Reviews with content warning for Murder - Nineteen Eighty-Four

feels quite slow but paced for the majority of the book, not much happens and feels dragged out, but then gets interesting and thought-provoking towards the end

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mysterylover4ever's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

It was pretty ok.

Spoiler

the ending felt kind of cheap but maybe that’s just because I have a soft spot for happy endings of which this didn’t

Winston was not a like able character at all. Anyways, I don’t know. I didn’t really like this book. Had some pretty good messages about the government though

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laurenu8's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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chaosandwildflowers's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

I wanted to like this book so much. I really did. I love classics! I love challenging books that make you think! But from the moment I turned the first page, I just could not get into it!

First issue: the writing style. It's so...dry? Like even when things get interesting towards the end, it's a bit of a slog to get through. And this might have been the fault of my particular edition, but the paragraphs were SO long and blocky, especially once I got to the book within the book (don't even get me started on how useless I found the book within the book).

Second problem: the characters. To put it bluntly, I hated every single character. All of them. Except for the clothesline lady, I liked her well enough lmao, but everyone else I just wanted to strangle with my bare hands!! And I understand, I get it, I realize that this is part of the book's commentary, but what I've learned from reading this book is that it doesn't matter how ~deep~ the commentary is, if the character whose thoughts I'm reading is hateable and a loser, I just could not care less about what they have to say! And Julia? Equally hateable. She and Winston are, even at their best, SO self centered, I just honestly wanted to throw the book across the room the whole time either one of them was on the page, which was the entire time.

When I take a step back and look at this through the perspective of having read it, I see how Orwell was using every detail to get his message across, this whole idea of warning us of totalitarianism and the danger of not knowing the past, and all of that, but I don't think I will ever willingly read this book again.

So, at the end of the day, would I recommend this book? Yes and no. If you're looking for an entertaining dystopia on the level of The Hunger Games, you're not going to find that here. Buuuuuuut if you're in the kind of headspace where you're ready to read an unentertaining, repetitive, dryly written book with exactly zero likable characters to be seen; if you think you're ready to slog through all that, then yes would recommend it because I think its the kind of book everyone should read at least once. Just don't go into it expecting to root for the characters or care more than a little about the plot.

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emmalouisereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The story and the world Orwell has created is chillingly realistic as a dystopian.

I knew a lot of the story from what I gleaned from popular culture. The only surprise really is whether there is a happy or sad ending - which I won’t spoil.

I think I would have appreciated a more ruthless editor. There are times where we have the same information repeated to us over and over, and I found myself thinking, I know Orwell, you told me this. There’s also a large amount of a book read by the main character which confirms what the main character knows, which of course we also knew.. so it would have been perhaps fine to say the book confirmed his knowledge?

At any rate, this is a disturbing tale. Too close to possible in some parts.

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midnacine's review against another edition

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As much as I wanted to get through this just to say I actually read a classic in my free time, I just couldn't. I feel like once you're over 50 pages in, a book should be engaging, if not in its plot then at least in its characters or concept. While the concept is really intriguing, as I love dystopian lit, Winston as a main character is about as flat a glass of stale tap water. Add in his blatant hatred for women and it's painfully obvious this book is a product of its time. Maybe that's just a symptom of me trying to read this in 2022, nearly 75 years after it was initially published- God knows I couldn't even get through the first chapter of Lord of the Rings. But at the end of the day I just had no interest in continuing through pages upon pages of lengthy descriptions, intense yet vague world building, and casual sexism. It's just not for me.

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meganpbennett's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

1984 is George Orwell's dystopian look at the future. Dystopias are drawn from the present, taking one or two things that are and exaggerate them until they become what could be. Some are more accurate than others, and the more accurate a dystopia, the scarier it tends to be, The surveillance state coming out of the Second World War and the Red Scare of the Cold War, all lead into the Telescreens, the retconning of history, Thought Police and Big Brother.

1984 is a terrifying look at what could be. It was also not intended to be an instruction manual, but a look at what happens when things are taken far, far, far too far.

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laurenleigh's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

My first time reading 1984! I was extremely impressed by Orwell’s level of detail. I almost want to call it world-building, though I suppose it’s still the same old Earth Orwell found himself on too. I think it’s important to note that Orwell was not a fortune teller. He was commenting on certain facts of his current reality and extrapolating a possible future, which happened to be remarkably true for a number of reasons. It makes me wonder if he was alive today, what might a 2084 book look like? The reality of this fictional work is scary and depressing, but still fascinating. I was most struck by the relationship between media and memory. Can’t help but think of the modern phenomena of fake news. I particularly enjoyed this audiobook narrator, and I think it added a whole new layer of complexity.

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