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beehives's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Like "The Circle", "The Every" presents a bleak technological future without any concrete solutions to how to avoid it. Eggers has interesting ideas of how far humans could go in replacing society with technology and fleshes out the world he described in "The Circle", but he fails to offer any sort of way to dig ourselves out of this hole. The book is also quite self-referential (it briefly mentions about the 2019 movie "The Circle" based on the book, which Eggers seems unhappy about) and contains more obvious references to existing places and technologies, an interesting contrast with the vagueness of the Circle in the first book.
Delaney is a hard main character to root for; on the one hand, she's noble in her goal of taking down the Every and her backstory is sympathetic, but on the other hand, her methods are incredibly naive. The end of the story seems rather obvious about halfway through, so I found myself hoping against hope that she would realize before it was too late (spoiler:she didn't. Trust no one. ). Perhaps the only characters I really rooted for were the "trog" communities and the homeless encampment communities, though several "Everyones" deserved sympathy for their treatment within the system.
Delaney is a hard main character to root for; on the one hand, she's noble in her goal of taking down the Every and her backstory is sympathetic, but on the other hand, her methods are incredibly naive. The end of the story seems rather obvious about halfway through, so I found myself hoping against hope that she would realize before it was too late (spoiler:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide
Animal death/cruelty specifics:muffmacguff's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I thought a lot was great about this book but it also had some very notable flaws. It’s a solid expansion on what he started with The Circle, acknowledging how much worse tech companies are now than he saw then. I think telling the story through one character’s eyes is interesting because a lot of the story goes unexplained just because she (Delaney) doesn’t really know what happened - this sometimes works to the detriment of her character development, I think. I also thought the book was correctly alarmist about monopoly tech companies but conflating them with like cancel culture and stuff was a little silly and felt out of touch - as though a tech company would make any decision based on an apparent consensus of its employees? Idk.
The edition I read had discussion questions in the back which is a feature I often find worthwhile but in this case many were ridiculous. This book takes place in the near future and occasionally involves characters interacting with houseless people. One discussion question is like “If you lived in the time of this book would you be [one type of character], [another type of character], or an unhoused person?” Like guys homelessness is not a sci fi concept. It also literally asks “What kind of business model would truly minimize waste and wasteful shopping?” ⚒⚒⚒
This book reminded me in some chilling ways of Mother Night, I think it’s a reasonably good companion piece! Anyway I do recommend if you liked The Circle enough.
The edition I read had discussion questions in the back which is a feature I often find worthwhile but in this case many were ridiculous. This book takes place in the near future and occasionally involves characters interacting with houseless people. One discussion question is like “If you lived in the time of this book would you be [one type of character], [another type of character], or an unhoused person?” Like guys homelessness is not a sci fi concept. It also literally asks “What kind of business model would truly minimize waste and wasteful shopping?” ⚒⚒⚒
This book reminded me in some chilling ways of Mother Night, I think it’s a reasonably good companion piece! Anyway I do recommend if you liked The Circle enough.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicide
nikki725's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, and Domestic abuse
joshhornbeck's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
FIRST THOUGHTS:
A really compelling, fun, but incredibly dark read about the state of technology and our society’s desire to cede choice to algorithms and artificial intelligence out of a fear of making wrong or incorrect choices on our own. This definitely falls more on the mainstream side of Eggers’s writing, and you can palpably see his anger at the state of American society right now - the inability of even well-meaning individuals to understand nuance or complexity, the rapacious growth of tech companies and our increasing dependence on them for everything - this is a novel of warning and frustration. But it’s also refreshing to see that he also understands that these major corporations may be our only way out of the environmental catastrophe that lies ahead of us… they just also want the unfettered wealth and power they’re amassing along the way. It may not be his most masterful work, but it’s a solid work of (not so) speculative fiction that manages to hold on to the nuance that so many today are afraid to explore.
A really compelling, fun, but incredibly dark read about the state of technology and our society’s desire to cede choice to algorithms and artificial intelligence out of a fear of making wrong or incorrect choices on our own. This definitely falls more on the mainstream side of Eggers’s writing, and you can palpably see his anger at the state of American society right now - the inability of even well-meaning individuals to understand nuance or complexity, the rapacious growth of tech companies and our increasing dependence on them for everything - this is a novel of warning and frustration. But it’s also refreshing to see that he also understands that these major corporations may be our only way out of the environmental catastrophe that lies ahead of us… they just also want the unfettered wealth and power they’re amassing along the way. It may not be his most masterful work, but it’s a solid work of (not so) speculative fiction that manages to hold on to the nuance that so many today are afraid to explore.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcohol, Child abuse, Cancer, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness
stlkatiek's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Taking place 10 years after the events of The Circle, this story features two people trying to take down an evil corporation (a hybrid of facebook, google, and amazon) from the inside. Although a bit meandering at times, it was clever satire of groupthink corporate dynamics and chilling prequel to some of the more haunting Black Mirror episodes. The irony of reading this on an android (Google) device, on a library app tracking my reading speed and progress, then immediately logging onto another (Amazon-owned) app to track and share my thoughts is not going unnoticed...
Read it Because:
I loved The Circle
Reminded me of:
Black Mirror (multiple episodes)
QualityLand
Read it Because:
I loved The Circle
Reminded me of:
Black Mirror (multiple episodes)
QualityLand
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
nstew16's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is exactly the kind of sequel readers should expect from The Circle. It was everything it needed to be.
Part of the brilliance of this concept is that readers can admire exactly how this economic model is ideal for sustainable living and being mindful of the global consumption issues while also reminding us of the problematic nature it poses when presented as a large scale monopoly that eliminates much of what makes us human. It is a very interesting idea to wrestle with.
My only negative comment is that the references to pop culture are a little bit distracting from the era Delaney is experiencing.
Part of the brilliance of this concept is that readers can admire exactly how this economic model is ideal for sustainable living and being mindful of the global consumption issues while also reminding us of the problematic nature it poses when presented as a large scale monopoly that eliminates much of what makes us human. It is a very interesting idea to wrestle with.
My only negative comment is that the references to pop culture are a little bit distracting from the era Delaney is experiencing.
The first few were cute and did work the way they were meant to, which is in establishing a timeline, but after a while they seem derived and not well thought out in relation to the narrative. Comparing the already established timeline to one that is not longer relevant.
I think by trying to establish his world's credibility and relevance to modern time, Eggers actually ends up dating his ideas and opinions and reminding the reader of his presence in the narrative. I wish he had spent more time giving himself credit for new ideas and establishing his world's own pop culture than making convenient nods to a world that has long since become irrelevant by the time The Every has been established as an absolute force. Luckily, the cheap references stopped about midway through the book to focus on the plot.
A few authors/books that The Every reminded me of were:
- Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan (also set in San Francisco and published one year before The Circle)
- George Orwell
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut (the satire is quite similar)
The ending itself, though predictable and unsettling, is exactly as I believe it needed to be. Well done, Dave Eggers.
A few authors/books that The Every reminded me of were:
- Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan (also set in San Francisco and published one year before The Circle)
- George Orwell
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut (the satire is quite similar)
Bold
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Physical abuse
Minor: Animal death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
emmoben's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt
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