Book Review: The Very Nice Box by Laura Blackett, with illustrations by Eve Gleichman

The Very Nice Box
by Laura Blackett, with illustrations by Eve Gleichman (Blackett)

The Very Nice Box is a contemporary office culture satire mixed with a finely characterized look at dealing with trauma. Ava is a product engineer for an IKEA-like company. Her current design project is the Very Nice Box, a large general storage box that she’d rather think about than the car accident she survived that killed her parents and her girlfriend.

 

Her focused life is disrupted by vandalism to her car amid environmental protests of the company, then by a hotshot new boss who is trying to inject “1000% positivity” into the workplace, which she doesn’t think is appropriate to engineering concerns. Things start to tangle farther when she develops feelings for her ever-optimistic boss. He does, after, take care of his dog: a trait Ava trusts.

 

This was a read that gave me strongly mixed feelings throughout, but I was completely satisfied with how it all wrapped up. Recommended especially to fans of Robin Sloan.

 

( publisher’s official The Very Nice Box web site ) | ( official Laura Blackett web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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