Moderation

by Elaine Castillo

Named a Best Book of 2025 by The New Yorker, TIME, Slate, and Kirkus Reviews

“A love story for those who love Severance (both Ling Ma’s book and the unaffiliated Apple TV+ series). . . ambitious, challenging, and brilliant.” —Elle

“Castillo’s flinty satire of the tech industry [transforms] into a sultry romance novel.” —The Atlantic

A bold and inventive novel about real romance in the virtual workplace—​bringing Castillo's trademark wit and sharp cultural criticism to an irresistible story about the possible future of love.

Girlie Delmundo is the greatest content moderator in the world, and despite the setbacks of financial crises, climate catastrophe, and a global pandemic, she’s going she’s getting a promotion. Now thanks to her parent company Paragon’s purchase of Fairground—the world’s preeminent virtual reality content provider—she’s on the way to becoming an elite VR moderator, playing in the big leagues and, if her enthusiastic bosses are to be believed, moderating the next stage of human interaction. 

Despite the isolation that virtual reality requires from colleagues, friends, and family, the unbelievable perks of her new job mean she can solve a lot of her family's problems with money and mobility. She doesn't have to think about the childhood home they lost back in the Bay Area, or history at all—she can just pay any debts that come due. But when she meets William Cheung, Playground’s wry, reticent co-founder (now Chief Product Officer) and slowly unearths some of his secrets, and finds herself somehow falling in love, she’ll learn that history might be impossible to moderate and the future utterly impossible to control.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Adult

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 5, 2025

About the author

Elaine Castillo was born in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a graduate of the University of California – Berkeley. America Is Not the Heart is her first novel.

Reviews

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus)]

love me a trippy cover

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv)]

Filling my annual quota of romance novels (one single book) with something different now that I've given up on Emily Henry xx

[Manuela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moderation is sharp, surprising, and so much smarter than your average speculative fiction — and Girlie Delmundo — our gloriously jaded, emotionally armoured narrator — is basically the sarcastic voice in my head but with a cooler job and more trauma. I loved being in her head. Elaine Castillo nails that delicate balance between biting social commentary and emotional depth, all while making me laugh in places I really didn’t expect to.

You can probably tell that this book had me hooked early on. The themes are timely and unflinching, there’s content moderation, corporate overreach, VR therapy, grief, politics, romance — and yet it works. It’s dark, but never bleak. Heavy, but never hopeless. And at the center of it all is Girlie, doing what so many of us do: surviving with humor and grit.

That said, I wish the final act had taken a bit more time. The last chunk of the book tries to wrap up so many threads at once, and while the payoff is there, it would’ve hit harder with more breathing room. Some emotional arcs felt like they were just hitting their stride when the credits rolled.

Still — this was such a satisfying, thoughtful, and emotionally rich read. I wanted it to be a five-star book, and for a while, it absolutely was. Even with its slightly rushed ending, it left me thinking, feeling, and smiling (through the existential dread). Not every book sticks the landing perfectly, but this one still lands with heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC.

[Jo Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happy publication day 🎉🥳🎧

Have you ever given consideration to the people who moderate social media for all the flagged content? I don’t think I had, but what a horrific job that must be, and that’s where we meet Girlie, she’s great at her job, past trauma has desensitised her in some way and it means that she’s stuck around longer than most moderators. When a new company takes over Girlie is recruited into moderating VR technology, used for gaming, therapy etc. this to me was quite fascinating, and gives the reader some great insight into big tech and the big money machine it generates.

I must have completely missed the part about this being a romance novel, but I checked the synopsis and it’s clearly there, so the element of surprise was completely down to my own stupidity but it threw me off completely, and it took me a hot minute to warm back up to the story after the initial spark.

I really enjoyed the writing of Girlie, I appreciated all of the messages that Elaine Castillo was sending the reader but I really would’ve liked something a bit more, the story leans towards dystopian fiction but it also feels like it pulls back from itself, too much is left unsaid.

I enjoyed the audio narration 🎧

My thanks to W F Howes LTD and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ALC 🎧

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would have been so much cooler if it wasn’t also trying to be a romance.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

elaine castillo is a fucking marvel. i have known this since i read AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART (still the best wlw romance i've ever read <3), but MODERATION has cemented her as one of my top five authors. the way she writes romance is unbelievable - incredibly, ACHINGLY restrained until it becomes suddenly irrepressible and bursts like a dam and floods and floods in the hottest way possible. her prose melts me - dazzling and sharp imagery at every turn, repetition and callbacks that build upon each other to breathtaking effect. her protagonists are so deeply human, damaged and fallible and easy to love. the complexity of her women!!!! always gets me!!! ms castillo if i have to wait another 7 years for you to write your next novel i know it will be worth it <3333

[Angie Miale · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great start, am outstanding and intriguing set up, and such a promising main character. Then once the plot got interesting, it fizzled. Girlie is a content moderator at a social media company, it is an extremely stressful job and many people cannot handle the work. But Girlie is one that has thick skin. Certain people are more of a specialist in certain types of content.

She is then recruited to go to a VR firm and falls for William, the chief product officer. The book is great until William is introduced. I just couldn’t figure out- for the life of me- why Girlie was intrigued by this guy. He was boring in my opinion.

The back and forth and conclusion was very rushed and things wrapped up without actually being fully explained.

That said, it’s a great author and a good concept. I will read her other works. I just think this is not her strongest.

[miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 because i do love elaine castillo's writing very much and she has such a gift for lush grounded imagery and tender painful family dynamics. however i find heterosexual yearning (especially of the woman-desiring-man variety) intensely boring and the anglophile parts of this were kind of physically embarrassing to read. "everyone looked hot and well dressed" on the tube in london? they had their final reconciliation outside a COSTA? don't piss me off

upon reflection, i also felt disappointed in the final arc and the way things were wrapped up: the decision to make william always plotting for playground's downfall didn't sit right with me, because 1) it was rushed and 2) it removed a lot of the complexity we as readers had been feeling watching girlie fall for a (so we thought) rich guy who is in bed with some very bad people but also wants, or wanted, to do good. the final reveal turned that on its head and made it like, aww it was all okay because he got the bad guys in the end! in general this felt like two different books (a romance between two emotionally repressed people vs the savage social commentary on the tech world; both with money and trauma and complicated family stuff mixed in) mashed into one. letting each storyline breathe on its own in a separate novel would have made both of them stronger. for example, i was thinking about how little we as readers get to see of william, unless he's directly interacting with girlie. part of that is, i think, to preserve the mystery of him being an inside man all along but it also means that we don't really get his appeal or an understanding of his character besides being aloof and hot. i don't care about heterosexual yearning, true, but i can get behind a romance if i truly believe and understand why one of them desires the other. here i was like.... uhhh he's sexy? and he doesn't feel embarrassed to be around her family? i guess?

[Becky Swales-Blanchard · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

[Brandice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moderation explores virtual reality, technology, and the sometimes blurry lines between the real and digital worlds. The story is both unique and timely, and there were aspects I enjoyed, but the book attempted to pack a lot in too.

Girlie, an online content moderator, is offered a new, better paying job at Playground, a company that has created an immersive new VR world. It took me a little while to get into the story as, initially, I wasn’t super interested in Girlie’s personal life, but maybe that’s sort of the point — Delving into another, different world and recognizing it isn’t real.

While the book attempted to pack in a lot of themes, I appreciated the originality, realism, and futuristic elements in Moderation.

[jocelyn • coolgalreading · Rating 2 out of 5]

i am the victim of falling for the cover. i really wanted to love this one but it was just all over the place 😭. this really didn't need to try and be a romance

[Gohnar23 · Rating 5 out of 5]

#️⃣5️⃣5️⃣2️⃣ Read & Reviewed in 2025 🍩🧁
Date : 🗓️ Wednesday, October 8, 2025 🎁💐🍝
Word Count📃: 92k Words 🎉🍬✨

— !! 𖦹「 ✦ 🍪 Happy Birthday🎂 ✦ 」✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

My 27th read in "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY MONTH!!! :DDDD 👏🍭🍨" October.

5️⃣🌟, FILIPINO CULTURE REFERENCE LET'S GO #PROUDPINOY 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
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➕➖0️⃣1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣5️⃣6️⃣7️⃣8️⃣9️⃣🔟✖️➗

This is one of the most unhinged examples of just extreme depravity but it's not done in a way of extreme horror/splatterpunk, it has its own weirdness and horror aspects that are both huanting and fun at the same time. Everything was interesting and the bizarre points and subjects that this book delves into has gotta be one of the most unique things I have ever read. It is almost set in a virtual world and the possible romance & love with that you can get from it which is a great theme to explore. She is a moderator and i already know a thing or two about reading a book which the main character is a internet moderator and I can say that this one definitely is the better one. See We Had to Remove This Post Review. The romance in here is extremely good and i love the relationship dynamic that they have. But the best parts of this book is just the amount of filipino culture references that it features is just.... 😍😍😍😍😍😍. At one point i even forgot about the story itself and only focused on the things that they are discussing especially with Maribel's character cuz like HOY CHISMIS NANAMAN?????🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 which all in all makes for a great addition to this book because that part just makes this book all so unique and very much unlike every single love story that ever happened, nothing ever references as many things about an entire country just like this one. Woooooooo 🇵🇭🇵🇭

[holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine to read but I didn't really connect with any of the characters and tbh didn't understand why she was that interested in this man

[AsToldByKenya · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️ 3.5/5

Definitely not my usual vibe, but it still managed to keep me reading. I kept waiting for more of the FMC + MMC falling in love in the virtual world (the blurb totally made me think that’s what we were getting, so I felt a little teased). Still, the story had me curious the whole way through, and the ending actually hit in a really satisfying way.

[Raelene · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seems like a bad thing that the best thing I can say about this book is that the author did a good job narrating it herself.

I’m not even totally sure I can tell you what this is about, aside from saying the main character is named Girlie and it shows her job a bit, her family a bit, and apparently her lusting after her boss but aside from one moment where she thinks of him in a very sexual way that didn’t seem developed at all (which made the ending feel random?).

This could have used a trigger warning page. There’s… a lot. It kinda felt like there was less moderation than I expected, however when it is, it tended to be quite graphic. For example, the word ‘rape’ is in this book 15 times. Literally within the first few pages, moderators have to watch a video of the rape of a young girl and ‘prove’ it’s a young girl but talking about her wearing child sized socks with Frozen characters on them. Suicide is implied for a couple people close to the MC’s as well, as well as suicidal ideations. Obviously everyone’s triggers vary, but the level of graphicness was unexpected to me.

The cover is beautiful, but has absolutely nothing to do with the story. The writing was… not my taste, I guess? I don’t personally need to know the race of every random security guard or whoever the MC notices (that will never be seen again) when I’m reading a book. I really didn’t care about how hot Girlie thought she was, but that was mentioned in detail a few times. The chapters are inconsistent in length but overall pretty long (this is slightly over 300 pages and there’s only 8 chapters - chapter 1 and 8 are both around 14 pages, yet chapter 6 is over 80 pages).

I don’t think I’m ever going to think about this book again after today. Which is a bummer, as I was intrigued by the premise of it.

[Irmak ☾ · Rating 1 out of 5]

what a waste of my time.

[Trisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long meandering chapters that gave little in the form of plot or romance made this one a tough read for me.

The future is AI. We keep hearing it and seeing it. Girlie works for a big on-line company. She is the quality control person behind reporting videos, comments, and groups. Girlie is very good at her job even though it is awful and traumatizing. So she gets recruited to the next new thing - an on-line virtual reality where you can explore an open sandbox type MMO world. You can explore new interests, crafts and hobbies you'd like to explore, or learn a new task like swimming. Girlie is brought it to monitor as an NPC and mute & kick anyone not going by the rules.

This part of the book sounded fascinating. The world sounded even more shutdown and chronically on-line than now I wanted to know more about how her job was evolving and what this company planned to do.

But somehow, the story got bogged down in Girlie and her boss meeting. They have few stuttering conversations where they are both trying to figure out each other's angle and both agree - they can't be a thing. I was so much more interested in the society and learning about the technology than I ever was about the two co-workers. Big work up for a let down ending.

[Jennifer (formerly Eccentric Muse) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I *LOVED* this. I read America Is Not the Heart ages ago, and loved it too. Elaine Castillo is just a stunning writer -- dense, dense sentences; deeply nuanced characters; a complex plot under her full control and key themes deftly sidled up to, built organically out of plot and character, not the reverse.

Full of humour, pathos, irony, big ideas -- about working in tech, the overtaking of humanity, indeed reality itself, by dehumanizing technologies, the terrifying and increasingly common alliance between tech bros and far right politics; about trauma, vicarious trauma, sexual violence, and how it shapes personality; about the Filipino diaspora and the immigrant experience, displacement, families in all their messy loves and loyalties; about how all this plays out in a technologically overcharged, end-stage capitalist, fraying democracy - set in the absolutely pitch-perfect location: Vegas, where reality parodies itself, and money and decadence and illusion and addiction dance an endless dance. About how people endure, find each other, stay aligned with some kind of moral centre despite it all.

Maybe I didn't entirely love the way the hetero love story wrapped up so neatly, but while I might frown on this from a literary POV, I need it, now especially, from a social-emotional one. Also, Mona, the German shepherd, made up in spades for that. I read now that Elaine Castillo has had two rescue shepherds and has written a long essay about the relationship between dogs and people (Good Girl: Notes on Dog Rescue, part of the Roxanne Gay series exclusively on Everand -- with whom I'm now in a big snit because of the change to their subscription terms. I may have to buckle and re-subscribe just for this).

Another note: Castillo reads this herself, and she is GOOD. Also, she has an impeccable French accent. And her voicing of Maribel is HILARIOUS.

One final note: if you like high-end watches, and are into watch culture (I hear that's a thing), this book gets you.

Highly, highly recommended.

[Sammy Kula · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Just not my writing style.

[Kubi]

Elaine Castillo has written Jane Austen fanfic set in the Nevada tech landscape. Haha. Been spoiling to read this since it was announced. I love Castillo and her voice (speaking and writing). Having read her How to Read Now both with the physical book and on audio, I had some difficulty separating Castillo from her main character Girlie del Mundo (not her real name). Virgo, Pinay (specifically Pangasinan Ilocano) immigrant, eldest daughter (in this case, an only child but eldest cousin, and if you're the eldest cousin, you know that's the same thing). There are enlightening insights about the Filipino immigrant experience, which I tend to read within the context of my secondhand knowledge from friends and family who now live abroad. But the truth is, I can only imagine the sense of community that emerges from shared isolation, but also shared origins, culture, and values. A lot of Moderation made me laugh, with Girlie's hardened view of the world combined with her sarcastic delivery of life observations. There are many references to classics and x-teenth century periods. But also there is a dog, a tribute to Xena Castillo, and she was all that mattered. There is also a chapter that, I think, is kind of a subversion of conventional plotting, in which the main girl and the main boy sit around eating fries and drinking Asahi beer. This is near the last third of the book when Things Should be Happening. But here, they're just talking, exposing but really safeguarding their hearts, letting themselves be held through full disclosure, with a dog snuffling asleep at their feet. For this chapter alone, Moderation to me was pure delight.

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh FINALLY, a book I absolutely loved. It's been months of - at best - liking my reads and grading on a curve. I've done a lot of rereading just to feel something. But here we are, at last, a book that makes me remember why I love books. And not just because of its awesome, trippy cover.

Castillo's second lit fic novel (oh, how I wish she had a heaping backlist I could reach for), this time about a Girlie, a Filipina-American working as a content moderator in Vegas for a Facebook-like company in order to help support her large family and their large debt. When I say content moderator, think of the folks who have to watch horrifying, graphic videos posted to social media to see if they need to be removed. That kind of content moderator.

Low and behold, she gets a major promotion and raise to work a similar job for a VR startup her company has acquired, and her boss is real hot, and they have a real connection. A romance of sorts ensues that definitely plays with romance motifs and expectations, but is still extremely quiet and grounded.

There's just something so...intimate and specific about Castillo's writing. Her characters are so, so well-drawn, and they feel like actual adults, which is not always a guarantee in books allegedly about adults. And her books are dark in the way the actual world feels dark.

Major CW for brief, graphic descriptions of child sex abuse, primarily because of the nature of Girlie's job. Castillo shies away from basically nothing, ever, so be warned.

[lindsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down. Loved the narrative voice and literary style, wish it wasn’t primarily a romance plot.

[nestle • whatnestleread · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moderation started with a really intriguing idea but ultimately fell flat. Girlie, our main character, is a content moderator who barely reacts to anything, which makes her perfect for the job.

When she’s offered a role at a tech company moderating VR theme parks, the story opens up a world of mystery, adventure, and a touch of romance with the chief product officer. At first, the book was clever and fun, but it quickly slid from a five-star start to a generous three.

Where it lost me was in the follow through. The VR world mostly takes a backseat to office politics, and the romance barely goes anywhere.

The story doesn’t really build to a satisfying arc, so the ending feels flat. Girlie (hate that name, by the way) is an interesting character, but her guarded nature keeps things from fully landing emotionally.

Overall, Moderation has some fun and creative ideas, but it just didn’t hit the way I was hoping for.

[Claudia Farrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really didn’t read this one in moderation. It completely captured me from beginning to end and I consumed it in two days - spending all of my non reading time thinking about it.

I was drawn in by this fantastic cover art 👏 and promises of “if you like tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow (which I did) you will love this” (which I did).

I really really really loved this. World building was brilliant - didn’t really feel like I was in something that wasn’t realistic at all - but still far removed from my day to day experience enough that it felt like sci-fi. As a big (early seasons) Westworld fan I was initially sceptical when I read the blurb thinking it was perhaps too “inspired” but it didn’t feel that way at all.

Loved being in this world from the viewpoint of not the participant but the content moderator - felt like it was a fresh pov.

I must have missed somewhere before commencing that this was a love story and thus was not expecting it at all but it was such a nice surprise and I found myself really rooting for Girlie and William. Their chemistry was very well done and I could really feel the tension between these two social strugglers through the pages.

Side character of Dr Perera was a personal favourite of mine - enjoyed everything that his character brought to the story - and Mona too - the perfect addition to really get William to win over the reader.

Thankyou NetGalley and Allen and Unwin for this ARC in exchange for my honest review - I will very happily be recommending this to friends, family, reader and book clubs!

This will make a great book club book because there is so much to pick apart.

[Chelsea Knowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review*.

Moderation follows Girlie who works as a social media moderator, flagging and removing inappropriate content. Girlie is a good moderator as nothing bothers her. She gets an offer to start moderating virtual reality theme parks. Girlie takes the job but there could be something darker built into the company and William who started the company is exactly Girlie’s type.

This was okay. This was a five star when I started it, then it went to a four star and then a three star. I really liked the witty commentary at the start but then I just lost interest in this. This did have a lot of interesting things to say and generally I can see people enjoying this. Stories involving content moderation are always interesting and I always give them a go. I would recommend this and this was written well.

[Danielle Olonoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note to self: don’t pick up a book just because the cover looks cool.

I enjoyed the writing style, but I kept waiting for the plot to actually start, and... it just never did. Struggled to finish this one and found myself skimming.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent foray for Castillo. The writing remains BRILLIANT.

--longer review to come!--

[claud · Rating 2 out of 5]

no direction or payoff in this book. i caught myself asking ”what are we doing with this” multiple times throughout

[Eliza Pillsbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ouchie