Reviews with content warning for War - Fahrenheit 451

i read this once in 2020 (fell asleep in the last hour of the audiobook but i retained the whole story, woke up the next day, relistened to the parts i missed), and watched the truffaut movie in one of my last film classes, but i have the book version and i thought i might as well give it the honest try now that i’m officially integrated into reading.

welp, i gave it 3 stars back when i didnt have a rating system, and 3 stars was too generous. i get what he was going for but there are so many questions and plot holes. WHY do they know how to read if books are illegal is the biggest one! WHO taught them and HOW and WHY. and honestly with that question alone I don’t even need to get into my other issues. the story isn’t good but white people have a very low bar for what they have made into classics. basically anything that happened in real life to people of color they fictionalized and went “isn't that terrible? wouldn’t that be terrible if that happened to us civilized people? and isn’t the prose fantastic? let’s make this a classic.” like there are absolutely better dystopian and censorship based books. let me stop the man’s already six feet under.

Content Warnings

filipa_maia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was on my TBR for a very long time before I decided to read it. This book was on my TBR for a very long time before I decided to read it.

I love this dystopian world created by Ray Bradbury: What if owning books, or read them, was illegal? I cannot even think about that. Man, my house would be burned down in two seconds... How can a book written in 1953 describe the world today? The “infinite scroll” society we live in today is not much different from the one Bradbury writes about.

I don't think this is the last time I will read this book.

Content Warnings

soton's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

celery's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

kajasversion's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

i agree with everything Sideria said so i’ll just leave this here: “Besides that it also describes a future of degenerating and increasingly faster entertainment. Entertainment that doesn't ask hard questions. And in that it often managed to predict some bad current tendencies in 21st century media. 30sec short form video bombardement. But as much as the book gets right about the future, it gets wrong as well. Because books are more popular than ever. Long form video content and endless critiques of power structures still exist. There's just more of everything now and (as of now) we make our own decision on what we spend our time on. As a cautionary tale it does work I think and Ray Bradbury never claimed that he tried to predict the future.

The book doesn't escape the solid undertone of 1950's pre feminist misogyny. Every single woman in this book except Clarisse (who's childish and innocent) is hysterical. It's not even clear if they have a job. Granted, given the book's short 200 page length, you never truly get an idea of everyday life in this Dystopia but I'd assume gender dynamics is one the things that hadn't changed. This is the biggest point of critique I have.”

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