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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
caitlin_123a's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
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
megan_bbender's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
This is a good book for a super quick and easy read. It was a bit disturbing at some parts but nothing goes into detail. To be honest, I never really understood what was going on because the writing is so simple. This concept is super interesting but I feel like there definitely could have been more done, I don't feel anything towards the plot or characters due to the lack of world-building.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Domestic abuse
bex_knighthunter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
My favourite part of this book was the introduction by Carmen Maria Machado… Unfortunately, this didn't work for me despite loving horror and dystopian fiction. I really struggled with the writing style, which was incredibly simple, sparse, and matter-of-fact. I struggled to get into any reading flow with this style and it left me feeling distanced from the stories. It also felt like key information was missing, leaving me me confused in many places about what was actually going on. Just in concept this was already going to be hard for me as I have historically struggled with even mosaic novels, and the concept for this was even less tied together - it was created by the author editing a selection of short stories to tie them together. The stories each featured different characters and different but similar settings, but none of the characters stood out to me and I found them easy to mix up. We never get any name or traits for the main character - it seemed likely it was all from the same perspective but I wasn't sure because we get no internal monologue or personality. I was interested in the questions this collection/novella was trying to explore around the suppression of art but I don't feel that I got much on this topic and I was left feeling I had missed the point of a few stories - I would be intrigued to read a literary analysis of this one! There was an unsettling vibe that came through the stories and some chilling small sections (e.g. a woman being told after breaking her ankle that she was being allowed to show pain for 48 hours and her using this to express all her suppressed grief, and a woman who jumps into a pond every morning because she is affected by the memory of being burned alive). I also enjoyed the small moments of absurd darkness amongst the descriptions of mundanity. I was tempted to DNF but got on slightly better when I treated this more as a short story collection and tried to read each story in one sitting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
spooderman's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Murder
Minor: Suicide attempt and Death of parent
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
elwirax's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
"The grief tower is for those who refuse to deny. Love is unsocial, inadmissible, contagious.’ He grinned. ‘It admits communication. Grief for lost love is the worse offence, indictable. It suggests love has value, understanding, generosity, happiness."
They is a collection of loosely linked stories focusing on life in a society where there are those who eradicate and suppress artistic and emotional expression in favour of conformity. The majority of their control comes from everyday people who become informants which enforced the idea that any one of us can be one of "them". As in any dystopia, They showcased resistance despite knowing the harsh consequences which added a minute sense of hope to an overall dreary story.
"Destruction doesn’t count. One can always create again"
The driving force of this novella lies in its ambiguity and lack of explanations, leaving interpretation up to the reader. This isn't something I usually enjoy but it worked well in this story. The chapters were short and many ended abruptly perhaps highlighting 'their' ideology, one which ropes the reader in aswell as it stops them from getting overly invested in the lives of the characters which is frowned upon in this book. The fragmented writing in some of the vignettes does well to show strong emotions and the fears of the characters that run through the whole novella (perhaps in some of them they're too scared to properly articulate themselves). My favourites by far were The Visitants, Pocket of Quietude and The Fairing. I thought these were the strongest in terms of characterisation and suspense.
Though I appreciated the darker tone in this novella, the themes/ideas and the eeriness of being roped in, the inability to become invested in these characters really hindered by investment in the novella. The world-building also left much to be desired. Ultimately, I left with opinions no different than those I went in with; censorship is damaging. Although this novella didn't work for me as much as I'd hoped, it definitely piqued my interest in the author. After all, it's not every day I come across a "radical, queer author" of the 20th century. It might be one of those "it's not you, it's me" novellas or one which needs a re-read to fully appreciate. Either way, an interesting piece of writing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Fire/Fire injury