When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users' personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company's modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can't believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world--even …
When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users' personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company's modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can't believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world--even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public.
What begins as the captivating story of one woman's ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.
He puesto 5 estrellas por la calidad del libro, pero no por el placer que da leerlo. Es un libro que te deja en estado catatónico. Un futuro distópico en el que una corporación, El Círculo, ha unido todos los servicios de internet en uno: red social, pagos por internet, motor de búsqueda, blogs, etc… Es terrorífico.
This was quite possibly the creepiest book I've ever read. 1984 was scarily prescient, but The Circle, so heavily based on technologies that are quite honestly either real today or just on the cusp or being real, combined with our steady migration of our lives into the digital, takes the fear of what could happen to a whole new level. The idea of being watched 24/7 is creepy enough. The idea of much of the world's population believing they have an inalienable right to do so? Terrifying.
Just save your time, skip this one, it's baaaad.
The protagonist is so extremely naive, the plot points are only surprising in the way that they always go down the route that's so stupid you wouldn't believe the author actually goes there.
The only redeeming quality is the topic. There is so much potential for a fantastic story, but it's just mind boggling how you could screw it up this bad. The personalities of the characters are bland, the technologies are often outright impossible just to allow certain things to be possible, the story is unbelievable as where the plot points go, the dialogs are weird, the way he portrays women is very weird to say the least (especially the toilet scene with "him") ... I could go on for hours with that, but just don't read it. Maybe watch the movie, but don't waste your time with the book. …
Just save your time, skip this one, it's baaaad.
The protagonist is so extremely naive, the plot points are only surprising in the way that they always go down the route that's so stupid you wouldn't believe the author actually goes there.
The only redeeming quality is the topic. There is so much potential for a fantastic story, but it's just mind boggling how you could screw it up this bad. The personalities of the characters are bland, the technologies are often outright impossible just to allow certain things to be possible, the story is unbelievable as where the plot points go, the dialogs are weird, the way he portrays women is very weird to say the least (especially the toilet scene with "him") ... I could go on for hours with that, but just don't read it. Maybe watch the movie, but don't waste your time with the book.
I mostly feel bad for the story itself. There are so many good authors out there, that would be able to turn this in a work of art. Just the premise alone is strong, it just needs good characters and a believable story. It's sad that they made a movie about this book. They made it because of the premise I'd think, not because of the actual story.
I don't recommend this book, no, I even advise you to not waste your time with this pile of garbage. You are welcome.
⭐⭐⭐+½
Bonne fiction sur la dérive des réseaux sociaux et la surveillance généralisée sur fond de société privée bienveillante.
Petit bémol d'écriture sur l'USA-centrisme de l'auteur pour qui tout le monde parle anglais et vit à dans le fuseau horaire du Pacifique Est. Surtout quand on martèle par ailleurs le côté mondial du phénomène. Ça ne gache rien au ton général du livre, mais ça fait tiquer un peu ;)
It started out promising, then became mediocre, then just--bad. A real stinker of a book. The heroine is whiny, delusional, and unrelatable. It seems like the author himself grew weary of her by the end, as evidenced by the abrupt ending and hasty wrap-up.
And truly, this book is incontrovertible proof that some authors simply should never write sex scenes. Ever.
This book was showing what could happen to us when everything is totally controlled. When I started reading, I thought, it was an imagination which seems to be far away. But in the process of reading this book, it seemed like today. Like today in a couple of years, like what happens if everything is known, everybody is watched.
I really liked this book, it wasn't very hard to read, it was very well written, with everything a good book needs, making the reader to laugh as well as to cry and the most importantst: To think.
This was really a book to think about and I really liked that.
