‘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.
Review: \”With this novel, Castillo raises the bar for writing about tech and virtual reality, family stories, and workplace romances. Castillo’s gorgeous prose infuses both the real world and the virtual reality landscapes with life. A brilliant novel with much to say about work, family, excess, identity, and love.\” – -Kirkus (starred review)
\”Castillo shifts seamlessly in scale and tone, from a wide-angled systems novel to a love story, and from barbed satire to staggering emotional depth. It’s a triumph.\” – -Publishers Weekly (starred review)
\”Sharp . . . compelling [and] slyly brilliant. While cleverly interrogating interactions, communication, and relationships, Castillo again proves to be an enviably erudite chronicler of (racist) history, power structures, identity politics, and socioeconomic inequities.\” – -Booklist (starred review)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Imprint: Atlantic Books UK
Publication date: 01/10/2025
