Moderation: 'If you liked Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow youll like this PANDORA SYKES

(Hardback, Main)

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'Moderation is a novel that refuses to do things by halves. It is a piercing, laser-precise exploration of big tech... breathtakingly funny...and a highly charged, passionate and tender love story. A wonderful book.'
Kaliane Bradley, bestselling author of The Ministry of Time

Girlie, a thirty-something Filipinx-American, works a day job at a social-media moderation centre, flagging and removing the very worst that makes it on to the internet. She's good at it, too - dispassionate, unflinching, maybe because she learned by necessity to cauterise all her emotions when she was still a kid - so it's no surprise to anyone when the social-media company for which she works offers her a big pay rise and an office to start moderating its new venture: virtual-reality theme parks, stunning simulations of civilizations long-since dead.

Girlie takes the job, and it almost seems too good to be true. Almost. Sure, she signed up for having to deal with the ambient racism and misogyny of pretty much any virtual space, but as she begins to explore the intricate worlds that she moderates, she notices two deeply troubling things: that there might be something much darker built into the very code of the company, and that William, technically her new boss, a man whose barriers are as mighty as her own, might just be that long-forgotten thing... Girlie's type.

Reviews

Moderation is a novel that refuses to do things by halves. It is a piercing, laser-precise exploration of big tech... breathtakingly funny...and a highly charged, passionate and tender love story. A wonderful book. * Kaliane Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time *
Castillo is a literary firecracker... Reading her is like pressing your finger on a bruise just to feel the thrill. If you liked Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and/or The Circle by Dave Eggers, you'll like this * Pandora Sykes, Books and Bits *
Tender and cutting, engrossing and immediate-Elaine Castillo's Moderation is a moving meditation on connection, growth, and how, in a world that's constantly on the verge of ending, one way we move forward is cultivating our own. Castillo's prose is luminous and lucid, balancing humor and emotion with wicked aplomb. Castillo expertly stretches the possibilities of language; Moderation is infinite. * Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal *
With its unyielding density of sharply observed detail, high-resolution psychological drama, and driving narrative momentum, Moderation reminded me that the novel is still the best form of virtual reality we have * Jenny Odell, author of Saving Time *
Blazingly fearless... Castillo is hugely talented * Observer on America Is Not the Heart *
Radical... I was startled at how moved I was * Guardian on America Is Not the Heart *
Critical and compelling * New York Times on America Is Not the Heart *
This book is it: one of the best debut novels (and novels, period) of recent years * Elle on America Is Not the Heart *

Author Bio

Named one of '30 of the planet's most exciting young people' by the Financial Times, Elaine Castillo was born and raised in the Bay Area. Her debut novel America Is Not the Heart was named one of the best books of 2018 by NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Public Library, The New York Post, The Boston Globe, Real Simple, Lit Hub, and has been nominated for the Elle Award, the Center for Fiction Prize, the Aspen Words Prize, the Northern California Independent Booksellers Book Award, and the California Book Award.