Work Nights

By: Erica Peplin

Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens

**Longlisted for the Center for Fiction 2025 First Novel Prize**

A young queer woman finds herself in a love triangle with an unobtainable intern and a quick-tempered musician in this charming debut that combines Big Swiss with The Devil Wears Prada.

Jane Grabowski hauls herself to her nine to five office job at New York City’s most acclaimed newspaper to sit in stale air under severe florescent lights and mask her rage by sending emails with too many exclamation points.

Luckily, Jane has a reason to keep coming into the office: Madeline, the distractingly beautiful intern. Madeline has never dated a woman and is uncomfortable with labels but with carefully timed lunch breaks and painstakingly crafted texts, Jane works her way into her life. Meanwhile, Jane’s free-spirited artist roommate tries to keep her from falling for a straight girl by dragging Jane to gay bars and queer Shabbat dinners, where she meets the decidedly uncool and morally righteous musician, Addy.

Caught between Addy’s readiness to commit and Madeline’s alluring unpredictability, Jane is pulled down a slippery path of lies and deceit, leading to a plane ticket that threatens to take everything down in one fell swoop.

Point?

I kept listening to the unlikeable characters waiting for the point that was never delivered.

Honest, raw, funny

A real depiction of what it’s like working a toxic office job, struggling to find love and yourself AND wondering if you’ll ever go after your dreams. Brava!

Choppy

Hard to follow story. Too much jumping around. I was surprised when it ended. It needed something more.