Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Circle by Dave Eggers

4 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

nenaveenstra's review

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? It's complicated

3.5

Re-reading this book in 2023 was an interesting experience, because I could see a lot of parallels with current technology and attempts at making a complete online habitat, such as Meta, but at the same time I know how much people value seeing each other in real life and going outside and having privacy. Hell, people value privacy so much that they refused to take a vaccine because it allegedly had chips in it. I don't think something like the Circle would ever exist and that made this story much less terrifying. And I remember being terrified when I read this in 2016. 

This time, I was mostly frustrated, because the main character doesn't challenge anything anyone says until she's brainwashed so much that she estranges herself from her family for the sake of transparancy. Considering how much she cared about her family before, it almost felt impossible. It's not impossible, of course, because the Circle is a cult, and its leaders are charismatic and good with words. And cults are very real. So I guess that's the more scary part to me - the way someone can influence you so much that you forget your own morals. 

There were some passages in here that I think could be cut, like the aquarium scenes. Like, I understand that Ty uses the shark as a metaphor at the end, and sure, that's poetic and all, but it wasn't necessary in order to make a point and it made the book quite a bit longer than it needed to be. 

I'm interested in the sequel, as I believe it's about people rebelling against the system, and that's exactly what I wanted from this book. Hopefully that one will be a little bit less frustrating :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Car accident, Eating disorder, and Terminal illness

Minor: Child death, Sexual content, Ableism, Death, and Sexual harassment

kennim's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, and Animal death

Minor: Ableism

iridaceae's review

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