Fil-Am author Elaine Castillo’s second novel is so woke, this reader had to read every other sentence twice to fully parse out the pointed inequalities marking even the most seemingly innocent exchanges. To Castillo, the pen is a sword, the page a battlefield in a story that is part-romance, part social critique with a dash of mystery.

Girlie Delmundo (not her real name) is of Filipino descent and never lets the reader forget it.  Girlie throws in the Bataan Death March, Rizal, and Bonifacio every now and then for flavor; she speaks Tagalog phrases when she’s with kin (“The vinegar-dipped calamity of this family: financial illiteracy, parentification, brushing systemic abuse under the rug, short calves.”), and food choices include bangus poke and eggplant afritada (“Performative modern Indigeneity, garnished with scallions”); yet her alienation from everything and everyone make her distinctly third culture.

She’s the responsible daughter who goes into credit card debt to pay for the tuition of cousins back home, and takes on a terrifying job that breaks her more sensitive peers with softer upbringings. Girlie seems particularly suited for content moderation; her specialty so dreadful, she sees child predators all around and cannot be approached even by friends and family from behind. 

To read Castillo’s novel is to have a glimpse of the perpetual warzone it must be like to be a brown working class woman in Trump America. If you’ve ever wondered what it must be like to see the extreme perversions of human nature unleashed on online avatars, in social media or virtual reality, then MODERATION is the book for you. Castillo’s trademark wit barely masks an enormous anger, her withering gaze casting judgment on even beer choices that reveal either privilege or poverty, mapping out a soul’s entire destiny based on watch brand or the car one drives around. It’s a material world, baby, and in Castillo’s playground, we humans have devolved to the point that we no longer know how to connect with one another meaningfully.

The book has a very strong first chapter, but then meanders in the next few sections up until we are introduced to the love interest: Girlie’s good-looking new boss. Readers looking for a typical romance will be disappointed, for how can a wholesome love affair blossom in a poisonous pit of racial politics and techno-capital cloak-and-dagger maneuverings? 

In such a cynical world, where nothing is sincere and every sentence is analyzed for possible hidden agenda, perhaps it is prophetic and very telling that the seeds of romance are planted through haptics and body suits, in a very complicated new frontier in virtual reality. When one’s very reality is moderated to the point that the human brain can no longer tell which is real life, which is fantasy, the closest thing that comes to love in Castillo’s novel is an awareness of biochemistry: an outpouring of lust. 

If dark and dreary is what you believe our world to be, then come sneak in some laughs along with Girlie as she takes on a new job moderating virtual reality, and tries not to get mixed up in a workplace romance as she earns enough cash to liberate herself from the chains of family debt. The world has already ended, God is dead, and so is romance, or at least, it reads that way in the gospel according to Castillo.

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MODERATION is available on Kindle for $14.49 (Php 830.00), as well as from Fully Booked for Php 1,064.00 (hardcover).

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ABOUT THE REVIEWER:

Gabi Francisco is a classically trained soprano who now performs in the English / Music / Drama classroom. On weekends she soaks in as much art and literature as she can, so she can pass her love for the arts on to her students. She passionately believes in the transformative role of arts education in nation-building. (IG: teacher.gabi.reads )