I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a novel about a addict who sells real estate for a living. She is a fighter who struggles with relationships and her demons. Lots of poor choices are made.

This book shed some serious light on the effect PTSD has on an individual and their life, impacting decision making and impulses. This disorder is highlighted very well throughout the book and made me feel very sympathetic towards the main character. The book was a little bit unbelievable at times, with some of the characters being a bit childish. And the ending was a little silly and predictable.

Absolutely loved this book!

The authors writing style is amazing!

I look forward to reading more from them!

I can see why some people may not fully love this book, but personally, I did really love it. It detailed excellently the mind of someone who has had a bad life, been abused, has depression, low self-esteem. yet is functional in society, works, goes out, has self-awareness, and wants to do better.

Bad Agency is a story about navigating a toxic workplace with unsuccessful results, in which the author does well in showing how underlying trauma can haunt us well into adulthood.

Our protagonist with self-diagnosed C-PTSD continues to chase bad relationships, engage in self-harming behaviors, and grovel at employers who do not want to work with her. For someone who needs other people's approval and does not think highly of herself, she's very ready to defend herself in the face of confrontation.

For as much as this story accomplished (themes of trauma and the banality of late capitalism), I struggled to find some portions realistic. Our protagonist's manipulative best friend is supposedly 10 years her senior, but acts 10-20 years younger. The ending is stylistically cheesy in a way that disrupts the flow of the storytelling.

Overall Bad Agency is a potentially promising debut that fits in nicely among titles like Etter's "Ripe" and Butler's "The New Me." It's not quite for me, but readers of the traumatized-woman-navigates-complicated-work-life genre will appreciate it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Shitbird Books for an early digital copy!

This was a beautifully done novel about trauma, it does a great job in portraying trauma realistically. The characters felt like they were suppose to and I enjoyed getting to go on this journey with the characters. Irina Ember does a great job in portraying the concept realistically and writes it perfectly.