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What I've Been Reading

Sunday, April 30, 2017

In the world introduced in ‘The Circle’, individuals become completely transparent and are stripped of their anonymity even when performing menial tasks. Mae Holland has just secured a position with The Circle thanks to her friend Annie, a high-ranking employee at The Circle. Mae’s involvement in the company slowly begins overtaking everything and without stopping to consider, her entire life ends up being put on display for anyone willing to see.


I really wanted to like this book.


I debated for awhile about even putting a review up on The Circle. With the movie release a few days ago, I decided to just post it.

I hadn’t heard of The Circle by Dave Eggers until I saw the trailer. The trailer was so intriguing that I knew I would have to pick up the book before seeing the movie. Also, the fact that Emma Watson is playing the main character Mae, was a big sell for me.

The idea of a Utopia centered around the Internet, or the company that controls it, really appealed to me. It is also very relevant. However, The Circle really fell flat. Sure it was creepy how everyone was so obsessed with sharing every little insignificant detail. This book was as if social media was on drugs. It was scary that the Circle wanted to control everything. And they were getting away with it, privatizing things that should be left public. I didn’t understand Mae’s decisions and the way she connected with the other characters in the book. There wasn’t a lot of depth to any of the characters, including Mae.

I found The Circle to be a bit predictable. The ending wasn’t satisfying and it didn’t provoke some sort of emotional response from me. There were many times that I wanted to put the book down, but I kept going. I think I figured that it would get better, that there had to be more.

I still really want to see the movie, I know… But. I think this is going to be one of those rare situations where the movie is better than the book. At least that’s what I’m hoping.