The Every is the sequel to the circle and within the first few chapters the names Mae Holland and Eamon Bailey make a return. Spoiler alert – Mae is now the head of the company as Eamon Bailey has been pushed out. Front and centre in this follow up, are two idealists, Wes and Delaney who want to bring the company to its knees, fearing it has gone too far. This dystopian novel puts our idealists inside, as they try to destroy The Every from the inside out.
We find that The Circle has merged with other tech firms and rebranded itself. It is now The Every. It is easy to note through the book where ideas may have originated for our writer. Are “ovals” the equivalent of apple watches, I wonder?? The focus of the firm remains the same though as in The Circle, but now we are looking into the realms of how much people will sacrifice for convenience. It has all gone one step further.
Parameters are set for the “every” in regards to eating, sleeping, use of plastic, standing, sitting, laughing, talking….you name it, it is controlled. Our idealists start to conform to these parameters once they are inside but here is where the fun starts. In order to try and bring the company down, Delaney & Wes throw out ideas, lousy ideas, that they hope will be snatched up by the company and used.
Every single idea seems to be adopted too quickly, no setbacks, no potential problems are ever discussed. It is a little hard to credit how “new hires” have all the ideas. What have all the rest of the every been doing? Some of the ideas are too simplistic and unrealistic too. Ban pets…..seriously? Every second person in the world has a dog. No one would buy that. Ban bananas because of where they come from and how they get to “The Every”?
Despite the negatives I’ve raised, the writing is very good and easily matches up to the standard of The Circle. It comes across that Dave Eggers is not aiming for what’s real, but you could easily argue that he is aiming for something that we’re heading for. A company that has control over pretty much everything? In todays age, is that company “social media”?
Although some have called the ending predictable and uninteresting, I have to admit, I did not see that coming, but I am wondering whether there is another book to follow on. One little thing I did like…..when talking about Eamon Bailey in the book, it was commented how he collects typewriters. So does Tom Hanks, who played Eamon Bailey. Nice touch.
I’d go as far as to say its a dystopian novel for the ages but there is a fine line between fiction and non fiction.
Think about the world today……social media. Follows and Likes for whatever you post. The amount of “friends” you have on social media. Todays world it is, but it is only a short step off the precipice until you join The Every…..
