Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Circle by Dave Eggers

11 reviews

paguroidea's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, and Stalking

Moderate: Fatphobia and Sexual content

Minor: Kidnapping and Slavery

eachz's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

God I hated this so much that I finished it out of spite. And then the ending was worse than I could have imagined. 

I'm pretty sure the author has a humiliation fetish and I say this both because of the EXTREMELY nauseating way every unnecessary sexual encounter was described AND the fact that he put his name on this book.

The whole thing was extremely 12-year-old-who-thinks-hes-deep. Imagine taking a really interesting, nuanced topic like internet privacy and then writing a one-note book with the most BASIC take and no grey area. So much of the time was spent explaining the new tech being developed in this hypothetical era -- which has, by the way, wildly inconsistent levels of ability, which is a pet peeve of mine -- and zero time bringing any dimension or sign of life to the cast of boring, unlikeable, flat characters. No one's motivations remotely make sense, and no one seems to have any thoughts or conversations that aren't a ham-fisted monologue on one end or the other of the ideological spectrum.

For a while I wondered if I was just bothered because it was written 11 years ago and hasn't aged well in terms of the conversation around tech and privacy. But no, I've read plenty of outdated science fiction that was still extremely enjoyable. This was just a terrible book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Car accident, Fatphobia, Suicide, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Alcohol

Minor: Police brutality, Slavery, Colonisation, and Misogyny

ottercorg's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Usually it's hard for me to read a book with a main character that makes me so mad, but for this plot to really work, Mae had to play that role. 

I love considering at which moment any given reader would finally say The Circle had gone to far. At which new implement does any given reader lose hope? 

I read this book thinking about Meta, and now that I've finished I think about it in the context of Ai in this current world. 

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it. As always, I like books to neatly tie off all plotlines at the end and this one doesn't do that - but apparently this is a series, which means there's still hope...

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Slavery, Death, Medical trauma, Medical content, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Alcohol, Car accident, and Chronic illness

robyn_fenix's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Suicide, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Cancer, and Stalking

Minor: Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Abandonment, Slavery, Cancer, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Grief, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cultural appropriation, Eating disorder, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, and Sexual assault

skeptic_hecate's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book went really dark really fast, but in a very subtle way, which I appreciate. The author could really pull of the mental gymnastics and the self brainwashing the protagonist went through. If anything, this book is a great study on cult mentality and guilt culture. I sincerely hope humanity is not down that path. It is a modern version of Orwellian dystopia. It definitely wrinkled my brain, the writing style is subtle enough for one to really imagine seeing themselves in a similar situation. The ending was a bit predictable, but no less frightening because of that. I highly recommend this read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Chronic illness

Minor: Kidnapping and Slavery

mxpringle's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was an honestly frightening look into the way that large tech monopolies are taking over our government and society, and what they could do if they further decide to do so. I really appreciated all the insight that this book had to offer, but I thought it might've been a bit long and slow for the message it was trying to give. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness and Sexual content

Minor: Slavery, Death, and Suicide

milaju's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

This book‘s characters really seem to have no to little personality whatsoever. The development of the story is boring and slow and there is no real plot twist that influences the story. If it had, I might have preferred the new ending. Mae fatshaming Mercer was on another level and portraits a very intolerant picture to readers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Minor: Child death and Slavery

mordshunger's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Nice: The writer knows how to produce availability clatter so intense it got my teeth grinding.

Not so nice: The protagonist cannot form a single critical thought and has angelic patience. There is no mention of anyone being as annoyed as I felt, inundated by the pings and rings, screens, metrics, inane messages, hurt egos, benign data flooding in.


I have turned off all notifications and deleted a bunch of apps after this, just for my own sake. Don't get an Alexa, people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Car accident, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Slavery

I think Annie would make a much more compelling protagonist

iridaceae's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Cursing, and Sexual content

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, and War

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia

elodie_melodie's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Suicide, and Toxic friendship