This is unfortunately one of the most boring books I have ever read, It follows a marketing executive who is utterly dissatisfied with her job and floats through life struggling to make connections with her values or with other people. The blurb highlighted a company retreat that is meant to shift the protagonist's lifestyle and priorities. I kid you not that this does not happen until 65% of the way through the book. Everything up until then is a repetitive and utterly monotonous account of the protagonists daily life neglecting her job and stealing from her co-workers. I wish I could un-read that first 65% and just skip to the end, Not worth it.

delightful book-length rant commiserating with how much office jobs suck, with surprisingly poignant reflections about a former coworker who made the place slightly more bearable. i nodded in solidarity and was surprised that cross-culturally, so many inanities of the workplace are the same. (que lastima)

Burnout and an intense hatred for one's job are just two of the themes explored in this fascinating story. Discontent is a book that captures your attention and hooks you until the end. I became invested in the main character and the outcome of her story from the start. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

A sharp, biting portrait of millennial burnout dressed up in deadpan humor and existential dread. Marisa doesn’t hate her job—she just can’t figure out how to keep living inside it. The novel spins in circles, just like her thoughts, but that’s the point. It’s frustrating, funny, deeply relatable, and occasionally infuriating. Not everyone will love it, but for those of us who've cried in fluorescent-lit office bathrooms, it hits uncomfortably close.

This was another one of those "jaded female narrator who hates her life" books. I can't get enough of those, for some reason. They tend to vary in quality, and none of them really have much going on within the story. But that part isn't a huge problem for me as long as the voice is entertaining. I would say that "Discontent," while fine, probably falls in the middle of the road of this genre.

Narrator Marisa is not very likable, (and not a great person either), but at least she’s self-aware. And she’s kind of funny once in a while. But she’s also spoiled and mean and the sort of character that if something bad were to happen to her throughout the course of the story, it wouldn’t really upset me. (And what was with her strange interest in Nazis? It wasn't a big part of the plot or anything but it did come up more than once, and that's enough for me to question.) Her quirks were what defined her: Obsessed with watching YouTube. Constantly popping Ativan. (Absolute dependency.) Judgmental of everyone but secretly lonely for the one or two close friends that she's had and lost. 

What made her relatable was the pure disdain for working. Not in the "Nobody wants to work anymore!" sense, but the "Why does this have to be a thing?" sense, when all of it is just so monotonous and stupid. When Marisa was reacting to details of the work retreat that she was being forced to go to, (complete with team building exercises aka the bane of my existence), I was feeling just as much disgust and anxiety as she was. It was moments like these that helped me connect to her on a molecular level, but her abrasive personality would inevitably ruin that connection within a few paragraphs. (Also, the lengths that she would go to in order to avoid having to do anything, like plagiarism, really put me off. Her job seemed pretty cushy.)

The book blurb on Goodreads is a bit misleading, in my opinion. The work retreat doesn’t come into to play until well after the halfway point, and the description makes it sound like a dark spiral of some kind happens. No spoilers, but while there was a scene I wasn't expecting, things didn't get nearly as strange or existential as I thought they would. This is one of those books in which not much really happens, so you have to be into the vibes and the narration. In the end, "Discontent" kind of made me think of that quote: “Go girl, give us nothing!” It was alright, but I probably won't be thinking about it much afterwards. 

3 stars mostly for the caustic takedown of corporate work culture.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

Biggest TW: Substance abuse, Hate speech, Suicide/Depression

Ok this was amazing and absolutely hilarious. A must read for the corporate girlies. I was laughing out loud throughout the whole thing. Somehow found it to be very poignant yet comforting. Beautiful.

The narrator of DISCONTENT has a familiar voice, one existing on the spectrum between Lauren Oyler and Ottessa Moshfegh: a woman in her thirties who is well-educated, sardonic, and stuck in life, amused by her own degradation that she can't seem to repair. Though the novel is light on plot, its humorous narrative voice and genuinely funny scenes make it a quick and enjoyable read. Though it thoughtfully examines young women's position in a society overdetermined by sexism and capitalism, it preaches a kind of smart quietism—a shelter of inner authenticity—that feels very characteristic of this literary genre.

This book is special. A fascinating and dark exploration of Marisa’s life that focuses on her work persona & inner turmoil. This is the first book I’ve ever read that perfectly captures the noise that the internet creates inside of all of our minds. (It’s suddenly fascinating to me that more books don’t attempt this?!). It also shows how vital our connections to other people are, especially in our darkest moments. A perfect depiction of modern consciousness.

“Maybe some people’s problems and by “some people,” I mean me—is that we think life is going to offer us something extraordinary when we least expect it. One day we’ll stumble across our smidgen of luck, and from then on, we’ll be happy, because everything around us will change without us having to lift a finger. No more Ativan for breakfast, no more empty feeling when you arrive home. No more unexpected weeping when you see a Coca-Cola ad; no more taking walks through the city hoping to find something that never finds you. That indeterminate but grandiose something that, in fact, more than finding you, seems to be fleeing from you.”

I really enjoyed Discontent and the journey it takes the reader on. Beatriz Serrano does a fantastic job of capturing what it feels like to be in your thirties today: the confusion, the searching, the moments of clarity, and the quiet disappointments. It's not melodramatic, but it is honest, and sometimes brutally so. The writing (and translation) handles this tone beautifully, balancing dry humor with real emotional insight.

While the plot itself might seem small or slow-moving to some readers, I found the inner life of Marisa and the richly observed emotional terrain to be the real focus, It's what made the book so compelling for me. The ending, especially, lands just right.

Highly recommended for fans of introspective, contemporary fiction with a psychological edge.

"Is this play about us?”

If you've worked a corporate job in any capacity, particularly in the marketing sector, you've most likely encountered a few of life's most ridiculous social requirements - acting like your job is the most important, serious thing you're ever set to accomplish. (But in actuality, how could you possibly compare your goal of selling a product and making frilly power points to the grueling hours surgeons put into their day to day saving lives and consider them equally important? they aren't. but for some reason we're expected to treat our cozy desk jobs as such).

Beatriz really nailed it with her description of what it is like working a 9-to-5 in an environment so at odds with the needs of human nature. (who ever thinks we were designed to thrive in dimly-lit shoebox cubicles and to sit in front of a computer screen for 40 hours a week, 50 weeks out of the year, until we're in our mid 60s or 70s is fooling themselves)


Marisa, the main character, approaches her work life with a facetious, superficial internal monologue that at times had me laughing at how accurate it was and I saw my own experiences and feeling reflected in her, to making me feel peeved - sometimes we're Marisa, other times we can for sure say we've had a coworker we've disliked who brough those same vibes to the office that she did.

Anyway, more often than not, I loved her cynicism and existential dread in the light of the mere idea of clocking in each day at her desk job. Been there, done that.

While the story of course goes off the rails and takes a wild turn that I can for certain say I obviously don't align with or can say I've done the same, it was very entertaining nonetheless.

this is another addition to the ✨generally malaised woman litfic✨ canon, and while I can't say that it necessarily brought anything new to the table, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one! I loved the depictions of navigating new and old friendships as an adult, from the work-but-not-life best friend, to weird situationships, to reconnecting with people with whole you were once inseparable but have since grown apart. the depictions of the internet were far more realistic than many and didn't feel clunky or cringeworthy, which I appreciated, and there were quite a few underlinable lines and witty observations throughout.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this e-arc!

Well paced, uber relatable. Maybe I see myself in the MC a little too much? I hope Marisa gets to lay in bed and watch YT video essays for the rest of her life

Rating: 4/5 stars

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for the ARC!

Discontent is quick, funny, and weirdly comforting if you’ve ever sat through a pointless meeting wondering what you’re doing with your life. The main character is cynical, anxious, and totally over it, and I kind of loved her for that. She’s a mess, but a very relatable one.

It’s a fast read that hits a little too close to home if you’ve ever worked in an office. Would definitely recommend to anyone who’s ever side-eyed their inbox and thought, “This can’t be it.”

beatriz has been inside my brain i fear! very deeply millennial coded. I love Marisa and vehemently believe she's never done anything wrong ever!

I really enjoyed Discontent by Beatriz Serrano. I found it to be insanely relatable, in the best way. A slower pace, making it more of a cozy read, but I would recommend to those who enjoy the 'GOOD FOR HER' genre which seems to be my personal favorite. The slow burn of Discontent adds to the unease you get when rooting for this messed up FMC.

I absolutely loved this one. It was so easy to fall in love with Marisa and her approach and reflections on working. I laughed so many times and the ending was just unpredictable and so funny (the email portion was so so amusing.) I’d definitely recommend!!

Discontent follows Marisa, a chronically online woman trapped in the hamster wheel of corporate life, who congratulates herself on her strategies for working as little as possible while presenting as impossibly busy. Lately, due to a constant panic at the direction her life has taken, it’s getting harder to keep up her act. Her days start with tranquilizers and ideations of getting hit by a car on the walk to work. Her only reprieve comes from her friends-with-benefits arrangement with the downstairs neighbor, and a constant stream of YouTube videos.

Told in a playfully irreverent voice expertly translated from its original Spanish, Discontent is a madly relatable, concentrated burst of corporate millennial ennui.

I found Discontent amusing, and (as a former advertiser) so real. While on the surface it’s an absurd account of an office worker on the verge of a nervous breakdown, underneath that, it’s also a keen examination of internet culture, creativity, and isolation. While I found it a bit flat at times, there were hysterical moments that more than made up for it — an email exchange in part II comes to mind.

I would recommend this to anyone who has ever been disillusioned by an office job they stumbled into and occupied for too long.

Marisa seems to have it all. She lives in a beautiful apartment in Madrid, holds a sleek job in advertising, and a friends-with-benefits situation that suits her emotional detachment. But behind the glossy façade, she’s barely holding it together. The job is uninspiring, her coworkers blend into the background, and the sparkle of creativity is long gone. She passes the days pretending to care, hiding in her office, numbed by prescription pills, and lifting ideas from her students in the night classes she teaches.

Then comes a discovery: the private journal of a recently deceased coworker, filled with observations that suggest Marisa’s secrets aren’t so secret after all. As the retreat inches closer, Marisa spirals. Will she confess? Deflect? Implode?

With biting wit and psychological depth, Serrano crafts a slow-burning, anxiety-laced story of existential dread, and the unbearable pressure of pretending. This isn’t just a workplace novel and it’s impossible to look away.

#Discontent #BeatrizSerrano #Knopf #MadridNoir #OfficeDrama #PsychologicalFiction

A wild little firecracker that I devoured in two hours. This book is a quick read that is an office satire at the surface, and underneath is a powerful feminist/anti-corporate manifesto. I love when authors really have something important to say, and are able to weave an equally unhinged and fun story to adorn that message with. It was at times disjointed, but I think that’s due to the “no plot just vibes” style of writing. I had a really good time reading this.

This was an odd book but I enjoyed it. This wasn't a fast paced book or anything but the story was funny and I liked the characters. Overall I really enjoyed this weird little glimpse into the mc's life.