The Circle

I have never read anything like The Circle. I think the concept was scary and ever since reading The Circle, I notice more the hold social media has over everything. Although I enjoyed the book as a whole, there were times when I was waiting for the point, the climax. I feel let down that there really wasn't a satisfying conclusion to the book and I feel that all the description about the main character's "zinging" etc was filler for lack of a comprehensive plot. All in all though, i enjoyed it and the creepy concept still sticks with me.

Egger's premise, the dawning of a totalitarian society due to technology and social media, is captivating because it hits close to home in this age of digital voyeurism. Egger's writing, however, falls flat when it comes to character development and the deft use of language to transport the reader into the utopian circle he's created.

Could be final more exciting. The rest is absolutely fine!

I couldn't wait for this book to end. I found all the characters immature, spineless and annoying. I get the point Eggers is trying to make and understand that exaggeration is one of the tools he's using. But it found it tiresome and too much. I agree that we can't just look at our own actions but have to consider the effect on the whole. That is part of growing up and having some maturity. Blech

3.5 stars!

I have mixed feelings about this book - mostly that I like the idea (even if some of it felt a bit like Old Man Yells At Sky to me), but I didn't like the execution. I love dystopias, and this kind of tech surveillance stuff is super interesting to me. I loved the idea of a tech company taking over stuff in the name of ~security as opposed to a political figure as you normally see in dystopias.

What I didn't like was the main character. She was boring, annoying, unsympathetic, and I mostly wanted to punch her in the face. She was so vain and only cared about how she looked to other people and I was just like ??? but why should I care about her story? Also, the idea of people just going along with all these things seems like a stretch. Yes people are into new tech and stuff, but when it gets into privacy issues, I don't think (hope) people would just be like YAY LET'S DO IT!

Also, I really wasn't into the random sex scenes. It just made little sense in the context of everything else imo.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, the execution of the story was sloppy. I never felt like I got to know any of the other characters except maybe one or two of them. The final ~cliffy was completely resolved off screen after so much build-up, so I felt super cheated. Everything was wrapped up in a few sentences and I was left being like ??? What just happened. That was probably the disappointment. We were racing towards a big blowout or confrontation or something and instead we got "so this happened a few weeks ago and it's all good now."

So overall, I really liked the idea and at first, I was even considering a 5, but given all these issues, I would say an overall 3.5 is generous.