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Stinkbug
Paperback

Stinkbug

$34.99
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Wild, shockingly funny and ultimately very wise, the much anticipated first novel by Sinead Stubbins is a story about work, relationships and other nightmares perfect for fans of RF Kuang and Melissa Broder.

You're a stinkbug and they're worried if they come near you, your stench will get all over them and they won't be able to wash it off.'

When Edith and a select group of employees at Winked advertising agency are sent to Consequi, an elite three-day work retreat in the remote mountains, she sees an opportunity to impress her bosses and dodge an inevitable restructure.

But this is no ordinary corporate retreat. Trapped together in the revamped convent, the threat of mass redundancy looming over them, their phones confiscated and the team-building activities becoming increasingly extreme, the 'work family's' cracks begin to widen - and Edith has a secret that threatens to make her the office outcast: the stinkbug. When Edith realises there's something suspicious about Consequi, she's faced with a decision: conform and shut up, or accept stinkbug status and find out what's really going on.

In this wildly original and deeply unhinged story, Sinead Stubbins turns her keen but empathetic eye on the lies we tell about ourselves in order to belong. Part anxious millennial fever dream, part searing workplace satire, this corporate gothic novel is perfect for fans of Yellowface, Nightbitch and Such a Fun Age.

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MORE INFO
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Affirm Press
Country
Australia
Date
27 May 2025
Pages
304
ISBN
9781923135475

Wild, shockingly funny and ultimately very wise, the much anticipated first novel by Sinead Stubbins is a story about work, relationships and other nightmares perfect for fans of RF Kuang and Melissa Broder.

You're a stinkbug and they're worried if they come near you, your stench will get all over them and they won't be able to wash it off.'

When Edith and a select group of employees at Winked advertising agency are sent to Consequi, an elite three-day work retreat in the remote mountains, she sees an opportunity to impress her bosses and dodge an inevitable restructure.

But this is no ordinary corporate retreat. Trapped together in the revamped convent, the threat of mass redundancy looming over them, their phones confiscated and the team-building activities becoming increasingly extreme, the 'work family's' cracks begin to widen - and Edith has a secret that threatens to make her the office outcast: the stinkbug. When Edith realises there's something suspicious about Consequi, she's faced with a decision: conform and shut up, or accept stinkbug status and find out what's really going on.

In this wildly original and deeply unhinged story, Sinead Stubbins turns her keen but empathetic eye on the lies we tell about ourselves in order to belong. Part anxious millennial fever dream, part searing workplace satire, this corporate gothic novel is perfect for fans of Yellowface, Nightbitch and Such a Fun Age.

Read More
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Affirm Press
Country
Australia
Date
27 May 2025
Pages
304
ISBN
9781923135475
 
Book Review

Stinkbug
by Sinead Stubbins

by Rosalind McClintock, May 2025

Corporate horror is the hot dish right now, and while office life has long been artistic fodder, there seems to be an increased fascination with it. Is it a post-Covid, hybrid hangover where work–life balance, for those who can indulge in such thoughts, is the conversation de rigueur? At any rate, I am here for it as a form of snarky cathartic escapism, which Sinéad Stubbins delivers in spades in Stinkbug.

The setup is simple: Edith is a woman who has moulded herself to fit into her world – both at work and beyond. She has recently broken up with her boyfriend, a popular co-worker who increased her social currency at work. He made the ambitious Edith seem more approachable, softer. But he has just been unceremoniously fired, a Swedish company has taken over the advertising firm where Edith works, and a number of the staff have been selected to take part in a company retreat, where they are told that if they don’t find a work friend by the end of the week there will be consequences.

Despite the uncoupling and firing, Edith is set. She has a work buddy in Mo, and they are solid. But as the days unfold, it is clear this is not going to be a breeze after all. Edith battles with her inner demons (of which there are many), the bro-culture of her advertising world, gaslighting (which she also dishes out), and her place in the company social structure as a single and, let’s be real, prickly woman. As Edith and her world slowly unravel, I found myself being pitched back and forth between sympathy and dislike. Edith is a fabulously unreliable narrator, but her whole world is full of unreliable narrators, to the extent that by the end of the novel I wasn’t sure, in the best possible way, what had actually happened – or why. But then, perhaps not entirely making sense of this corporate, capitalist, patriarchal madness is the point.