HOW TO CONTROL THE WORST OF HUMANITY

What goes into being a social media content moderator? Do they make a lot of money? What traumas and stresses do they face? And, most importantly, what is their relationship with the awfulness of people they encounter on the internet? These are some of the questions answered by Hanna Bervoets in her latest novel, which is translated from Dutch by Emma Rault.

The novel follows Kayleigh, who joins Hexa, an intermediary company that vets posts shared on social media. She takes the job in desperation for an income. Kayleigh narrates the book in the form of a letter addressed to Mr Stitic, who has filed a classaction suit on behalf of the Hexa employees.

Tackling race, gender and problematic points of view, the book unravels the complicated rules behind what is permitted on social media. While this is a valiant effort touching a number of issues, the story introduces an overwhelming number of characters. It becomes difficult to follow the issues that affect them and still be sympathetic. Bervoets spends so much time building smaller subplots that it makes the titular post an anticlimactic reveal. Eventually, it leads to an unsatisfying cliffhanger ending that feels more rushed than thought-provoking.

However, Bervoets is brilliant at capturing the melancholy of millennials in the workplace. Their apathy for the work and the expectation of what is needed lead to them falling for a number of wild fallacies and conspiracies. In the latter half of the book, the main plot is brought home with a flat-earther theory that creates a divide among the Hexa employees.

Tapping into the madness of our digital age, the book is a concise look at life under the twisted thumb of the omnipresent world wide web.