Moderation
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Overview
Longlisted for the 2026 Women's Prize in Fiction and named a Top Ten Book of 2025 by The Atlantic and Slate, and a Best Book of 2025 by The New Yorker, TIME, Kirkus Reviews and more."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 AtlanticA 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 places: 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.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780593489666
- ISBN-10: 0593489667
- Publisher: Viking
- Publish Date: August 2025
- Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.02 pounds
- Page Count: 320
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Elaine Castillo's writing is perfectly dialed in—attuned to her characters on a level that few can achieve. Her wit, incisive understanding and ability to create a complete picture in just a couple well-structured sentences made America Is Not the Heart and How to Read Now major hits, and those gifts are all present once again in her latest novel, Moderation. Set in a future that could be tomorrow or could be 10 years from now, the book follows Girlie Delmundo, a content moderator at a massive Las Vegas facility for a tech firm. Girlie’s job requires her to spend her days studying graphic, deeply disturbing content for any legal or policy violations and making split-second decisions about its continued existence on the web. She is preternaturally good at her work, and her skills extend beyond the screen: Girlie is always moderating herself, always refining and shaping the appearance she projects to the world. After she’s offered a promotion to work for a new virtual reality enterprise her company has just purchased, Girlie's life changes in a few remarkable ways. She's suddenly got all the money she needs to help her extended Filipino family, but she's spending almost all her time in the virtual reality world of her job. She's also spending a lot of time with her new boss, William Cheung, with whom she seems to be falling in love. The intrusion of romance into Girlie's life creates much of the tension in Moderation. For someone like Girlie, who's spent years certain of exactly who she is, it's a shock to the system, and a reminder that the depths of her true self can't be reduced or constrained, no matter how hard she tries. Unspooling a love story is also a wonderful way to throw readers off balance amid the titanic ambitions of big tech and the contours of Girlie’s internal world. One minute Castillo is outlining Girlie's family history and why money has become so important to her, and the next she's waxing poetic about the customs of daily office life, and how they protect a delicate equilibrium in Girlie's workplace. Castillo dives into Girlie's weight-training hobby, paints a gleaming picture of the artifice of Las Vegas and presents a vision of virtual reality while reminding us readers that books have always been virtual reality machines. Moderation is a sharp, absorbing, potent work by one of modern fiction's smartest voices, and you'll want it on your reading list.
Elaine Castillo's writing is perfectly dialed in—attuned to her characters on a level that few can achieve. Her wit, incisive understanding and ability to create a complete picture in just a couple well-structured sentences made America Is Not the Heart and How to Read Now major hits, and those gifts are all present once again in her latest novel, Moderation. Set in a future that could be tomorrow or could be 10 years from now, the book follows Girlie Delmundo, a content moderator at a massive Las Vegas facility for a tech firm. Girlie’s job requires her to spend her days studying graphic, deeply disturbing content for any legal or policy violations and making split-second decisions about its continued existence on the web. She is preternaturally good at her work, and her skills extend beyond the screen: Girlie is always moderating herself, always refining and shaping the appearance she projects to the world. After she’s offered a promotion to work for a new virtual reality enterprise her company has just purchased, Girlie's life changes in a few remarkable ways. She's suddenly got all the money she needs to help her extended Filipino family, but she's spending almost all her time in the virtual reality world of her job. She's also spending a lot of time with her new boss, William Cheung, with whom she seems to be falling in love. The intrusion of romance into Girlie's life creates much of the tension in Moderation. For someone like Girlie, who's spent years certain of exactly who she is, it's a shock to the system, and a reminder that the depths of her true self can't be reduced or constrained, no matter how hard she tries. Unspooling a love story is also a wonderful way to throw readers off balance amid the titanic ambitions of big tech and the contours of Girlie’s internal world. One minute Castillo is outlining Girlie's family history and why money has become so important to her, and the next she's waxing poetic about the customs of daily office life, and how they protect a delicate equilibrium in Girlie's workplace. Castillo dives into Girlie's weight-training hobby, paints a gleaming picture of the artifice of Las Vegas and presents a vision of virtual reality while reminding us readers that books have always been virtual reality machines. Moderation is a sharp, absorbing, potent work by one of modern fiction's smartest voices, and you'll want it on your reading list.