BOOK REVIEW NUMBER 3

THE CIRCLE BY DAVE EGGERS

This book was recommended to me by a good friend, he is an avid reader so I thought it would be worth checking out. The idea of a book about a monopolising company that throws up questions surrounding data privacy and constantly living your life online was wondering I couldn’t turn away.

The book is about a woman called Mae Holland, an ambitious and perhaps naive young graduate from a small town in the USA. She is hired to work for the world’s most powerful internet company and has been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking and purchasing with their universal operating system, this results in one online identity and a new age of transparency. The book describes the beautiful open-plan office spaces, cosy dorms that a lot of staff spend their nights at work and even an aquarium full of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae begins to drift from the outside world and as her relationship with her family and friends dwindles, you as a reader get drawn into her world of ambition and idealism.

Even though I can’t ever see what this company are doing to the world, it is definitely a very interesting read to see what society would be like if this were to happen. Mae is a lively character and her naive outlook on life leaves you feeling for her and throughout the book wishing and hoping that she does the best thing (although that is definitely not always the case). It made me think a lot about the way I portray myself online and how the world interacts with each other. The way that the book portrays that a community of people going through the same thing is out there with you if you look for it is really intriguing and makes you read on to see what happens.


Overall, I am definitely recommending this book to friends and seeing what they think of it. I would recommend this book to someone that is curious about social media and the impact that a monopolising company can have on the outside world, the company dynamics and the ones that simply want to hide away. Definitely something that will hook you in if you get the chance.

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