Moderation by Elaine Castillo
In her sophomore novel, Elaine Castillo explores ideas of innovation and ethics through a subtle speculative narrative
Moderation is Elaine Castillo’s much-anticipated sophomore novel, and follows Girlie Delmundo, a content moderator for a social media company flagging and removing the most heinous content on the internet. Girlie is excellent at her job, partly because of her learned behaviour of compartmentalising and emotionally dissociating. When she’s offered a new position with a shiny paycheck and her own office, Girlie accepts the company’s offer to moderate their new virtual-reality theme park of historical civilisations. Girlie begins to unravel something rotten in the code of the company while battling with her growing attraction to William Cheung, her new boss and the co-founder of the company.
Girlie is a fascinating protagonist: a Filipina living in the US, she’s distant and composed on the surface but the reader is treated to her snarky inner monologue. Castillo is skilled at writing flawed and layered characters which the reader can’t help but root for, and the slow fall of Girlie and William’s defences is a necessary core of earnest vulnerability in this world of cold cynical tech. Castillo deftly explores the friction between innovation and ethics, interrogating Meta’s dogma of ‘move fast break things.’ Moderation is a compelling blend of speculative and literary fiction, with a touching slow-burn romance woven throughout, which underscores the human need for connection.
