based around this topic area. My only negative is that i wished it was longer and we got to see how the characters develop.

Who doesn't like an unsettlingly dark and poignant novella? I was really intrigued by the blurb and I feel like it delivered. A little weird perhaps but really thought-provoking and interesting.

I downloaded this novella on NetGalley, and found it to be a difficult read. On the one hand, the author clearly wants to show the impacts of secondary trauma on her narrator, but on the other the sense of disconnection the narrator has to display in order to successfully convey the impact acts as a barrier to sympathising with her.

For me, the first 90% worked quite well - we can see how moderating violent social media posts takes a toll on the mental health of the moderators. Relationships fall apart. The narrator's response to her girlfriend's saying she is coercive in her behaviour is to apply their workplace policies, which, it's clear to us, allow terrible videos to stay online. Her sense of societal norms has shifted.

So far, so good. Then there's a final scene that feels like an incomplete fragment. We're left with the image of her having broken into someone else's house and they are arriving home. What happens next? Who knows? It's not intriguing, it's just extremely odd.

Three Word review: What actually happened?