Moderation

Castillo’s masterful latest (after the essay collection How to Read Now) follows the vagaries of a social media content moderator’s work and love lives. The protagonist is known only by her workplace handle Girlie Delmundo—Reeden, her employer, “forcefully suggested” that she and her coworkers use fake names “for the employee’s protection—which meant, of course, for the company’s protection.” Most of them are fellow Filipinas, “people who knew about the job through that reliable job network still unmatched by LinkedIn, otherwise known as family.” (Employees of color prove tougher in the face of troubling subject matter.) Girlie specializes in flagging videos of child sexual abuse, and her exemplary work gets her recruited for a position with Reeden’s newest acquisition, a virtual reality endeavor called Playground. She develops a rapport with her new boss, William Cheung, and tries to stamp out her burgeoning feelings for him, determined to stay focused on work despite sensing something more than mutual attraction: a “recognition,” “alien to alien.” As Girlie flags objectionable content in Playground’s VR historical theme parks, which include a Gauls vs. Romans battle and the St. Louis World’s Fair, she learns more about the original medical applications of Playground’s tech, and the fate of its founder, Edison Lau. Castillo shifts seamlessly in scale and tone, from a wide-angled systems novel to a love story, and from barbed satire to staggering emotional depth. It’s a triumph. Agent: Emma Paterson, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (Aug.)