The Circle
The Circle by Dave Eggersby Dave Eggers
Shares rank 31 of 122 novels by recommenders
Recommended for its prescient portrayal of surveillance and tech control; critics find the ending weak and the drama excessive.
Recommended for its prescient portrayal of surveillance and tech control; critics find the ending weak and the drama excessive.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Prophetic portrayal of surveillance and control
“it did do a surprisingly accurate job of depicting pretty much this exact scenario”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance” “is looking more and more prophetic every day”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min”
Other novels people recommend
The four most recommended other novels, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime and Punishmentby Fyodor Dostoevsky | 39 | 9 | 81% | 6 | — | Approved |
| The Brothers Karamazovby Fyodor Dostoevsky | 28 | 8 | 78% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Infinite Jestby David Foster Wallace | 26 | 5 | 84% | 9 | 10 yrs6 owners | Approved |
| The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald | 24 | 9 | 73% | 6 | — | Approved |
| The Circleby Dave EggersThis page | 6 | 3 | 67% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Binance, Circle etc were able to unilaterally freeze funds when it came down to their own self interest”
“has been demonstrated to be possible in C++ via Circle/Safe C++”
“Stablecoins frequently get frozen by Tether and Circle for arbitrary reasons”
“is looking more and more prophetic every day”
“The book neatly lays out how little steps towards a better life”
“the ending sucks and there's too much drama”
“it did do a surprisingly accurate job of depicting pretty much this exact scenario”
“I still feel incredibly saddened that Sean Baxter's Circle proposal for Safe C++ is not where the language is heading.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.