Reviews tagging 'Injury/injury detail'

1984, by George Orwell

55 reviews

emma7377's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.75

‘The best books, he percieved, are those that tell you what you know already’

While this is not that impactful of a line, hidden somewhere in a relatively unimportant paragraph, this was the sentence that stood out most to me in the entirety of this dreadfully lovely, little novel. And I’d argue that it perfectly sums up the whole purpose of the book. This is because  Orwell tells us exactly what we know already: totalitarianism is bullshit and would ruin all our lives. And sure, it might help us futher our understanding, but it tells us what we know already. 

So you might read this and think… okay, so if I know this already, why do I have to read this book? 

To that I have little to no answer. Why read any book? Why read romance if you have already experienced and know love? Why read tradegy if you have already experienced and know tradegy? Why reread any book at all, if you already know what will happen.  

I realise now this isn’t a very good review (especially because I have done no research into the context of this book) but I just quite like it and would recommend it. One of the best modern classics I have read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/injury detail, Torture, and War

ana21's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/injury detail, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual content

margaret_s_library's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

Moderate: Gaslighting, War, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Toxic friendship

eeeeeli_is_probably_lonely's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Injury/injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Police brutality, Genocide, Death, Confinement, Classism, Violence, Slavery, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body horror, Slavery, Suicide, and War

mme_carton's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Racism, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Vomit, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, War, Injury/injury detail, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Gore, Violence, Antisemitism, Classism, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Sexism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Alcoholism, and Homophobia

izzydelaya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gaslighting, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Chronic illness, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Injury/injury detail, Gore, Eating disorder, Cursing, Classism, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, War, Violence, Emotional abuse, Stalking, and Abandonment

Minor: Infidelity, Colonisation, Antisemitism, Murder, Child death, Genocide, Grief, Death of parent, Stalking, and Slavery

mdugas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.25

While important to read for the cultural significance and interesting moral dilemma behind it, I wasn’t a big fan of this book. It was a bit repetitive and some parts were a bit too slow for me.

Spoiler

The psychological torture may have been realistic for the scenario but it was too graphic for me.

Overall not bad writing, just not my cup of tea. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Violence, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Drug use, Deportation, Abandonment, Ableism, and Misogyny

This book may be triggering if you struggle with trauma relating to privacy, paranoia, and sexual assault, among other things.

rebekahdevlin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and Classism

Moderate: Xenophobia, Injury/injury detail, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

chaosandwildflowers's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Death, Child death, Racial slurs, Murder, Injury/injury detail, Gaslighting, Blood, War, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Sexism

Minor: Fatphobia, Rape, and Death of parent

kibbles15's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

The last time I read this book, I gave the book 1 star. I don't remember my reasoning, but I think it had something to do with the intense descriptions of torture in the last part of the book. Now that I am older, I appreciate this book for what it is. It is a well written (disturbing) book. I would recommend a person read the book at least once in their lives. That being said, I still only give the book 3 stars because the plot moves very slowly and is very explanatory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/injury detail, and Police brutality

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Death, and War