emma7377's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.75
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.
Graphic: Death, Injury/injury detail, Torture, and War
ana21's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Violence, Injury/injury detail, and Torture
Moderate: Sexual content
margaret_s_library's review against another edition
- 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
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
- 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
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
- 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
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
- 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
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
- 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
Spoiler
The psychological torture may have been realistic for the scenario but it was too graphic for me.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
- 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
Graphic: Antisemitism and Classism
Moderate: Xenophobia, Injury/injury detail, Mental illness, and Physical abuse
chaosandwildflowers's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
- 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
Graphic: Torture
Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/injury detail, and Police brutality
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Death, and War