Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Circle by Dave Eggers

13 reviews

asafekindofhigh's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Suicide, Body shaming, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

cecinamo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Really good and terrifying book! 
Sometimes it really stressed me out reading about how social interaction and having no privacy were basically mandatory o_o… 
The mc is a classical unreliable narrator. It’s maddening how self centered and close minded she is at some points. 
The book explores the dangers of a completely digitalized and surveilled world. It’s very interesting and scary. 
I think the ending fell a bit short, but overall it was very good! :> 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Car accident, Suicide, Alcohol, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Gaslighting, Blood, Stalking, Misogyny, Grief, Death, and Mental illness

phantomgecko's review

challenging sad 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

I hated this book. It's agonizing to read.

But the 4 star rating isn't a mistake. Eggers had a message and related it perfectly.

Science fiction is a critique of the present. The Circle uses hyperbole but like just barely. The real possibility of this particular dystopia is chilling and sooooo frustrating.

Mae is the perfect protagonist. I didn't agree with a single one of her choices. Everything she chose was wrong or stupid. Her thought processes were believable, though, so it unfortunately all made sense. To have a character that swallowed all the propaganda (and helped create it) as the main character made the message that much more effective. More effective than just having the "bad guys" do all the bad things.

Honestly, I could write a really in depth literary analysis of this novel, but I don't have the time, and doing so would be too depressing/aggravating. And also patronizing, I think. I was originally going to point out specific things that happen in the book and how insidious they are, but...as a reader I trust you to see it. 

It's not subtle. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Classism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Cursing, Fatphobia, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

theloveroflovers's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.25

The characters are so unlikable that at some point you get the urge to keep reading to see them realise their stupidity. The writting stile is good but to detailed, slow-paced. The book was too long and the end wasn't sadisfying.

If you wanr to read the book, listen to the audibook instead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Car accident, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Pedophilia, Cancer, Cursing, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Classism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Murder

ottercorg's review

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

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

augie_'s review

challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Death, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Child death, and Child abuse

eule's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I like and loathe this book simultaneously. This book is important to read. It’s important to understand and stress the right to anonymity. „We must all have the right to disappear“ as a certain character (no spoiler) put it in the book. While I believe this book is crucial to read, I still hate it wholeheartedly. Why, you may ask?

• I hate nearly all characters, especially the main character, Mae Holland (arrogant, naïve, selfish, indecisive, biased, disgusting, facile, ignorant, … the list goes on)
• I hate the weird relationships she has (never call the tip of a penis crown again)
• I hate Mae’s non-existing personality (why did they chose poor Emma Watson in the movie???)
• I hate that this book has no chapters (Is it meant to be a circle with no ending or beginning?)
• I hate that character development is missing (she had so many chances to change her behavior), even though that’s the whole point of the book: she is supposed to represent the people blindly following a monopoly system 
• I hate the fatphobia and the CONSTANT MANIPULATION, HELP
• I hate and love simultaneously that the plot is „just“ about the life at the company and how it takes over the world
• I am confused about the tension. I was sometimes bored to death because she was rendering about her „dumb friends (Mercer and Annie) and family (her parents). And in the next moment I wanted to know if we will ever get revenge on this entitled bitch and the inveterate circle

You see, I am enraged about this book and that’s the whole point, I believe. We have to understand that this book, even though it was published 10 years ago, is a mirror to today’s reality (have Google, Facebook and co in mind). Still you could have easily shortened the book by 100/200 pages. 

Ps: thank you to my friend Nex for letting me buy this book from him :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, Medical content, Body shaming, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Car accident, Child abuse, Abandonment, Child death, and Colonisation

ashm9's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

ladyzbyrd's review

dark mysterious reflective tense 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

2.0

This book came highly recommended by a friend. 

Typical dystopian horror story with recycled tropes, high predictability, and superficial characters. 

Even the few sex scenes and mental fantasies for a female protagonist were CLEARLY written by a man.

I would not recommend this unless you’re deep into conspiracy theories about how technology is sooooooo incredibly evil. There’s interestingly a heavily biased “warning” against evil technology (read: power-hungry people) that you just can’t miss. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Animal death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship