Carlin is a contributor for TIME. In Adelle Waldman’s shrewd second novel, Help Wanted, the employees of a struggling superstore in a small, upstate New York town don’t just get mad, they get even.

There's a moment towards the end of Adelle Waldman's new novel, Help Wanted, where a smart-but-insecure young woman named Nicole, who's a worker in a big-box store, approaches her manager to ask him ...