Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Circle by Dave Eggers

13 reviews

kezharri's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Loved this book! It has an amazing concept that is executed well from the viewpoint of the main character Mae. The concept is executed in a subtle yet intriguing manner that draws you in alongside Mae before realising too late that things feel a little bit off. 
Would love to have a book written from the viewpoints of other characters as there is so much more I want to know. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Kidnapping, Stalking, and Car accident

sareidle's review

dark informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Suicide

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, and Car accident

Minor: Child death and Kidnapping

eachz's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

God I hated this so much that I finished it out of spite. And then the ending was worse than I could have imagined. 

I'm pretty sure the author has a humiliation fetish and I say this both because of the EXTREMELY nauseating way every unnecessary sexual encounter was described AND the fact that he put his name on this book.

The whole thing was extremely 12-year-old-who-thinks-hes-deep. Imagine taking a really interesting, nuanced topic like internet privacy and then writing a one-note book with the most BASIC take and no grey area. So much of the time was spent explaining the new tech being developed in this hypothetical era -- which has, by the way, wildly inconsistent levels of ability, which is a pet peeve of mine -- and zero time bringing any dimension or sign of life to the cast of boring, unlikeable, flat characters. No one's motivations remotely make sense, and no one seems to have any thoughts or conversations that aren't a ham-fisted monologue on one end or the other of the ideological spectrum.

For a while I wondered if I was just bothered because it was written 11 years ago and hasn't aged well in terms of the conversation around tech and privacy. But no, I've read plenty of outdated science fiction that was still extremely enjoyable. This was just a terrible book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, and Car accident

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Misogyny, Slavery, Police brutality, and Colonisation

theloveroflovers's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The characters are so unlikable that at some point you get the urge to keep reading to see them realise their stupidity. The writting stile is good but to detailed, slow-paced. The book was too long and the end wasn't sadisfying.

If you wanr to read the book, listen to the audibook instead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Car accident

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

ottercorg's review

dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Usually it's hard for me to read a book with a main character that makes me so mad, but for this plot to really work, Mae had to play that role. 

I love considering at which moment any given reader would finally say The Circle had gone to far. At which new implement does any given reader lose hope? 

I read this book thinking about Meta, and now that I've finished I think about it in the context of Ai in this current world. 

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it. As always, I like books to neatly tie off all plotlines at the end and this one doesn't do that - but apparently this is a series, which means there's still hope...

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

lizzieberry's review

2.25

This book is a cautionary utopian/dystopian tale about surveillance, social media, monopolies, and the breach of personal information, data, and liberties. Not fun to read knowing a lot of these breaches are happening today. I think the ideas in the book are interesting, although it's pretty obvious it's written from the cishet white male perspective. Lots of content warnings that made the book generally not great to read, they were so unnecessary: fatphobia, sexual violence, misrepresentations of the U.S. criminal legal system. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping

skeptic_hecate's review

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book went really dark really fast, but in a very subtle way, which I appreciate. The author could really pull of the mental gymnastics and the self brainwashing the protagonist went through. If anything, this book is a great study on cult mentality and guilt culture. I sincerely hope humanity is not down that path. It is a modern version of Orwellian dystopia. It definitely wrinkled my brain, the writing style is subtle enough for one to really imagine seeing themselves in a similar situation. The ending was a bit predictable, but no less frightening because of that. I highly recommend this read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Chronic illness

Minor: Slavery and Kidnapping

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

God, what a trainwreck. This book misses all of the eeriness that would have made it memorable. Also the author used the word "ebullient" like 5 times. And there was intense fatphobia toward the ex-boyfriend. And I hated the main character - I just hated her. She felt very much like the author had never met a human woman before and thinks that all women are fat-shaming brats who are SO ANGRY when their parents have a medical attack and then get better??? because they had to drive to see them?? Damn, am I sorry that I finished this. As a brilliant reviewer of the movie (also apparently terrible) wrote online, the plot is "*clears throat* what if facebook but more." Also def characterized schizophrenia incorrectly. Like, google a thing once, dude. How am I supposed to give a single dried fig about a character who can't respect a single boundary???

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Fatphobia, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, and Murder

If you enjoy books where you like to root for the main character, pass.

iridaceae's review

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Stalking, Murder, and War

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

elodie_melodie's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Suicide, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Toxic friendship