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Reward System
Julia has landed a fresh start - at a 'pan-European' restaurant.
'Imagine that,' says her mother.
'I'm imagining.'
Nick is flirting with sobriety and nobody else.
Did you adults his age are now more likely to live with their parents than a romantic partner?
It feels like life should have started to take shape by now - but instead we're trying on new versions of ourselves, swiping left and right, and searching for a convincing answer to the 'What do you do?'
Reward System is a set of ultra-contemporary and electrifyingly fresh fictions, of a generation of the cusp, meshed in Zooms and lockdowns, loneliness and love.
'Imagine that,' says her mother.
'I'm imagining.'
Nick is flirting with sobriety and nobody else.
Did you adults his age are now more likely to live with their parents than a romantic partner?
It feels like life should have started to take shape by now - but instead we're trying on new versions of ourselves, swiping left and right, and searching for a convincing answer to the 'What do you do?'
Reward System is a set of ultra-contemporary and electrifyingly fresh fictions, of a generation of the cusp, meshed in Zooms and lockdowns, loneliness and love.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 19, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews
May 16, 2022
chronically online sally rooney
April 9, 2026
This is an entertaining if perhaps lightweight (*) series of interlocking short stories (one almost a novella) – with the stories differing in their main focus and style, but featuring a core of the same two characters – which look primarily at the lives of a group of 20 somethings who live in an unspecified large City (**) and work in the restaurant or advertising industries and whose lives are dopamine-dominated via the media of their smartphones and browsers, as well as by the financial tyranny of the intersection of high rent and low pay/long hour jobs and the pressure to resist the failure of being bailed out by the bank (and moving back to the home) of Mum (and Dad – although mainly Mum in this book).
(**) The author has said that the book is deliberately set in a blurred every place global city – but the characters are noticeably English, London the only such English town and the author lived and worked in London – so its easier just to assume its London
(*) It is very possible this is just the country living, City-working early Generation X in me coming out judgmentally when reading a book about Urban non-financial services Millennials – as I think there is actually a real depth to the writing in:
The themes it explores (the way in which the book explores privacy and its invasion – not just via the internet or work surveillance but say by a landlord who does not respect boundaries);
The inner lives it portrays (an extended side story has a – in her own view – plain looking woman musing on a humiliation she faced in a spin the bottle party when her schoolchild crush refused to kiss her);
And in some of its original descriptive writing (a sky “the colour of the financial times” is a highlight).
The two main characters are Julia – who works as a chef at a trendy restaurant and who suffers from self-doubt and indecision/passivity; and her one time college boyfriend Nick – now in rather a funk with an alcohol/self respect problem and working in a dead end job as a copywriter for an advertising/media agency where he tries to write stories when no one is looking (this last part is clearly autobiographical and of great interest to the writer as this Grant piece makes clear - https://granta.com/jem-calder-notes-o...).
The first and longest story written in a series of short, snappily titled third party vignettes, tells of Julia’s move to her latest job and the relationship she allows herself to be drawn into with her older boss against her and our better judgement – the style is I think Rooney-esque (and Saint Sally blurbs the book) but of course whereas Rooney’s characters are famously non-techy (other than email) Julia conducts much of her self online.
Better Off Alone was perhaps the weaker story for me – narrated in the first person a rather down on his luck Nick crashes a house party to little effect (other than we do go back to when he and Julia met).
Distraction from Sadness is Not The Same as Happiness (a brilliant title from an anonymous internet course many years before) is I think likely to be the love it or hate it part of the collection – effectively narrated at first from the point of view of a dating site algorithm it sets out the relationship arc of a male user and female user (I think probably the female user is Julia) – and in doing so dissects 21st century dating both from the IT and “user” experience
Excuse Me Don’t I Now You – has Julia and Nick briefly meeting at a Farmers' Market and then going for a walk together as we are privy (privacy invasion of course being the prerogative of a traditional novel) to their thoughts on each other
Search Engine Optimisation is the third big part of the book – a multicharacter exploration of Nick’s workplace on a Friday when one of their fellow workers is leaving and effectively an examination of office protocols and politics in a timesheet’d, creative agency as the characters project, interact and typically fail to understand each other, all of it partly moderated by an IT worker who has used the keystroke and browser surveillance systems to track what each of the colleagues do for the large part of the time when they are now working. If I had a criticism of this part it is that it feels already very dated due to the pandemic
The Forseeable then addresses this – set in early lockdown with Nick (the first party narrator) and Julia now both furloughed, both living back with their Mums and Face Timing each other and with Nick admitting that his last few stories “read like irrelevant period pieces, set in a frivolous, pre-contagion reality”.
Overall a fresh and talented voice and a read which is while not a dopamine hit certainly rewarding.
(**) The author has said that the book is deliberately set in a blurred every place global city – but the characters are noticeably English, London the only such English town and the author lived and worked in London – so its easier just to assume its London
(*) It is very possible this is just the country living, City-working early Generation X in me coming out judgmentally when reading a book about Urban non-financial services Millennials – as I think there is actually a real depth to the writing in:
The themes it explores (the way in which the book explores privacy and its invasion – not just via the internet or work surveillance but say by a landlord who does not respect boundaries);
The inner lives it portrays (an extended side story has a – in her own view – plain looking woman musing on a humiliation she faced in a spin the bottle party when her schoolchild crush refused to kiss her);
And in some of its original descriptive writing (a sky “the colour of the financial times” is a highlight).
The two main characters are Julia – who works as a chef at a trendy restaurant and who suffers from self-doubt and indecision/passivity; and her one time college boyfriend Nick – now in rather a funk with an alcohol/self respect problem and working in a dead end job as a copywriter for an advertising/media agency where he tries to write stories when no one is looking (this last part is clearly autobiographical and of great interest to the writer as this Grant piece makes clear - https://granta.com/jem-calder-notes-o...).
The first and longest story written in a series of short, snappily titled third party vignettes, tells of Julia’s move to her latest job and the relationship she allows herself to be drawn into with her older boss against her and our better judgement – the style is I think Rooney-esque (and Saint Sally blurbs the book) but of course whereas Rooney’s characters are famously non-techy (other than email) Julia conducts much of her self online.
Better Off Alone was perhaps the weaker story for me – narrated in the first person a rather down on his luck Nick crashes a house party to little effect (other than we do go back to when he and Julia met).
Distraction from Sadness is Not The Same as Happiness (a brilliant title from an anonymous internet course many years before) is I think likely to be the love it or hate it part of the collection – effectively narrated at first from the point of view of a dating site algorithm it sets out the relationship arc of a male user and female user (I think probably the female user is Julia) – and in doing so dissects 21st century dating both from the IT and “user” experience
Excuse Me Don’t I Now You – has Julia and Nick briefly meeting at a Farmers' Market and then going for a walk together as we are privy (privacy invasion of course being the prerogative of a traditional novel) to their thoughts on each other
Search Engine Optimisation is the third big part of the book – a multicharacter exploration of Nick’s workplace on a Friday when one of their fellow workers is leaving and effectively an examination of office protocols and politics in a timesheet’d, creative agency as the characters project, interact and typically fail to understand each other, all of it partly moderated by an IT worker who has used the keystroke and browser surveillance systems to track what each of the colleagues do for the large part of the time when they are now working. If I had a criticism of this part it is that it feels already very dated due to the pandemic
The Forseeable then addresses this – set in early lockdown with Nick (the first party narrator) and Julia now both furloughed, both living back with their Mums and Face Timing each other and with Nick admitting that his last few stories “read like irrelevant period pieces, set in a frivolous, pre-contagion reality”.
Overall a fresh and talented voice and a read which is while not a dopamine hit certainly rewarding.
Read
November 27, 2022I have to say I actually really liked the first story in this, and I thought the second and third were enjoyable as well, but then it all got a bit exhausting to read.
I think some reflections on our relationship with technology were quite interesting, like how things happening in your phone feel like the present and the 'real world' increasingly like the past. But when the narrator of a short story stops to say something like 'when was the last time you've read a short story in one go without looking at your phone', you'll forgive me for rolling my eyes a bit.
There is one story seemingly narrated from/ emulating the perspective of a algorithm, and generally considering this collection's focus on modern technology and social media, the narration sometimes took on an impersonal, slightly stilted, and almost unnatural style - a bit of an obvious choice but at the same time nothing I have read in this way before.
The stories following male characters were getting more and more exhausting to read. There was something in the voice and perspective that made the writing feel a bit pretentious and event patronising (especially those recurring descriptions of women being worried about how they look).
Also not completely sure how I feel about the inclusion of Covid towards the end. It reminded me of Beautiful World Where Are You, where it similarly took me out of the fictitious lives of the characters and consequently annoyed me a bit.
I think some reflections on our relationship with technology were quite interesting, like how things happening in your phone feel like the present and the 'real world' increasingly like the past. But when the narrator of a short story stops to say something like 'when was the last time you've read a short story in one go without looking at your phone', you'll forgive me for rolling my eyes a bit.
There is one story seemingly narrated from/ emulating the perspective of a algorithm, and generally considering this collection's focus on modern technology and social media, the narration sometimes took on an impersonal, slightly stilted, and almost unnatural style - a bit of an obvious choice but at the same time nothing I have read in this way before.
The stories following male characters were getting more and more exhausting to read. There was something in the voice and perspective that made the writing feel a bit pretentious and event patronising (especially those recurring descriptions of women being worried about how they look).
Also not completely sure how I feel about the inclusion of Covid towards the end. It reminded me of Beautiful World Where Are You, where it similarly took me out of the fictitious lives of the characters and consequently annoyed me a bit.
September 28, 2024
E sono stata anche generosa. Noioso da paura e senza picchi.
March 2, 2023
incredible. i admire the deft and smooth navigation of the different plots and narrative voices, its virtuosity at tying them together, its confidence in the intelligence of the reader. the most realistic fictional depiction of how unprecedentedly omnipresent technology is in our lives, in our minds. this is truly what the inside of my brain looks like.
devoured this during a long ferry ride. i recommend this to fans of sally rooney and emily st. john mandel.
devoured this during a long ferry ride. i recommend this to fans of sally rooney and emily st. john mandel.
June 7, 2023
Sinceramente si me lo he terminado es porque me lo he comprado en físico, pero 😴
September 30, 2024
due stelle come le due palle che mi sono scese leggendolo
January 6, 2026
i went into this thinking it was a short story collection and it wasn't? it was basically stories from two characters who used to date and it's just them going about their very boring lives. i literally disliked every single character that appeared in every single story, especially one of the main characters. also, the writing style gave the same vibe to me as when you're desperately trying to meet the word count of an essay so you take a very roundabout way of saying very simple things
June 5, 2024
love reading about chronically online loners sooo true, this is sooo good - I love when books write about technology & social media in a way that isn’t forced, (quite rare I find) but it feels so natural here whilst also drawing attention to the artificiality of it at all as well plus it itches such a scratch in my brain when short stories have interconnecting characters
July 18, 2022
great cover, even better book.
June 18, 2023
Me ha recordado perquè me gusta leer ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
September 29, 2024
Seriamente?
December 13, 2022
This was a book about dopamine, all the things we do in order to achieve it, from swiping to eating to being in touch with each other, if only via screens.
Oh damn you, digital age!
Just wonderful, wonderful thoughts about the nature of time, hidden across the book! That's something that I've been working on, too, so I was very intrigued.
Great structure and length, great dialogue and a good satiric view on the way people exist in our world nowadays, being there yet not being there. The parts about the pandemic seemed already dated but I have a feeling they will hold up surprisingly well in the years to come as it revealed multiple things about our time.
Oh damn you, digital age!
Just wonderful, wonderful thoughts about the nature of time, hidden across the book! That's something that I've been working on, too, so I was very intrigued.
Great structure and length, great dialogue and a good satiric view on the way people exist in our world nowadays, being there yet not being there. The parts about the pandemic seemed already dated but I have a feeling they will hold up surprisingly well in the years to come as it revealed multiple things about our time.
November 30, 2022
1.5 stars
November 14, 2024
Un libro dalla copertina intelligente e dalla sinossi accattivante. Si vende bene, ma conferma le aspettative?
Direi solo in parte. Contiene idee interessanti, in particolare ho apprezzato l’intento di mettere in un testo di narrativa contemporanea l’influenza che hanno ormai i social e le app di messaggistica istantanea sulle relazioni. In alcuni punti sembra di leggere di fantascienza, in altri fa tenerezza, in altri ancora di lascia questo pensiero: ma siamo veramente ridotti così? La risposta è SI.
Il libro contiene diversi racconti. Il primo è quasi metà libro e vede Julia un aiuto cuoco alla prese con la vita in città, le sue amicizie i suoi amori. Nel corso del libro i personaggi vengono ripresi negli altri racconti. Contiene due racconti completamente estranei al personaggio di Julia: una parla delle app di incontri ed è carino, un altro della vita di ufficio in un’azienda di servizi. Quest’ultimo racconto è bruttino, difficile da seguire perché introduce molti personaggi in poco spazio, ma tirando le somme anche questo contiene alcune faccende interessanti.
Un libro che mi ha fatto piacere leggere, specialmente per i suoi intenti di rappresentare la modernità, ma che mi ha anche in parte deluso per lo stile di scrittura.
Direi solo in parte. Contiene idee interessanti, in particolare ho apprezzato l’intento di mettere in un testo di narrativa contemporanea l’influenza che hanno ormai i social e le app di messaggistica istantanea sulle relazioni. In alcuni punti sembra di leggere di fantascienza, in altri fa tenerezza, in altri ancora di lascia questo pensiero: ma siamo veramente ridotti così? La risposta è SI.
Il libro contiene diversi racconti. Il primo è quasi metà libro e vede Julia un aiuto cuoco alla prese con la vita in città, le sue amicizie i suoi amori. Nel corso del libro i personaggi vengono ripresi negli altri racconti. Contiene due racconti completamente estranei al personaggio di Julia: una parla delle app di incontri ed è carino, un altro della vita di ufficio in un’azienda di servizi. Quest’ultimo racconto è bruttino, difficile da seguire perché introduce molti personaggi in poco spazio, ma tirando le somme anche questo contiene alcune faccende interessanti.
Un libro che mi ha fatto piacere leggere, specialmente per i suoi intenti di rappresentare la modernità, ma che mi ha anche in parte deluso per lo stile di scrittura.
January 8, 2024
No es ningún secreto que me encantan los libros de relatos, es más cada vez los disfruto más. Por eso cuando vi esta novedad supe que llevaba mi nombre.
En este caso el autor está amadrinado por Sally Rooney y que promete ser un fiel reflejo de la generación millennial. Consta de cinco relatos interconectados en los que es imposible no sentirse identificados aunque sea por el contexto y no por el fondo.
Relaciones a través de una pantalla, incertidumbre laboral, una salud mental algo debilitadla… claros signos de nuestra generación. Pero si que es verdad que creo que el libro ha ido de más a menos, sin duda el primer relato me parece maravilloso en cuanto a su estructura como en su mensaje.
He disfrutado principalmente de tres de ellos, los otros dos me han resultado un poco pesados e incluso un poco difícil seguir el hilo en algunos momentos.
Pero si miramos el conjunto del libro creo que es interesante, con un mensaje muy claro y una pluma bastante mordaz del autor queda una relato demasiado veraz de nuestra generación.
Por mi parte seguiré de cerca al autor porque a pesar de los peros me ha resultado interesante su obra debut.
En este caso el autor está amadrinado por Sally Rooney y que promete ser un fiel reflejo de la generación millennial. Consta de cinco relatos interconectados en los que es imposible no sentirse identificados aunque sea por el contexto y no por el fondo.
Relaciones a través de una pantalla, incertidumbre laboral, una salud mental algo debilitadla… claros signos de nuestra generación. Pero si que es verdad que creo que el libro ha ido de más a menos, sin duda el primer relato me parece maravilloso en cuanto a su estructura como en su mensaje.
He disfrutado principalmente de tres de ellos, los otros dos me han resultado un poco pesados e incluso un poco difícil seguir el hilo en algunos momentos.
Pero si miramos el conjunto del libro creo que es interesante, con un mensaje muy claro y una pluma bastante mordaz del autor queda una relato demasiado veraz de nuestra generación.
Por mi parte seguiré de cerca al autor porque a pesar de los peros me ha resultado interesante su obra debut.
September 7, 2022
Very Sally Rooney vibes - stories about mundane, everyday friendships and relationships, work in the build-up to the pandemic. It's very readable, and some of the observational writing is great. The weaving together of the stories into one overall narrative with a lot of the same characters didn't quite work for me - it felt like it hadn't decided whether to be short stories or a novella. The stories about Nick's office environment, annoying men, and meaningless work felt well-observed but just not very enjoyable to read. The highlight was "Distraction from Sadness is Not the Same as Happiness", a touching and sensitive piece of storytelling. I would be interested to read more by Jem Calder, because I don't think we see his full potential realised here.
March 15, 2023
"she had to be careful, now she was here, not to fall back into old-Julia behaviours: not to reveal her true nature as a crier, pleaser, and worrier; not to do or say the kinds of things the person she was pretending to be wouldn't say or do."
May 10, 2023
4.75/5
I’m not really sure how to describe the way I feel after having read this except for “increasingly aware of my own existence”
I’m not really sure how to describe the way I feel after having read this except for “increasingly aware of my own existence”
May 30, 2023
Some parts I liked, some parts I didn’t.
January 3, 2026
Mark my words Jem Calder’s gonna be big in 2026. This was straight up my alley. One could argue (and they have) ultracontemporary fiction is pointless because it describes the world we live in and interact with every day, but that’s precisely the reason it’s my favorite genre of writing, so I don’t care, that shit goood.
Calder’s writing is the sort of writing I can’t get enough of. He’s undoubtedly cut from the same cloth as Sally Rooney yet still markedly different. It’s the type of writing that makes me want to write even more, that infuses me with the hope that someday soon I could have the capacity to create something that has the same effect as this had on me.
The dialogue was exactly how I want dialogue to sound - realistic, question marks where periods should be and periods should be, because that’s genuinely how talking actually sounds a lot of the time. Everything about this was digestible, melancholy, and above all, real!!! The best thing stories can be, in my humble opinion, is real, and Calder hits the target perfectly. I can’t wait to read I Want You To Be Happy when it comes out in May - he’s gonna make waves.
Calder’s writing is the sort of writing I can’t get enough of. He’s undoubtedly cut from the same cloth as Sally Rooney yet still markedly different. It’s the type of writing that makes me want to write even more, that infuses me with the hope that someday soon I could have the capacity to create something that has the same effect as this had on me.
The dialogue was exactly how I want dialogue to sound - realistic, question marks where periods should be and periods should be, because that’s genuinely how talking actually sounds a lot of the time. Everything about this was digestible, melancholy, and above all, real!!! The best thing stories can be, in my humble opinion, is real, and Calder hits the target perfectly. I can’t wait to read I Want You To Be Happy when it comes out in May - he’s gonna make waves.
Read
February 2, 2025enjoyed, i think. sometimes very very very perceptive. but does the sally rooney special (not exclusive to her but she blurbed this book) of describing certain things (swiffer wetjets, the apps) like an alien witnessing the use of them for the first time but taking the reader’s knowledge of other things (facebook???) entirely for granted lol. i get Why and i don’t Dislike it but it’s Funny
October 18, 2024
i thoroughly LOVED this, easy to read, poignant, clever, something a little different, and just hitting the right spots. @Fanni @Elly you need to read this !!!
August 13, 2023
i appreciate this book for existing and i would love to have a convo with the author on his thoughts because i think we would agree a lot. really can’t decide whether to give it a 4 or a 5 bc there were so many points in the book where i felt like Jem calder so effortlessly and with purpose was able to sum up and describe a totally look over able human action/feeling/thought process/way of interacting and i love that. it was perfect for encapsulating little moments i feel a lot of authors overlook, and i liked the way it made you think about certain aspects of technology in our culture, which i think can be beneficial for a lot of people, or mainly everyone.
also if ur reading this jem calder, i think you are an infp
also if ur reading this jem calder, i think you are an infp
Read
March 8, 2024Wanted to read this book ever since the publisher rep handed me this book in the bookstore I used to work and asked me to email her my thoughts. I really enjoyed the dating app story and how you can see it’s trace throughout the book and re-read that part afterwards.
I think Jem Celder had no interest in character development and just wanted to connect their life stories through multiple short stories which I think is a very bold and novel move.
I think Jem Celder had no interest in character development and just wanted to connect their life stories through multiple short stories which I think is a very bold and novel move.
January 17, 2026
ok usually the books that i find from dollar tree are underrated but this one book did not enjoy at all it was literally my bedtime story book🤣🤣
October 18, 2024
Una raccolta di racconti sul rapporto - sempre più vischioso - tra Internet e le relazioni interpersonali, e come il primo influenzi le seconde e viceversa. Il primo racconto, forse il più lungo tra i sei, all’inizio appare un po’ lento, quasi farraginoso da leggere, anche a causa della struttura a micro-paragrafi titolati presente; poi però migliora, per fortuna, e a un certo punto appare persino Hejira di Joni Mitchell — che è tipo uno dei miei album preferiti di sempre, e che cosa bella.
Il resto dei racconti è okay: alcuni più carini, che in un modo o nell’altro hanno lasciato il segno, mi hanno dato una strana sensazione di comfort e anche una tristezza dolce, molto malinconica; altri meno, tipo quello sulle dinamiche interne dell’azienda in cui lavora Nick, noiosissimo. In generale è okay: mi aspettavo un’opera su ventenni-quasi-trentenni che cercano di barcamenarsi in questa cosa paurosa chiamata “vita nel capitalismo” e lo è, almeno per buona parte; avrei apprezzato una maggior caratterizzazione dei personaggi - specialmente di Julia e Nick che, nonostante siano i protagonisti, appaiono comunque abbastanza superficiali.
Il resto dei racconti è okay: alcuni più carini, che in un modo o nell’altro hanno lasciato il segno, mi hanno dato una strana sensazione di comfort e anche una tristezza dolce, molto malinconica; altri meno, tipo quello sulle dinamiche interne dell’azienda in cui lavora Nick, noiosissimo. In generale è okay: mi aspettavo un’opera su ventenni-quasi-trentenni che cercano di barcamenarsi in questa cosa paurosa chiamata “vita nel capitalismo” e lo è, almeno per buona parte; avrei apprezzato una maggior caratterizzazione dei personaggi - specialmente di Julia e Nick che, nonostante siano i protagonisti, appaiono comunque abbastanza superficiali.
November 5, 2024
Ho avuto l'impressione che questo libro sia una mera descrizione della pervasività della tecnologia senza una riflessione a riguardo.
(Ma potrei sbagliarmi, prendete questo commento con le pinze, non ho fatto il classico)
(Ma potrei sbagliarmi, prendete questo commento con le pinze, non ho fatto il classico)
October 10, 2024
Bella copertina, ma finisce lì.
July 19, 2024
Parece querer emular a Sally Rooney, aunque bajo mi punto de vista es más desesperanzador. Se limita a describir, sin ningún tipo de sentimiento, una sociedad y un tipo de relaciones interpersonales bastante tóxicas. Cada personaje se da demasiada importancia a sí mismo, lo que resulta agotador y frustrante. No parece haber desenlace optimista en ninguna de las historias; la primera comienza bien pero acaba súbitamente y, desde ahí, el libro es una catástrofe. No lo recomiendo.
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