Moderation by Elaine Castillo

‘Moderation is a novel that refuses to do things by halves. It is a piercing, laser-precise exploration of big tech… breathtakingly funny…and a highly charged, passionate and tender love story. A wonderful book.’
Kaliane Bradley, bestselling author of The Ministry of Time

Girlie, a thirty-something Filipinx-American, works a day job at a social-media moderation centre, flagging and removing the very worst that makes it on to the internet. She’s good at it, too – dispassionate, unflinching, maybe because she learned by necessity to cauterise all her emotions when she was still a kid – so it’s no surprise to anyone when the social-media company for which she works offers her a big pay rise and an office to start moderating its new venture: virtual-reality theme parks, stunning simulations of civilizations long-since dead.

Girlie takes the job, and it almost seems too good to be true. Almost. Sure, she signed up for having to deal with the ambient racism and misogyny of pretty much any virtual space, but as she begins to explore the intricate worlds that she moderates, she notices two deeply troubling things: that there might be something much darker built into the very code of the company, and that William, technically her new boss, a man whose barriers are as mighty as her own, might just be that long-forgotten thing… Girlie’s type.

‘Moderation is a novel that refuses to do things by halves. It is a piercing, laser-precise exploration of big tech… breathtakingly funny…and a highly charged, passionate and tender love story. A wonderful book.’

Kaliane Bradley, bestselling author of The Ministry of Time

About the Author: Named one of ’30 of the planet’s most exciting young people’ by the Financial Times, Elaine Castillo was born and raised in the Bay Area. Her debut novel America Is Not the Heart was named one of the best books of 2018 by NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Public Library, The New York Post, The Boston Globe, Real Simple, Lit Hub, and has been nominated for the Elle Award, the Center for Fiction Prize, the Aspen Words Prize, the Northern California Independent Booksellers Book Award, and the California Book Award.

03 Jul 2025
 

Moderation: ‘If you liked Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow you’ll like this’ PANDORA SYKES by Elaine Castillo ISBN 9781838954970