Millie is an "eternal temp" living in Chicago, currently working a low-stakes position at an upscale interior design firm. Her days are a repetitive cycle of answering intermittent phone calls, putting together folders, and scrolling the internet to fill the void of a job that feels unnecessary.

Halle Butler’s The New Me (2019) has found a second, vibrant life on social media platforms—particularly VK (Vkontakte), the Russian social network that has become an unlikely archive for English-language literary criticism and file sharing. Why VK? Because the novel’s themes of isolation, digital scrolling, and performative ambition transcend borders. In Russia, as in the US and UK, Millennials and Gen Z-ers feel the exact same "open-plan office dread." the new me halle butler vk new

"Same," I said. "Same."