Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Ironic, Satirical
In our section on "Narrator Point of View" in The Circle, we touch on the fact that Dave Eggers makes ample use of dramatic irony throughout the novel.
Even though The Circle's third-person narrator shows us the world through Mae Holland's eyes, the novel gives us plenty of opportunities to see that Mae's perspective is deeply naïve, misguided, and dangerous. This means that we readers are put in a position of knowing more—and of having more insight—than Mae herself does, and that creates a deeply ironic tone throughout the novel as a whole.
Given the fact that we readers are meant to recognize the absurdity at the base of Mae's perspective, The Circle is also satirical. Eggers' satirical tone runs as an undercurrent throughout most of the novel, but it becomes particularly fierce in a number of passages where Eggers wants his point to come through loud and clear. Take a look at this scene in which Mae feels a complicated rush of fear, power, and self-righteousness after sending a "frown" to paramilitaries in Guatemala, for example:
Mae hesitated briefly, knowing the gravity of what she was about to do—to come out against these rapists and murderers—but she needed to make a stand. She pushed the button. An autoresponse thanked her, noting that she was the 24,726th person to send a smile to Ana María and the 19,282nd to send a frown to the paramilitaries.
[…]
After Tania's petition Mae sat for a moment, feeling very alert, very aware of herself, knowing that not only had she possibly made a group of powerful enemies in Guatemala, but that untold thousands of SeeChange watchers were seeing her doing it. (1.38.12-13)
Mae's feelings of fear and resolve are real to her, but the satirical tone of the novel on the whole is asking us to recognize the absurdity of Mae's emotional response in this scene. Mae really believes that clicking a button to send a "frown" to paramilitaries in another country will not only make a difference, but might also make her some "powerful enemies." This kind of armchair (or, in this case, office chair) activism is one of the many targets of The Circle's satire.