We Had to Remove This Post

January 17, 2022
Bervoet’s fleeting yet magnetic English-language debut offers a glimpse into the world of social media content moderators. Kayleigh, in need of cash to pay off credit card debt, takes a job at Hexa, a subcontractor for an unnamed video platform. Along with a ragtag team, she spends her days watching disturbing videos and flagging those that break the platform’s guidelines. While adjusting to the job, she meets Sigrid, a fellow moderator, and the pair start dating, but as weeks pass, exposure to thousands of horrifying videos—among them graphically described clips of self-harm, animal abuse, and praise of the Holocaust—takes its toll, pushing some moderators to their mental edges and inspiring others to subscribe to “flat Earther” conspiracy theories. After Kayleigh quits, a lawyer hounds her to join a lawsuit against the platform along with other former employees, and Bervoets frames the story like a mystery, slowly revealing the fractured relationships and circumstances that drove Kayleigh away from her job. Whether carefully dissecting ever-evolving corporate rules or chronicling a night at the bar with her workmates (“we pour our leftovers into each other’s half-empty glasses”), Kayleigh is an engaging narrator. The story is brief, but it packs a wallop. Agent: Lisette Verhagen, PFD Literary.

Starred review from February 15, 2022
Scathing, darkly humorous exploration of the impact of VR, IRL. Up until 16 months ago, Kayleigh was a content moderator at Hexa, a company contracted by an unnamed social media platform to review user posts for inappropriate content. Kayleigh and her co-workers must view hundreds of disturbing posts and videos per day and accurately categorize and flag videos for removal according to company guidelines. The guidelines are often counterintuitive, with more attention to preventing litigation than preventing harm. As Kayleigh and her co-workers begin to internalize the horrors they see each day, the line between the virtual and the physical world, truth and bot chatter, grows fuzzy. Co-workers mistake a roof repairman for a jumper, try to contact users who livestream self-harm, and join flat-earther cults. In this twist on the workplace drama, Bervoets masterfully captures our contemporary moment without devolving into national politics or soapbox rhetoric. Think Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation but with characters who have aged a few years and started full-time jobs. The psychological toll inherent to today's workforce, big tech ethics, and viral misinformation--each are examined in turn by Kayleigh's wonderfully snarky, unreliable narration and Bervoets' intimate portrayals of a well-imagined and diverse cast of characters. Look out for a sucker-punch ending as Kayleigh searches for one of her flagged influencers in person. At first it's infuriating--over-the-top, out of character, and abrupt. But on further consideration, this controversial conclusion has the reader experience Kayleigh's emotional process after reviewing each post: shocked back into reality and left to wonder how to live with what she's seen. Bervoets just gets it. This is, unironically, a novel for our time.

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Starred review from March 15, 2022
Acclaimed Dutch author Bervoets' bracing novella offers readers a spyglass for viewing the damage done--unwittingly, incrementally, insidiously--by the darkest side of social media. In epistolary form, Kayleigh tells of how she ended up working as a content moderator for an unnamed (never, not even in whispers among coworkers) social media monolith. They must determine what of the content reported for its violent or harmful words and images (some vividly described) is actually against the rules, not just stomach-turning and repugnant. The work is physically grueling--the white-collar version of factory assembly-line work--with extraordinarily high outputs expected, requiring a constant barrage of evil. For those who can't mentally turn off the terrifying images when they clock out, it's emotionally painful as well. But Kayleigh finds relief in her relationship with her coworker and girlfriend Sigrid. Bervoets' writing is vivid, eerie, and beguilingly conversational, especially considering its content. As Kayleigh's narrative careens toward its conclusion, and the reason for the letter becomes clear, readers are forced to confront the way perspective shapes understanding, and they will likely want to avoid the internet for a beat. Powerful, discussable, and a harbinger of a voice-in-translation to watch.

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