The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Moderation by Elaine Castillo

this cover is stunnnning!

I DNF this one

There's an interview with the author on The Rumpus, which I really enjoyed. She talks about how it's a novel about labour and class exploitation, and inspired in part by Zola's Germinal, which just seems so out of left field but cool!

https://therumpus.net/2025/09/26/labo...

I have only flipped through the book itself, but I do find the chatty style a little grating.

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "I DNF this one"

I did as well GY.

oh, that does not bode well for me - it's next in line for me.

I'm about halfway through and enjoying parts of it more than others. It brings back memories of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, one of my all time favorite books. I see how it can be about labor and class exploitation, but I'm hooked on the artificial reality.

Ohhh don’t say that - I DNF it after the first chapter and now you are comparing it to one of my favourite authors and one of the most influential novels of the last decades

I keep seeing notifications that there's an update on the Moderation thread - and wondering what rows are going on - are we back to the days of people flouncing out, accusing each other of various things etc.

Bit disappointing to find it's the title of a book :-)

The book is about that type of moderation but more extreme content moderation

GY - I was not really comparing Moderation to Snow Crash - it is no where near that standard - but it did bring it to mind. The first chapter is not the best. I liked the scenes that take place in the artificial reality scenarios. Unfortunately, there were too few of them! Now that I've finished, I will be moving its down a bit on my list. The imagined sex was so poorly described, and the Girlie/William relationship development was wierd. However, in addition to the somewhat vague labor and class exploitation theme, the author also goes after corporate greed. But I would like to visit the artificial reality worlds that were created.

Hi Linda, thanks for your thoughts on this, i am struggling with Moderation and paused in my reading of it abiout 10% in to read something else. I had wondered if it was because i started it after The Benefactors which I loved and it was paling in comparison. I was finding it wasnt doing what the blurb promised re AR and i wasnt interested in the side stories. Good to know the AR bits get more involved so I will persevere but perhaps modify expectations on the plot lines!

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Ohhh don’t say that - I DNF it after the first chapter and now you are comparing it to one of my favourite authors and one of the most influential novels of the last decades"

I had that same reaction! To compare anything to Snow Crash is such a high bar that I almost fell over.

Hence my followup explanation! Snow Crash sits alone at the top. But it is rare (at least for me) to encounter a book that has artificial reality experiences in it. So whenever I encounter one, I am reminded of Snow Crash, which brings excellent memories with the reminder. Moderation and Snow Crash are not comparable by any means.

I listened to the first 1/3 of this book. The author did a great job as narrator, so if it appeals to you that format is recommended. What I liked about this story was the Filipino-american culture aspects and the corporate culture/class conflict. I was bored by the VR and the romance. Seems like the rest of the book might be skewing heavily that way, so I'm letting it go.

Yeah, the romance does sort of take over and that's the weakest part of the book.

I’ve seen so many people DNF this one that I kept pushing it to the back burner, but after the heaviness of my recent reads, I’m starting to think a lighter romance might be just what I need.

Did anyone get through it?

I DNF not because it was a light romance but because of the extreme disturbing imagery in the very first pages (it is the point of the novel that the protagonist is moderating appealing content but I did not want to read about it

I am going to try it again to see if I can get past that

Oh, I see. Thank you for clearing that up for me.

I just finished the first chapter and it was pretty brutal. I’m not sure if I can stomach more. I’m going to try and soldier through, but I don’t know if I can make it through if it continues this way.

I pushed through the first chapter and (now around 100 pages in) it was thankfully a (for me completely misjudged) one-off. Actually liking the book now although I already sense the rumblings of the romantic turn which others have warned of.

Some thoughts

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I actually think this book might prove accidentally resonant in 2-3 years if and when the Puy de Fou UK park opens as pretty sure it will lead to a culture war type debate given the seeming Far Left/Far Right polarisation of UK politics

I listened to the audio version of this,read by the author. Books on tech / AI don’t really interest me, so I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this. I agree the descriptions early on about the extreme content they are moderating are off putting and seem to be for shock value. Once I was past that, I enjoyed the story and characters and was genuinely invested in how it would turn out. The virtual reality worlds were interesting and I was happy with the ending. I’m glad I stuck with it.