This Could Hurt (Medoff) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
The amount of time we spend on the job—the getting ready for, the getting-to, the getting-from, the long hours doing it and the longer hours worrying about it—make JIllian Medoff’s smart, funny novel, THIS COULD HURT, especially pertinent. The author has penned a comedic love letter to the workplace at a time when morbid satires, spoofs, and putdowns have become the fashion. Her proposition is salutary—work can be the place where we grow into our better selves … if we let it.  READ MORE…
Molly Lundquist - LitLovers


As smart as Medoff’s critique of corporate inanity is, it’s tempered by compassion for these people, who are ultimately tender with each other, too.… Through the subterranean strata of this failing office run alliances and feuds, love affairs and betrayals that influence raises, promotions and dismissals. And when Rosa herself gets in trouble, how far will her beloved staff go to protect her from the rigid mechanics of the corporation? The answer to that question becomes the story’s central problem, its funniest routine and its most moving element.
Washington Post


There’s an air of The Office TV show in its darkly comic tone, but it delves more deeply and seriously into the dynamics of a workplace.… It’s a rich lode. Medoff mines the phenomenon of the "office wife," generational values, gender politics, racial nervousness, networking and more, all set against the irrevocable reality of meeting the bottom line.… She’s a deft observer of office politics, as well as human relationships. She has a sense of history. And she wastes no one’s time: The narrative cracks along, without an indulgent passage in the book.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune


This smart, jaunty novel takes the lid off a small company’s faltering human resources department to reveal intrigue and backstabbing that only intensify when the boss gets sick. But, as Medoff deftly reminds us, decency can find a way of surfacing even among the filing cabinets.
People


Medoff explores the effects of the 2008 economic downturn on a small staff of human resources managers…in this witty novel.… The characters are well-drawn, though the author gets stuck in their personal tangents…. Nevertheless, this is a sharp and moving novel.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Medoff is a master of the small, telling detail that completely nails a person's psyche, delivering a cast of characters flawed yet struggling to redeem themselves. An ultimately hopeful, completely inventive tale. —Christine Perkins, Whatcom Cty. Lib. Syst., Bellingham, WA
Library Journal

Incisive.… Medoff’s scenarios will be familiar to everyone employed everywhere,… and she cogently captures the angst and celebrates the camaraderie of coworkers committed to group success while struggling with personal demons.
Booklist


Shrewd and deeply affecting.… Sharply drawn intimate details about the lives of each character add even greater depth and broaden the timeless appeal of this very smart, thoroughly absorbing story.
Shelf Awareness


Intrigue swirls around HR executive Rosa Guerrero in this engrossing workplace drama…. An economical epilogue makes clever use of corporate organization charts to quickly trace the characters' odysseys after the story's bittersweet conclusion…. A sharp-eyed novel of corporate manners.
Kirkus Reviews