The Circle (The Circle, #1)

Review

The circle started out strong contesting the spot of a dystopian classic with a great world setup and potential. Mae, a normal young Midwestern woman, starts a new job at the circle, the world's best tech company with too much power, money, acclaim, and passion to be blocked in any endeavor. The characters are cardboard stand-ins for ideas giving long, eloquently manipulative arguments defining some new intrusive gadget or their share economy way of life. The book's story, however, is lackluster with only minute development approaching unrealistic and trite. That being said, the book really shines through its slyly constructed argumentation giving me some real insight into the spewing of bullshit supporting social media and extreme surveillance in the name of openness. Sadly, the book doesn't really meaningfully engage with the arguments against the dystopian world and left me less convinced of the importance of privacy. The words, phrases, and ideas will stick with me, but the characters won't.