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A review by gracenextdoor
The Circle by Dave Eggers
4.0
Thanks to her close friend, Annie, Mae Holland secures a job at a revered tech company called The Circle. Here, Mae embarks on a Wonderland-esque journey through an impressive campus where she meets innovators who push the boundaries of how people relate to one another through social media and online. Mae loves the opportunities and perks her job affords her, but not everyone agrees that The Circle should have such a strong presence in the lives of its employees, the government, and the general public. The longer Mae works at The Circle, the more she is required to give of herself online, but despite the warnings from a mysterious stranger, Mae finds herself falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.
I read this book because I wanted to see the film, though I was a little hesitant based on some of the negative reviews. Wow was I surprised! It was a quick read (I blitzed through it in 3 days) that I found to be moving, funny, suspenseful and unnerving in the way you want and expect of a dystopian novel. Egger's frantic descriptions of Mae's work perfectly exhibits how we are so overwhelmed and bombarded by social media on a constant basis. It's an enjoyable read, one that entertains and haunts you at the same time.
I imagine when people initially read books like [b: 1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313], it was frightening to think of the future that way. The Circle is scary because the world Dave Eggers creates is so disturbingly close to what is happening right now. Whereas [a: George Orwell|3706|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1450573063p2/3706.jpg] imagined a world where privacy was taken, Eggers looks at our world where privacy is given away freely. We post pictures of where we're vacationing, when are houses are empty, tweet about our daily routines or where we plan on being. Our lives are on for display for all to see, and no one forced us to do it. We live in a society where it feels good to have a lot of followers, a lot of likes, a lot of attention, from people we may or may not know in real life.
A little bit of [b: 1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313], a bit of [b: Frankenstein|18490|Frankenstein|Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1381512375s/18490.jpg|4836639] and [b: Alice in Wonderland|13023|Alice in Wonderland|Jane Carruth|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391458382s/13023.jpg|2933712], this book left me thinking about things we create in the name of progress, and what we should share and what we should keep in private. Eggers finishes his book with a fitting ending, leaving the reader in the terror of unknowing what is to come.
I read this book because I wanted to see the film, though I was a little hesitant based on some of the negative reviews. Wow was I surprised! It was a quick read (I blitzed through it in 3 days) that I found to be moving, funny, suspenseful and unnerving in the way you want and expect of a dystopian novel. Egger's frantic descriptions of Mae's work perfectly exhibits how we are so overwhelmed and bombarded by social media on a constant basis. It's an enjoyable read, one that entertains and haunts you at the same time.
I imagine when people initially read books like [b: 1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313], it was frightening to think of the future that way. The Circle is scary because the world Dave Eggers creates is so disturbingly close to what is happening right now. Whereas [a: George Orwell|3706|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1450573063p2/3706.jpg] imagined a world where privacy was taken, Eggers looks at our world where privacy is given away freely. We post pictures of where we're vacationing, when are houses are empty, tweet about our daily routines or where we plan on being. Our lives are on for display for all to see, and no one forced us to do it. We live in a society where it feels good to have a lot of followers, a lot of likes, a lot of attention, from people we may or may not know in real life.
A little bit of [b: 1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313], a bit of [b: Frankenstein|18490|Frankenstein|Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1381512375s/18490.jpg|4836639] and [b: Alice in Wonderland|13023|Alice in Wonderland|Jane Carruth|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391458382s/13023.jpg|2933712], this book left me thinking about things we create in the name of progress, and what we should share and what we should keep in private. Eggers finishes his book with a fitting ending, leaving the reader in the terror of unknowing what is to come.