The premise of this story really intrigued me but unfortunately it just didn't deliver. The writing is wonderful in many respects but I found myself glossing over many paragraphs of in-depth tangents about watches and lifting weights, wondering when the plot would move forward. It felt superfluous rather than necessary character building. The first third of the book is setup and I felt the pacing was just off. Sadly not for me.

I didn’t love as much as Castillo’s previous novel but it’s an enjoyable love story for modern times and the writing is as ever super sharp.

I am sure ti's book will be a big hit with a lot of readers, but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. The promised sounded fantastic, but the execution wasn't for me.

Having read this at the close of my year drowning in the corporate world felt very appropriate. I spent pages upon pages of this book laughing and cringing simultaneously. Moderation is a deeply necessary and entertaining read, with so many instances and interactions that will feel familiar to any computer-based office worker, with some truly exceptional passages.

Sorry I didn’t finish this book, it really wasn’t my vibe at all. I found the writing style really off putting and I didn’t connect with any of the characters. I read maybe 40% then dnf

Moderation is a clever take on capitalism and big tech, with rich detail and a witty protagonist - but I just didn’t connect with it as much as I wanted to.

It has a lot to say, but the delivery is dense. It’s clever, but the tone sometimes feels pretentious, and I found myself zoning out during passages of minutiae about gym routines and watches, especially after the first quarter when the focus should’ve been tightening.

I found the moderation angle and VR world really interesting, and I appreciated the attention to detail here, but I wanted more - especially as there are some intriguing characters and dynamics around identity, race, class, and trauma that could have been explored more deeply in that context. The critique of big tech and corporate power starts strong but loses momentum, especially once the romance subplot comes in. I’m not usually a fan of romance plots anyway, but this one didn’t pull me in at all. The love interest was honestly a bit dull… but I did enjoy the bits about his dog.

Overall, I liked the concept and thought it was well written, but it just wasn’t for me. Also docking points for the questionable British clichés - sorry!

Moderation, a novel that follows a woman who is a content moderator for a social media site as she gets promoted to work in a brand new VR environment ‘Playground’ where she meets its wry, mysterious founder. The book is billed as a tech based romance, but I’d say its heavier on the literary commentary on technology, social media, and the relationships they help (and hinder) us building. I think there are some strong concepts in this one, but I’m still mulling on the idea of whether the romance was ultimately necessary for the plot.

This is my review of Moderation by Elaine Castillo.
Firmly in the speculative fiction genre, this is set in the grimly familiar very-near future. Girlie Delmundo is a strong-of-stomach moderator for a social media company, her queasy speciality being spotting real(as opposed to faked) child sexual abuse. Direct and appearing to lack emotion, she is her family’s breadwinner, so cannot allow sentiment to colour the unremitting bleakness and horror of her employment, of which we gratifyingly see only snippets.
A role so traumatic, only the desperate will take it on, with a prolific attrition rate -“None of the white people survived. Young, middle-class hopefuls with student debt, they’d shown up when the position was still being called process executive. Most of the white candidates didn’t make it past the initial three- week training course; the ones that did left within a year.”
“The floor was now averaging only three or four suicide attempts a year, down from one or two a month”.
As a stalwart in this strange community, she is headhunted for a position as a real-time moderator in a new virtual reality interactive game-following a merger with a smaller VR company Playground. Girlie is the perfect candidate, astute and unshockable. She is so cynical and world-weary, she is as surprised as we are, to find herself attracted to her new boss, the retiring Englishman William, which seems to be mutual.
William was a co-founder of Playground, forged with seemingly clean ethical lines whilst embracing the field of medicine, with legion proposed therapeutic implications for VR; from treating PTSD to chronic pain.
Inevitably, the technology is being subsumed into the larger company, and it’s easy to presume where the data and applications will be headed.

I have never read any work by Castillo before, but was immediately drawn in by her sharp as nails prose, with not a spare word or phrase, every other sentence a pitch-perfect skewering of social characteristics. So I admit to being somewhat surprised when the novel, while still acid in its telling, incorporated a sweet and rewarding love story.
It was a pleasant surprise, and while the romance is tied up in a conveniently neat way, I wanted to reread the book immediately just to revisit Girlie’s distinctive voice.
A really confident and wryly entertaining addition to the speculative fiction genre. Great for fans of The Dream Hotel. I loved this and would give 4.5 if available!

Thank you Atlantic books for providing this advance copy for review via NetGalley.

Girlie works in content moderation aka seeing the worst things imaginable on a daily basis. One day she is offered a promotion to work in VR and the money could really help her family out.

I DNFed this at 24%. Unfortunately the format is effectively unreadable on kindle which is my chosen ARC reading medium.

Was intrigued in the dynamics of Girlie’s Pilipino family so I can see this finding an audience for people with a similar interest. Also for people who think big tech is evil.

When content moderator Girlie is offered a new job at the VR site, Playground, her company has acquired, the numbers are too big for her not to say yes. But there is of course more to Playground – and indeed Girlie – than meets the eye. Girlie has spent her life trying to moderate her feelings and her past – that means no falling in love. Her resolve is tested when she meets William, the Hong-Kong born, London-raised best friend of the founder of Playground’s tech.
This second part of the story is the one we're ultimately leading to, but you wouldn't know that from the long - and at times almost rambling - setup that leans hard into the day-to-day of content moderation, which, in many ways, makes this a book of two halves. Whether or not that works for you is pretty much dependent on how much the first appeals to get to the second. It's worth the journey. A solid 4 stars.

I really rated the whole feel of the book. It felt very me. I’d be interested to know what others thought because I’m definitely struggling to pigeon whole the book. But I guess maybe that’s why I liked it so much. I’m a cross-genre gyrlie. If I had to, I would call it a slow burn literary romance with speculative themes. If I had to compare it to something, the closest thing would Death Made a Fool of Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi, mainly due to the cross genre slow literary romance vibes.

Moderation explored culture, capitalism, VR and strong female energy. It featured and celebrated queer relationships in a normative fashion and the strong familial bonds forced by age and proximity.
It’s less mainstream and more intellectual than I thought it would be, which I love.
The MC, Girlie, is a kinda badass bitch vibe character with no shits and a hard exterior, that I would usually hate as an mc. But her inner monologue is so authentic, and there’s clear reasoning, self protection and motivation behind her character flaws, so I’m onboard. Usually this type of character is done badly, so I’m here for a really well written version of this archetype.

The blurb features love heavily as a topic, At halfway through, only the slightest hints of romance. This worked for me, I can see the breadcrumbs, I can feel the tension of the slow burn, I’m rooting for the possibility. However if someone were here for the love straight up, this is not a book for them.

What this book does offer is a deep critique and submersion into Filipino culture in America, a look at horrific scenes of content moderation, a bisexual mc, and immersive world building into a new sense of virtual reality.

There are some scenes talking about the politics of some of the history of the company or merger that are a bit confusing/ I’m unsure what it adds. But I also trust that the author knows what they are talking about.

This makes me think about the old saw about how your greatest strength is also your weakness. I love the author's snarky voice, the observations, the cultural references, the relentless listing of brands and the way every social interaction is deconstructed as a signifier of economic and social status. But - the richly textured detail means it takes forever to get anywhere. I started losing enthusiasm when I was 28% in and Girlie hadn't even started the job which was supposed to be the focus of the story. And the romance element didn't really do it for me, I was expecting something darker given the set-up.

I spent an enjoyable afternoon reading this but overall it didn’t quite work for me.

The content moderation critique was interesting but stopped being relevant half way through when the plot and the romance took over. It talked a lot about various issues with tech today but stopped short of properly critiquing it.

There were quite a few British references sprinkled throughout which went beyond cliché which was nice for a book set in vegas.

this was a of the time novel that seemed to ripple an undertone all the way through me reading it. i felt gripped right from the start. and need to know more and more and was tripping over myself to read through the pages.
there was an unease and uncertainty that went through me with this book. the corporate darkness things going on but then mixed in with caring about this main character and her budding romance.Elaine has such a class act in world building for this book it completely transported me to where she wanted me. the newer world of AI was both intriguing and scary to visualise and visualise it i did.
i dont even feel like i can properly describe this book or put some snippet like plot review to it because i dont feel clever enough and not without giving gaping spoilers. but this is something to read and think wow to. its something to feel clever enough for even though you feel like your reading something beyond you in smarts.
the front cover of this book started me off and then continued how i felt in this book. i bit blurred, scooped out, uneasy but brilliant, full of colour and understanding of detail. with an artist at the front (Elaine) who knows exactly what she is doing and so we should believe and then follow her to show us. and that i did, and im so glad.

This just didn't work for me. At times the writing was really engaging but a lot of the time I felt like skipping ahead. There were a few different elements to this story but none of them felt explored enough and the romance just didn't work for me. I didn't feel like either character actually liked the other - it felt more like Castillo realised that not much had happened by the end so needed to push it in a romantic direction.

Not every book needs to be full of action and answers but this didn't have enough of either for me.

I was utterly gripped by this novel from the start. Elaine Castillo you must immediately write another book.

Moderation follows ‘Girlie Delmundo’ a Filipino woman living in Las Vegas. We are initially introduced to her intricate personal life and family history as an introverted and private individual who struggles to let her walls down. Predominantly, this book is centered on her position as a content moderator, whose job it is to witness the darker parts of the platform and weed out the seediest and most disturbing of imagery and commentary made by its users.

There is a dynamic interplay of themes in this publication that blend into each other seamlessly. We are introduced to Girlie as a member of an ethnic minority living in the US with a complicated and traumatic backstory. The book then draws us into the field of corporate life through content moderation and later into the evolving and innovative landscape of VR technology. These chapters are in addition, interspersed with a slow burn romance. Less of a typical romance in their case as it is a connection of two souls. Could not get enough of this book, highly recommend as your next read!

Not what I expected in all the right ways. This brilliant book takes a concept that admittedly, we’ve seen a few times (We Had To Delete This Post, for example) and makes it fresh, engaging and utterly human. I loved the slow burn relationship and the humid Vegas setting which was so vivid. After reading this, I’ll definitely be exploring more of Castillo’s work.

Girlie supports her large Filipino family in Las Vegas by working as a content moderator for a social media company, which she is adept at. She is offered a new position with more money and a new boss, William, after the company takes over another and launches a new business in virtual reality theme parks. Despite the fact that they only engage in the virtual reality realm, Girlie finds William's closest buddy, who established the VR company, fascinating. Moderation is a fantastic book with lots of intriguing concepts and great characters.

An interesting novel covering the du jour topic of moderation on the internet.

The suitably-aliased Girlie is a moderator that gets recruited to a virtual reality fairground by William.

The role requires suppression of emotion in order to deal with the content, and this has a knock on effect with relationships in general, where giving something of oneself is against the rules.

An interesting mix of dystopian, romance and mild but well-written erotica, which I read very quickly. Girlie is a unique protagonist with trauma she is keen to shield everyone, including us readers, from. You root for her, yet you don’t exactly want to be her friend. You are, inevitably, hoping for a happy ending for her in her career and most importantly, her personal life. In an age where everything is digitalised, open to all, and instantly generated for entertainment, her role as “content moderator” gives a lot of food for thought. I enjoyed this novel on the whole, as well as its opportunity to continue checking my own White bis and privilege as her Filipino perspective is so vividly written by Castillo.