A hilarious, sharp, and tender exploration of the daily grind of a desk job. Marisa is a young woman in Madrid who hates her job but is weirdly good at faking it and is admired by many colleagues. Her plan to keep a low profile and watch videos all day at work is compromised when she is asked to participate in a corporate retreat…

Marisa is a hoot and I enjoyed spending time with her. The author packs a lot of personality and plot into a relatively short novel. The ending was a surprise and perfect for the story.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book but I really enjoyed it. So many things Marisa said or thought were things that I could relate to. The ending was a bit short but I feel it was satisfying enough

I fear all of my fellow millennials are going to eat this one up. This is a funny and somewhat dark peek into life in the corporate world and how Marisa is navigating that. Not well, spoiler. The ending was completely unexpected yet fit so well with our main characters journey. I can’t describe it without ruining the surprise so I shall not. It’s a tad alarming how much I resonated with Marisa throughout these pages. I love a main character who isn’t cookie cutter perfect.

Thanks to Netgalley and Vintage for the ebook. Marisa crosses the streets of Madrid recklessly as she heads to work each day with a vague hope that a car will hit her, she’ll get permanent disability and never have to go to work ever again. Thus begins this wonderful black hearted comedy as we watch Marisa at her job as a mid level employee at a successful advertising agency where she mostly hides in her office to watch YouTube videos that make her laugh and cry and where she sets tasks for college students on LinkedIn that she can steal when she has to come up with ideas for work. After following her life for a week, we see her life come to a boiling point at a mandatory weekend work retreat. Such a fun novel.

Very well written! It was a unique story and realistic characters. However, the ending was rushed. It did not thoroughly explore the main characters feelings and sentiments on how she felt. I felt pre-retreat was amazing and but during the retreat/post retreat I lost interest.

This was short but sweet and memorable. The main character hates the typical work culture (relatable) and is over the same thing every day and the in office drama. She is funny, realistic and very relatable which I loved. You'll want to be on her side as soon as you meet her, she's just that likeable. If you currently or have ever worked in an office, this is for you and you will relate one way or another. I really enjoyed this read and got many laughs out of it!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

I’m a sucker for anything office-related and I don’t know why. I love the mundanity of it, and while this had that element, I wouldn’t consider it mundane! The MC is very much relatable in a lot of ways to the apathy some of us may feel day to day and I enjoyed seeing that talked about.

This was short and very on point.
The main character's hate for the work culture of her company and anxiety for an inescapable future of meaningless work and office politics are all too relatable.
She is funny, surprisingly sweet and unhinged. I started rooting for her immediately.
This was a very good read and I would recommend it to anyone who has to work in an office.
Thank you Knopf for this ARC!

I received an advance copy of this book through net galley, and I found it to be a quick and surprisingly relatable read. Who really, actually, truly wants to have a job and go to work every single day of her damn life? Certainly not me, and I resent the fact that we all “have” to, because capitalism. The protagonist of this novel is unhinged in the best way, and I truly appreciate her honesty. A series of hilarious mishaps occur, culminating with what the reader believes to be the biggest doozy- a group of employees being drugged by one of the their own during a cheesy company retreat meant for team building. The team certainly gets….built! However, the biggest surprise occurs at the end of the novel when you think one inevitability is going to happen, but another does instead. The heroine of this story gets what she really wants after all, and, honestly, I was happy to see her dreams come true! I loved the blunt, sardonic, no frills language with which this novel was written, and truly enjoyed the author’s voice and writing style.

The first part of this book was very funny and witty, but I felt like it was missing something. I was surprised that the company retreat doesn’t happen until the last third of the book, and Marisa’s story feels incomplete. Maybe it’s a translation issue? I felt like it was a lot of telling, not showing, and didn’t really add anything new to the conversation of hating one’s job. I understand why people like it, but it just didn’t work for me.

Discontent was an intriguing short read. It kept me engaged throughout the entire book. This book cover, although it may change, fits perfectly with the story. It is a very dark comedy, that made me feel a lot of deep emotions. It took me on a journey into her life and into her mind, which were completely opposite. This book made me feel sad, hopeful, curious and even anxious at times. It is undoubtedly unique and memorable. This book left me wanting more! I give this book a high 4 out of 5 star rating!

This novel is about a woman named Marisa that struggles with mental illness, but still manages to work several hours a day at a successful marketing industry. This industry is built on lies and you can tell it affects her immensely. She takes medication, works, watches videos, loves to go to the museum, does booty calls, and stays at her apartment by herself pondering a lot. On the outside, everything in her life seems perfect and nobody would guess how much she truly struggles with on the inside. She gets depressing thoughts from time to time. A retreat in the Segovia forests for her business is coming up and she dreads it. She must go though! Will she make it to the retreat? Will her story have a happy ending or will it just completely crumble to the ground?

Thank you to NetGalley, author Beatriz Serrano, translator Mara Faye Lethem, and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Vintage for this digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book! My rating of four stars in indicative of just how long I felt like this book was to read. For being only 148 pages, I felt like each chapter had moments where it was dragging. I enjoyed the train of thought writing, it allowed us to get into Marisa’s head and almost merge as one with her. I found the YouTube video bits extremely relatable. Overall, I did enjoy the read.

This book entirely is telling and not showing. I know that some things are lost in translation, however the entirety of this character is her telling the reader how much of a fraud she is, without showing it.

Discontent – Beatriz Serrano
A raw and deeply personal novel about dissatisfaction, longing, and the pursuit of something more. Serrano captures the existential restlessness of modern life with piercing honesty, weaving a narrative that feels both specific and universal. A striking debut that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt out of place in their own life.

I'd really like to write a review that's more substantial than "Haha, same," but that's pretty much at the forefront of my mind. Hysterical, dark, often absurd but always relatable. Serrano does a brilliant job of establishing this tenuous balancing game Marisa experiences at work and then torments readers (in the best way, of course) by slowly tipping things over. Funny and harrowing read