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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
Oh God, this book is pretty much the exact opposite of Eggers' last book, Hologram for the King. Primarily, this is because what starts out strongly slowly collapses under the weight of its increasingly ridiculous plot and positively obnoxious central character.
Also, hot tip: animals from the Marinas Trench would need to be kept under extraordinary pressure to keep from exploding. I mean, that's so basic, a fifth grader would know it.
Also, hot tip: animals from the Marinas Trench would need to be kept under extraordinary pressure to keep from exploding. I mean, that's so basic, a fifth grader would know it.
Creepy, supposed to be a dystopian fiction but it’s low key reality. Left me staring at the wall for a minute. Really long though probably could’ve been slightly more concise but message received and the ending is worth it
Haven't enjoyed a book like this in a long while....
2.5 stars
An interesting and very prevalent subject somewhat ruined by mediocre writing and highly irritating characters.
The topic of The Circle is one that has been looked at a great deal in books, films and TV - the ever-increasing danger that technology will eventually monopolise our entire lives, that privacy of any kind will become a thing of the past, and that any attempt to conceal any part of your life will result in you being viewed by others with suspicion and mistrust. The idea is fairly frightening merely for its plausibility - online companies are demanding more and more personal information from us every day, personalised advertising is on the rise and merely owning a smart phone renders us vulnerable to illegal data scoops (illegal for now...).
So Eggers' vision of The Circle - a seemingly benevolent internet giant who treat their staff so well it's laughable while simultaneously punishing them for any lack of participation with their massive social network, and becoming more and more nefarious in their intentions as the book goes on - is a very interesting concept and one that I'm glad people are writing about. It's important that we are aware of this as a genuine danger to society, particularly when the tyranny of such internet companies is marketed as something that will help us, keep us safe and is there purely for our convenience.
My issue with this book however is firstly how it is devoid of any subtlety. Eggers' presentation of how such a company can easily monopolise the whole of the US in just a few short months is so heavy-handed it's ridiculous. I'm not sure whether he was going for heavy satire but the quality of his writing just didn't quite hit the mark, but particularly through the last half of the book I couldn't help but scoff at how cliched the whole thing was. Mae Holland as a protagonist, and her mind-numbing naivety when meeting with the Circle's Chief Executives, who are of course unbelievably kind and supportive but may as well be twiddling their moustaches for how obviously evil they are - this all just made it a bit unbearable.
As mentioned, Eggers writing is just not up to scratch. I feel like he had all the correct ingredients - good presentation of setting, well-paced (it is very readable), varied vocabulary (although the occasional bizarre word thrown in which jarred the narrative - like he was writing the book with a thesaurus sat next to him) and good sentence structure. But something just wasn't quite there in the overall feel of the narration. I think it was the stream of consciousness style from Mae's perspective - it just felt unnatural and clunky. Also I would just like to add again what an irritating character Mae is - by about halfway through I wanted to punch her in the kidney. At first she just comes across as really stupid and childish, but by the end of the book she's a genuinely nasty person. I accidentally watched the film before reading this (I usually like to do it the other way around but I didn't know it was an adaptation when I watched it), and while reading I thought it was strange how many things they had changed for the film. But having read the entire thing, I think it's because parts of the narrative just don't make much sense, and characters seem to quite frequently act with downright bizarre motivations. Again, this annoyed me.
It is a shame - I think with a few tweaks this could have been amazing. I would certainly like to read some other novels within this genre. Probably no more for me from Eggers though.
An interesting and very prevalent subject somewhat ruined by mediocre writing and highly irritating characters.
The topic of The Circle is one that has been looked at a great deal in books, films and TV - the ever-increasing danger that technology will eventually monopolise our entire lives, that privacy of any kind will become a thing of the past, and that any attempt to conceal any part of your life will result in you being viewed by others with suspicion and mistrust. The idea is fairly frightening merely for its plausibility - online companies are demanding more and more personal information from us every day, personalised advertising is on the rise and merely owning a smart phone renders us vulnerable to illegal data scoops (illegal for now...).
So Eggers' vision of The Circle - a seemingly benevolent internet giant who treat their staff so well it's laughable while simultaneously punishing them for any lack of participation with their massive social network, and becoming more and more nefarious in their intentions as the book goes on - is a very interesting concept and one that I'm glad people are writing about. It's important that we are aware of this as a genuine danger to society, particularly when the tyranny of such internet companies is marketed as something that will help us, keep us safe and is there purely for our convenience.
My issue with this book however is firstly how it is devoid of any subtlety. Eggers' presentation of how such a company can easily monopolise the whole of the US in just a few short months is so heavy-handed it's ridiculous. I'm not sure whether he was going for heavy satire but the quality of his writing just didn't quite hit the mark, but particularly through the last half of the book I couldn't help but scoff at how cliched the whole thing was. Mae Holland as a protagonist, and her mind-numbing naivety when meeting with the Circle's Chief Executives, who are of course unbelievably kind and supportive but may as well be twiddling their moustaches for how obviously evil they are - this all just made it a bit unbearable.
As mentioned, Eggers writing is just not up to scratch. I feel like he had all the correct ingredients - good presentation of setting, well-paced (it is very readable), varied vocabulary (although the occasional bizarre word thrown in which jarred the narrative - like he was writing the book with a thesaurus sat next to him) and good sentence structure. But something just wasn't quite there in the overall feel of the narration. I think it was the stream of consciousness style from Mae's perspective - it just felt unnatural and clunky. Also I would just like to add again what an irritating character Mae is - by about halfway through I wanted to punch her in the kidney. At first she just comes across as really stupid and childish, but by the end of the book she's a genuinely nasty person. I accidentally watched the film before reading this (I usually like to do it the other way around but I didn't know it was an adaptation when I watched it), and while reading I thought it was strange how many things they had changed for the film. But having read the entire thing, I think it's because parts of the narrative just don't make much sense, and characters seem to quite frequently act with downright bizarre motivations. Again, this annoyed me.
It is a shame - I think with a few tweaks this could have been amazing. I would certainly like to read some other novels within this genre. Probably no more for me from Eggers though.
It's been reviewed as "The 1984 of our time"...I would agree. Mae is the anti-Katniss..a willing pawn in a totalitarian tech company overtaking the world. Fascinating and riveting!
Better-written and more engaging than A Hologram for the King; I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The premise and the events in the latter third of the book are questionable and strange, but maybe that's just because Eggers takes us from a familiar world inundated with technology to a weird dystopia without a discernible leap. It's not that it's far-fetched that someone could have and try to implement these ideas, but someone or something more shadowy would pay big money to stop them upon conception. There are a few great thought experiments here, too. Recommended.
This book was ludicrous but so incredibly fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it and could not put it down. And laughed a bunch. So different from other Eggers books I've read.
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
1984 all over again in the Technological age! I expected a better job from Mr Eggers, but all in all, it wasn't too bad. There was so much more he could have done with this though, and for that he takes the charge. Well researched however.
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated