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shortstackmayor's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Chronic illness, and Animal death
Moderate: Car accident, Suicide, and Fatphobia
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...
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...
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
breedee95's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book is tense. So disturbing to think that our dependence on social media and need for validation and attention online could be like this. The Circle is a dystopian novel about one young woman’s first couple months at a thriving internet/tech company, the Circle. It explores entitlement, the criminality of privacy, and what it means to consent to your entire life being on the internet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia and Sexual content
samdalefox's review against another edition
challenging
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? It's complicated
2.5
I read this because I had heard good reviews from people who don't usually read dystopican sci-fi type books, plus I saw the film advertsied on netflix and thought I'd like to read the book before trying the film. So I didn't have high expectations, but I did have expectations. I think that people like The Circle so much precisely because they've not read other dystopian scifi. If you’ve never swam in the ocean then of course a pool seems deep. The Circle is ok, but it's nothing new (totalitarian corporate capitalist technocracy has been around for decades) and it's certainly not done well. Eggers even cocks up the references and definitions by referring to it as communism....twice.
The usual themes emerge: the use, scope, and abuse of power that comes with who can own, access, and benefit/be penalised by technology. The limits of personal privacy and individualism vs the 'collective good' of transparency. The importance of consent and having the option to opt out. Very limited commentary on the role and limitations of democracy. It touched upon more modern ermeging issues such as changes to people's sense of identity, belonging, and self worth i.e., "The tools you use, artificially manufacture unaturally extreme social needs". Plus the addictiveness, feeling of urgency, and faux-connectedness of being 'very online'. In a nutshell, a society that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
I agree with the review referenced below. I will also add that I found Mae's character unbelievably naive. Even accounting for her desperate need for praise and age. For me things went downhill rapidly after the end of book one with her announcement of going transparent . Most events that occurred did so slowly, repetitively, superficially, predictably and naively. The ending did not surprise me or disappoint me, it was simply one big meh. It didn't scare me at all. In short, there are other books out there that have covered these topics in greater depth, with more interesting angles, and with a better command of storytelling. I'd recommend first reading Liu Cixin's scifi short story 'The Mirror'.
dllh's review:
The usual themes emerge: the use, scope, and abuse of power that comes with who can own, access, and benefit/be penalised by technology. The limits of personal privacy and individualism vs the 'collective good' of transparency. The importance of consent and having the option to opt out. Very limited commentary on the role and limitations of democracy. It touched upon more modern ermeging issues such as changes to people's sense of identity, belonging, and self worth i.e., "The tools you use, artificially manufacture unaturally extreme social needs". Plus the addictiveness, feeling of urgency, and faux-connectedness of being 'very online'. In a nutshell, a society that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
I agree with the review referenced below. I will also add that I found Mae's character unbelievably naive. Even accounting for her desperate need for praise and age. For me things went downhill rapidly after the end of book one with her announcement
dllh's review:
"This is fine, if a bit long and baggy, for like commodity fiction, but it was really disappointing as a book from an author with literary proclivities. It's an important subject whose potential is ruined in this book by a failure at some of the basics of writing well. The characters are just barely two dimensional, and their interactions often feel as if written by somebody who has never actually witnessed human interaction outside of badly written dialogue. The details of the book are sufficiently close to our current reality as to not feel outlandishly dystopian but sufficiently off kilter as to not feel quite real, which makes reading it a really strange experience. To work well, fiction of this sort needs to be either outlandish or close enough to reality that the divergences from reality are really significant, and I don't think Eggers achieves that balance."
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
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
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 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
ashm9's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Suicide
Minor: Forced institutionalization, Animal death, and Animal cruelty
lily1304's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.75
I'm kind of annoyed I kept reading this, waiting for it to get better, and it never did. It's heavy handed and Eggers spends way too much time on detailed worldbuilding. There are gratuitous sex scenes that don't really serve a purpose. Maybe this would be interesting to someone who thinks Facebook is really cutting edge.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Sexual content
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