The Circle by Dave Eggers

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The Extremely Obvious Dangers of Unrestricted Social Media written without subtlety by Captain Obvious himself!

Proud recipient of the Worst Protagonist of the 2010s!
Strong contender for the Wort Protagonist of All Time!

I remember hating this the first time I read it. But I couldn’t recall the plot details and decided to give it another shot before throwing my physical copy into the sell-or-give-away pile. Sure enough—still hate it.

Other reviews have pointed out this book is derivative and brings nothing new to the dystopian genre, but that is not where I take issue. I enjoy repetition and am fine with predictability, so I don’t fault The Circle for its lack of originality. No, what makes this book unforgivable to me is its condescending, preachy tone and abominable protagonist. I find it repugnant and unconscionable when a male author—especially one whose books usually center on male characters—writes a female lead like Mae Holland.

I think The Circle is a perfect example of the method of storytelling being more important than the accuracy or relevance of the story itself. This book invoked so many negative feelings that I lost all interest in the points it was trying to make.

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𝓟.𝓢. This review was crossposted from Goodreads because it contains actual thoughts rather than a typically facetious single-sentence remark. View all my book ratings and pointless takes on Goodreads or The StoryGraph.