The Circle is a tech-company similar to Meta (former Facebook). Mae, a young woman has just gotten a job there, thanks to a former room mate, and wants to be particularly engaged. In the beginning she has a good work/off-work balance but after a while, all her social activities move more and more to the campus of The Circle. What sounds like the perfect place to work turns into a cult-like nightmare for the reader, of which Mae is not aware.
The book is both fascinating and terrifying at the same time. It is fascinating how a single company can slowly gain power and the consumers are willing to give it to them. On the other hand it is truly terrifying because companies such as Meta operate exactly this way. Although the intentions are well at the core, the product that is created carries way too much power. To some extent we are heading in the exact same direction that Eggers describes in his book and either we don’t realize the consequences, or we do and aren’t trying hard enough to avoid them.
I would definitely recommend the book to people who like sci-fi stories that are close to reality. Readers of Orwell’s 1984 will love this book as well.
There has also been a movie adaption with Tom Hanks and Emma Watson which I have not seen.