"At the centre of Secret Life is The Building, an office building wherein several factions vie for dominance... Jeff VanderMeer's ecological speculations overlap with Theo Ellsworth's deep-layered style to create a mind-bending narrative that defamiliarizes the mundanity of office work and makes the arcane rituals of The Building home... Secret Life observes the sinister individualism of bureaucratic settings in contrast with an unconcerned natural...