sarah_santb's review against another edition
5.0
I read this book for my College English Class, and I gotta say this was one of the most confusing books I have read, just because I couldn't make much sense of what was happening in a few pages. Nevertheless, Brave New World contains interesting themes and for the most, the book will leave you thinking about our current society, and rise questions that you might have never thought before.
P.S. The ending caught me off guard.
P.S. The ending caught me off guard.
bannisterb's review against another edition
2.0
I've read the original novel, but this felt a lot different. The art was well-done (although not really my style), but the story felt really truncated to me (as it is, it's an adaptation). It left me feeling a little meh about it.
cadeunderbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5
alissaklobe's review against another edition
4.0
Always wondered what Brave New World would look like visually - this is a great adaptation, great way to still get the story if you don't like reading classics
I enjoyed it!
I enjoyed it!
lyzz's review against another edition
3.0
Brave New World is a graphic novel adaptation of this classic. I am absolutely loving the trend in graphic novels to adapt classics into graphic novels to make them more accessible – 1984, Handmaid’s Tale, Great Gatsby are just a few that come to mind. I remember reading 1984 when I was 14 and not really getting it and never attempting Brave New World. I recently read the graphic novel adaption of 1984 so reading this after that was perfect timing as the novels contrast each other nicely.
Brave New World is set AF (after Ford) 632 (AD 2540 in Gregorian) in a World State of London where the emphasis of society is on science and efficiency. Emotions and individuality are conditioned out of the citizens from a young age through sleep hypnosis. Citizens are conditioned to be of a caste system to maintain order in society. Free love and use of a drug called soma are used to maintain order. The two main characters of Bernard and Lenina are the focus of the novel and begin by taking a trip to New Mexico to see natural-born people. The people they met on this trip change their views of the society and London.
Three words to describe this book: Ultimate Dystopian Classic.
Cover: I was attracted to request this graphic novel from the publisher based on the cover. I love the rainbow title and futuristic buildings.
Character Development: I found the character development in this graphic novel to be a bit weak. I had trouble distinguishing the characters of interest from other characters in the panes and remembering who was who. This could be an artistic choice as the goal of this society is to reduce individuality, but it made it difficult to follow at times.
World-Building: The best aspect of this graphic novel is the world-building. The reader gets a tour of London and how society maintains order.
Plot & Pacing: I felt that the plot was a bit uneven. The first third of the novel is spent world-building and then the plot picks up. The ending moved quite quickly and felt rushed.
Illustrations: The illustrations were colorful and crisp and captured the futuristic world of London. However, I am accustomed to graphic novels that use glossy pages and the use of matte pages seemed to dull this graphic novel.
Verdict: I would recommend if you have not read Brave New World before. It is a fascinating book that is the basis/inspiration for so much of the current dystopian literature. I did need to supplement it with additional reading to fully understand the story. I would be particularly curious to hear the views of people who read the original novel and compare to this adaptation.
The finished copy of this graphic novel was provided by Harper, in exchange for an honest review.
Brave New World is set AF (after Ford) 632 (AD 2540 in Gregorian) in a World State of London where the emphasis of society is on science and efficiency. Emotions and individuality are conditioned out of the citizens from a young age through sleep hypnosis. Citizens are conditioned to be of a caste system to maintain order in society. Free love and use of a drug called soma are used to maintain order. The two main characters of Bernard and Lenina are the focus of the novel and begin by taking a trip to New Mexico to see natural-born people. The people they met on this trip change their views of the society and London.
Three words to describe this book: Ultimate Dystopian Classic.
Cover: I was attracted to request this graphic novel from the publisher based on the cover. I love the rainbow title and futuristic buildings.
Character Development: I found the character development in this graphic novel to be a bit weak. I had trouble distinguishing the characters of interest from other characters in the panes and remembering who was who. This could be an artistic choice as the goal of this society is to reduce individuality, but it made it difficult to follow at times.
World-Building: The best aspect of this graphic novel is the world-building. The reader gets a tour of London and how society maintains order.
Plot & Pacing: I felt that the plot was a bit uneven. The first third of the novel is spent world-building and then the plot picks up. The ending moved quite quickly and felt rushed.
Illustrations: The illustrations were colorful and crisp and captured the futuristic world of London. However, I am accustomed to graphic novels that use glossy pages and the use of matte pages seemed to dull this graphic novel.
Verdict: I would recommend if you have not read Brave New World before. It is a fascinating book that is the basis/inspiration for so much of the current dystopian literature. I did need to supplement it with additional reading to fully understand the story. I would be particularly curious to hear the views of people who read the original novel and compare to this adaptation.
The finished copy of this graphic novel was provided by Harper, in exchange for an honest review.
fudgeamania's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
dchaseb's review against another edition
2.0
Brave New World is one of my favorite books of all time. Graphic novels are some of my favorite things to read. Well, why didn't I like it?
I've read BNW maybe 3 times in my life before reading the graphic novel. I feel that may had caused me to read the graphic novel as more of a guide or answer book to if I pictured the world similarly when I read the actual novel. I did not and I think that is what caused me to not really sink into it but instead just feel like I was along for the ride (like being a plus one in an uber).
I always love the first chapter of the book and how it puts your mind in a state of mass production, rules, procedures, and order. It's a tough chapter but it puts you in the right mindset. The graphic novel tries to do a decent job but can't land it as well as the droning exposition that first chapter does. Did the graphic novel depict the characters the same way as I pictured? Also no, but then again movies rarely do a great job of this either so not that big a deal for me.
The final confrontation between The Savage and Mutapha Mond pulls most from the book from what I remember but doesn't seem to hit the grandiose of their philosophical battle of how humanity should exist.
The artwork was fun and captured some scenes beautifully yet for me it didn't stick the landing as well as when I read the novel for the first time. I'd suggest people read the actual novel first and then this later as a fun addition or reminder.
I've read BNW maybe 3 times in my life before reading the graphic novel. I feel that may had caused me to read the graphic novel as more of a guide or answer book to if I pictured the world similarly when I read the actual novel. I did not and I think that is what caused me to not really sink into it but instead just feel like I was along for the ride (like being a plus one in an uber).
I always love the first chapter of the book and how it puts your mind in a state of mass production, rules, procedures, and order. It's a tough chapter but it puts you in the right mindset. The graphic novel tries to do a decent job but can't land it as well as the droning exposition that first chapter does. Did the graphic novel depict the characters the same way as I pictured? Also no, but then again movies rarely do a great job of this either so not that big a deal for me.
The final confrontation between The Savage and Mutapha Mond pulls most from the book from what I remember but doesn't seem to hit the grandiose of their philosophical battle of how humanity should exist.
The artwork was fun and captured some scenes beautifully yet for me it didn't stick the landing as well as when I read the novel for the first time. I'd suggest people read the actual novel first and then this later as a fun addition or reminder.
rebus's review against another edition
5.0
It's perhaps the most prescient book ever written, as Huxley had opened the doors of his own perception and seen far into the future based on the 'progress' humanity had made in his own lifetime. He saw the further deepening of human fascism coming in the forms of technology, propaganda, drugs, and an infantilization of human emotions in order to better serve Capitalism and markets. Life had become an assembly line, with Henry Ford as the new god, and all individuality is wiped out in favor of a group mind (religion replaced ironically with the group sing, which was always a foundation of the fascism of religion). Although date rape drugs did one day become common, overdosing often to have group orgies is one of the more repulsive things ever depicted in literature, and their motto would perhaps be reversed today: instead of 'hug me 'til you drug me' it would have to be 'drug me so I don't need hugs.'
The savage from outside the cities--indeed, this book is also class conscious, city dwellers the upper classes, even if they are broken into around a half dozen castes--is the only one who can truly see this false happiness, though he is at odds with his mother who was from the city, a woman who wishes she could have gone back to her drugged out complacency and life of ease (white privilege rules). This society chants on about how no one is any better than anyone else, yet they are divided from Alpha to Delta and despise the savages as much as they feel their curiosity aroused by them. Elites are allowed to break rules and the mantra of serving others rather than one's self is the hollow core of the new 'civilization' due to the above hypocrisy and their group derision of savages who still engage in religions, another hypocrisy. The savage ultimately rejects society once again, refusing to be experimented upon, and returns to nature with mixed results.
This is the most rare of adaptations, a masterpiece of graphic literature that enhances and smooths out the rough edges of the original text (which I still view also as a masterpiece). Alan Moore has always been right about the difficulty of adaptation, especially to film, but this and the recent Vonnegut GN are proof that the transition from pure literature to graphic literature need not suffer as great works do when put to film.
The savage from outside the cities--indeed, this book is also class conscious, city dwellers the upper classes, even if they are broken into around a half dozen castes--is the only one who can truly see this false happiness, though he is at odds with his mother who was from the city, a woman who wishes she could have gone back to her drugged out complacency and life of ease (white privilege rules). This society chants on about how no one is any better than anyone else, yet they are divided from Alpha to Delta and despise the savages as much as they feel their curiosity aroused by them. Elites are allowed to break rules and the mantra of serving others rather than one's self is the hollow core of the new 'civilization' due to the above hypocrisy and their group derision of savages who still engage in religions, another hypocrisy. The savage ultimately rejects society once again, refusing to be experimented upon, and returns to nature with mixed results.
This is the most rare of adaptations, a masterpiece of graphic literature that enhances and smooths out the rough edges of the original text (which I still view also as a masterpiece). Alan Moore has always been right about the difficulty of adaptation, especially to film, but this and the recent Vonnegut GN are proof that the transition from pure literature to graphic literature need not suffer as great works do when put to film.
ashleyreadstoomuch's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5