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augie_'s review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking, Death, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Child death, and Child abuse
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness and Sexual content
Minor: Slavery, Death, and Suicide
jayjaystrawbae's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
3.75
Ok. This book was an interesting read. Reading one page left me wanting to read more. I loved how enjoyable the first section of this book was. I wanted to live in their world , until I didn’t. It delves into a technology dystopian world that is not too far off from our own. Many people have said this trope has been done before, but I cannot speak on that as this is the first dystopian book that I have read. But it was really scary to see the world become progressively more and more totalitarian. And I enjoyed it. You follow the main character Mae through life at the Circle. And i think Eggers did a good job at showing the effects of a lack of privacy.
Now, my one digression is with Mae. She constantly showed the readers how much she lacked a brain. While, I try to understand the fact that the Circle has become her life now, I’m also shocked that even after everyone leaves her, she still believes in the power of the Circle. Even after the death of Mercer, which had been done by her hands. Or the loss of a relationship with her parents. Even her best friend wanting to get out of it all. Who was obviously not mentally ok. Now I’m not sure if Annie tried to kill herself or not, but we can all agree Mae showed a lot of obliviousness to the entire situation.
One thing I can say, Eggers did an amazing job at making me dislike her. Which I don’t think is a negative quality. While annoying, i saw it as her being a product of her environment. She hated her life before the Circle. She hated not being seen and heard, but they gave her the chance to be loved in ways she never got before. Why would she leave that? To go back to an office job she hated. Or parents who don’t want anything to do with her.
The end of the book was a mess. But I’m glad she didn’t choose to be convinced by Kalden so easily. And it really exemplified how far the Circle would go to “know” everything.
“They needed to talk about Annie, the thoughts she was thinking. Why shouldn’t they know them? The world deserved nothing less and would not wait” (Eggers, 491)
Extra: I don’t have a problem with nothing happening with the sex tape between Francis and Mae. I just wish some accountability was taken by Mae. I would’ve loved anything that went against Mae and succeeded. A moment of failure for her. Apart from 368 people not liking her. Eyeroll. Mae was the example of a perfect person who still felt deeply troubled internally, while Annie’s family’s past led to her ultimate collapse. Mae was indeed not 100% transparent. About her feelings. Having to put on a show for the camera daily, when inside she just wanted to crumble away. What would’ve happened if she had done whatever she wanted, instead of whatever everyone else wanted. Ultimately, she became a slave to the Circle, leaving behind anyone and everyone who might actually care about her. And that, I think is her own personal punishment.
If you want to discuss more, dm me at @marklukesandman
Now, my one digression is with Mae. She constantly showed the readers how much she lacked a brain. While, I try to understand the fact that the Circle has become her life now, I’m also shocked that even after everyone leaves her, she still believes in the power of the Circle. Even after the death of Mercer, which had been done by her hands. Or the loss of a relationship with her parents. Even her best friend wanting to get out of it all. Who was obviously not mentally ok. Now I’m not sure if Annie tried to kill herself or not, but we can all agree Mae showed a lot of obliviousness to the entire situation.
One thing I can say, Eggers did an amazing job at making me dislike her. Which I don’t think is a negative quality. While annoying, i saw it as her being a product of her environment. She hated her life before the Circle. She hated not being seen and heard, but they gave her the chance to be loved in ways she never got before. Why would she leave that? To go back to an office job she hated. Or parents who don’t want anything to do with her.
The end of the book was a mess. But I’m glad she didn’t choose to be convinced by Kalden so easily. And it really exemplified how far the Circle would go to “know” everything.
“They needed to talk about Annie, the thoughts she was thinking. Why shouldn’t they know them? The world deserved nothing less and would not wait” (Eggers, 491)
Extra: I don’t have a problem with nothing happening with the sex tape between Francis and Mae. I just wish some accountability was taken by Mae. I would’ve loved anything that went against Mae and succeeded. A moment of failure for her. Apart from 368 people not liking her. Eyeroll. Mae was the example of a perfect person who still felt deeply troubled internally, while Annie’s family’s past led to her ultimate collapse. Mae was indeed not 100% transparent. About her feelings. Having to put on a show for the camera daily, when inside she just wanted to crumble away. What would’ve happened if she had done whatever she wanted, instead of whatever everyone else wanted. Ultimately, she became a slave to the Circle, leaving behind anyone and everyone who might actually care about her. And that, I think is her own personal punishment.
If you want to discuss more, dm me at @marklukesandman
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia
Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Car accident
Minor: Child abuse, Alcohol, Child death, Classism, and Death
nenaveenstra'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? 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 :)
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 :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
Moderate: Car accident, Eating disorder, and Terminal illness
Minor: Child death, Sexual content, Ableism, Death, and Sexual harassment
caterpillar's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Death, and Car accident
naiu_cs's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
A bit too slow paced for me at times but the character development of the main character had my jaw dropped.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death and Medical content
norwegianforestreader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Car accident, Chronic illness, Grief, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Suicide, Classism, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders
danielleroegner's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
4.0
Interesting book that can be seen as either a celebration of the capabilities of tech OR a dark warning of how far things could easily go when a company has such power. I enjoyed that the plot was not entirely obvious; I wasn’t sure how things were going to end up. Engaging writing style.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Stalking
greatexpectations77's review against another edition
challenging
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? Yes
1.25
God, what a trainwreck. This book misses all of the eeriness that would have made it memorable. Also the author used the word "ebullient" like 5 times. And there was intense fatphobia toward the ex-boyfriend. And I hated the main character - I just hated her. She felt very much like the author had never met a human woman before and thinks that all women are fat-shaming brats who are SO ANGRY when their parents have a medical attack and then get better??? because they had to drive to see them?? Damn, am I sorry that I finished this. As a brilliant reviewer of the movie (also apparently terrible) wrote online, the plot is "*clears throat* what if facebook but more." Also def characterized schizophrenia incorrectly. Like, google a thing once, dude. How am I supposed to give a single dried fig about a character who can't respect a single boundary???
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, and Death
Moderate: Child death, Alcohol, and Child abuse
Minor: Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, and Murder
If you enjoy books where you like to root for the main character, pass.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
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