The Circle by Dave Eggers

I didn’t know very much about this book before I started reading it. I knew it was a futuristic book about the dangers of technology, and that was pretty much it. I knew they made a movie about it over the summer that didn’t fare too well, but I figured since it was critically acclaimed that it would at least be a decent read.

The book follows a girl named Mae who is trying to work her way up in her new job for a company called the Circle. The Circle tries to keep the world safe, minimize crime, stop identity theft, and solve any number of social issues using software, spy cameras, and a giant cloud to store information.

While the Circle has good intentions, they step over lines of personal privacy. Mae and her friends end up live streaming their lives for all the world to see and comment on. They can’t even turn off the cameras if they want a break.

Mae’s one relief is a mysterious man named Kalden who shows up randomly and shows Mae things about the Circle no one knows. Talk about “Stranger Danger.” Not even Mae’s friend Annie trusts Kalden and Mae after a time begins to distrust the man and ignores his warnings about the dangers of the Circle, so she can chase her own popularity.

While this book is prophetic and a warning, it has foul language I did not enjoy reading and got graphic at times. Sometimes these elements overshadowed the plot of the book.

The book doesn’t really have a clear plot and after a time it became difficult for me to follow the story. Not to mention that this book lacks chapters making it extremely difficult to find a good stopping point. While this book made me question social media and the smartphone I carry, I wasn’t awestruck by the story and while I usually can finish a good book in a day or less, this book took me time because I found little motivation in the plot to finish it.

Honestly, I think this book is about how a bunch of misguided millennials take over the world just to be popular.

I give it three stars.