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mar's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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? No
4.0
"a sequence of unease" fuck dude it sure is. meandering yet precise, written in short, clipped sentences, this novella manages to induce a feeling of dread like very few other works i've read
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury
braggsy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
jackbifrost's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, and Stalking
Moderate: Suicide
james1star's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Kay Dick’s ‘They’ was originally published in 1977, achieving some praise but was soon pushed out of print being lost until quite recently. This fact considering the book’s focus on censorship and the meaning of artistic expression leads to thoughts. I read up that she was a bisexual intellectual and yes Kay love that, I’m intrigued to maybe check out more from her but this didn’t exactly hit the mark for me.
In ‘They’ we follow an unnamed protagonist who lives alone by the coast with a dog - in my reading I thought this person was probably a woman as people call them ‘love’ a few times and just felt they were written female if that makes sense, I also believe they change from chapter to chapter but this may not be the case - across nine chapters. Each is like a mini story in itself with multiple characters that don’t repeat but there are some recurring events just different scenarios. As the novella progresses, the reader is introduced to the various aims and methods of the group known as ‘they’ who are threatening the main characters and general population to some extent. It’s clear the thing ‘they’ dislike the most is the arts and artistic expression whereby they over time confiscate/steal/destroy works of human creativity (books, paintings, records, poems, etc), terrorise/kidnap/imprison/kill offenders and try to enact conformity onto people. Displays of emotion (e.g. grief of a lost love which is seen as the worst as it signifies the fact love has meaning), non-conformity and those who live alone are also under attack. The characters attempt to live with the fear and put their own energy into creating works as fighting back wouldn’t prove useful, but this is a hard pill to swallow.
The group called ‘Them’ are written to be anonymous and all we know is their general dislike and the fact their numbers are growing. I think this is done well as Dick doesn’t add any humanity to them or their actions, the characters know they are a present threat and don’t bother to interact with them as this’ll obviously prove fruitless. What I didn’t like that much was how were given a similar level of disconnect with the named characters in each chapter/story. There are too many, too short stories so the reader can’t experience the characters in full, so no one is memorable, less and longer chapters would have been better in my opinion. BUT I do like the ambiguity of how each ends and this is probably what Dick was going for, so I respect it and see why but still didn’t really like it if that makes sense. The questioning and leaning into the horror genre were okay but maybe needed more expansion, it’s definitely a dystopia.
The writing was okay. I appreciate it’s meant to be rather fast paced but lots of short sentences did break the text up a little too much. There’s some nice metaphors and descriptive language that’s useful in describing locations for example. The violence isn’t exactly graphic but the recurrence of animal cruelty/death is something I hate to read so Yhh, but it could have been worse.
Last point: in the final chapter, a character is only referred to as ‘the autistic child’ whilst everyone else is given a name. This irked me so much, like Dick just give him a name!!! Having autism isn’t someone’s whole personality, it just felt unnecessary and like she was using the boy’s autism to belittle him in a sense, I dunno?? This was a small part but it stuck with me.
I’m happy this was found and I would say it’s worth reading but it’s possible the impact wasn’t something I picked up on. Possibly a re-read might prove useful but we shall see.
In ‘They’ we follow an unnamed protagonist who lives alone by the coast with a dog - in my reading I thought this person was probably a woman as people call them ‘love’ a few times and just felt they were written female if that makes sense, I also believe they change from chapter to chapter but this may not be the case - across nine chapters. Each is like a mini story in itself with multiple characters that don’t repeat but there are some recurring events just different scenarios. As the novella progresses, the reader is introduced to the various aims and methods of the group known as ‘they’ who are threatening the main characters and general population to some extent. It’s clear the thing ‘they’ dislike the most is the arts and artistic expression whereby they over time confiscate/steal/destroy works of human creativity (books, paintings, records, poems, etc), terrorise/kidnap/imprison/kill offenders and try to enact conformity onto people. Displays of emotion (e.g. grief of a lost love which is seen as the worst as it signifies the fact love has meaning), non-conformity and those who live alone are also under attack. The characters attempt to live with the fear and put their own energy into creating works as fighting back wouldn’t prove useful, but this is a hard pill to swallow.
The group called ‘Them’ are written to be anonymous and all we know is their general dislike and the fact their numbers are growing. I think this is done well as Dick doesn’t add any humanity to them or their actions, the characters know they are a present threat and don’t bother to interact with them as this’ll obviously prove fruitless. What I didn’t like that much was how were given a similar level of disconnect with the named characters in each chapter/story. There are too many, too short stories so the reader can’t experience the characters in full, so no one is memorable, less and longer chapters would have been better in my opinion. BUT I do like the ambiguity of how each ends and this is probably what Dick was going for, so I respect it and see why but still didn’t really like it if that makes sense. The questioning and leaning into the horror genre were okay but maybe needed more expansion, it’s definitely a dystopia.
The writing was okay. I appreciate it’s meant to be rather fast paced but lots of short sentences did break the text up a little too much. There’s some nice metaphors and descriptive language that’s useful in describing locations for example. The violence isn’t exactly graphic but the recurrence of animal cruelty/death is something I hate to read so Yhh, but it could have been worse.
Last point: in the final chapter, a character is only referred to as ‘the autistic child’ whilst everyone else is given a name. This irked me so much, like Dick just give him a name!!! Having autism isn’t someone’s whole personality, it just felt unnecessary and like she was using the boy’s autism to belittle him in a sense, I dunno?? This was a small part but it stuck with me.
I’m happy this was found and I would say it’s worth reading but it’s possible the impact wasn’t something I picked up on. Possibly a re-read might prove useful but we shall see.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Suicide, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
sorcha's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief