Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Nineteen Eighty-Four

It's a classic for a reason. It will definitely give you a lot of food for thought. I tried reading it in my late teens or early twenties and I couldn't grasp it. 10 or so years later it's hitting me really hard. I guess you need to be in a certain state of mind or mature enough to understand it. I think this book is relevant today and will be for a long time.

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kailiyahknight's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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? Yes

3.0

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riverofhorton's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

So this was actually my second read of this book, the first having been around 10 years ago. Just as I did the previous read through, I was struck by just how much of this book is relevant to our world today. This is one of the books that I will keep coming back to again and again throughout my lifetime.
The book itself is a somewhat dramatised (hopefully) version of Stalin's Russia/Nazi Germany. It has so many layers to it, and I', still not convinces I've worked out just how deep the 'Party' goes in their propaganda, gaslighting, and plotting against its own citizens.
This is an incredibly well planned out (or perhaps the word is researched) and realised world, where even the bits that are fiction could very easily be real. That, I think, is the true terror of this book: How easily society could go from even today's status, to that found in this book. Thus, Orwell's intention to have this book serve as a warning was fully realised.

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elliotcarlisle's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

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hannahcstocks's review against another edition

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

4.0

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natalie_ann's review against another edition

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dark 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? It's complicated

3.0

The plot was too slow. Not enough happened, and the ending was not satisfying at all. I get that that's kind of the point but I didn't enjoy reading it.

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nicichels's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad 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

3.75

Loved the writing style but it kind of lacked depth. Still a good book.

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pupaebug's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective 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? No

5.0

This book was so good. Obviously everyone knows the premise of 1984. Everyone can use the phrase "Orwellian" and have a semi-understanding of what they are actually referring to. So going into this book, I knew the base level of what I was getting myself into. A male protagonist disillusioned with a totalitarian regime. However, I was absolutely not expecting this book to be such a gripping read. A real page-turner.

I absolutely love the world-building of a totalitarian regime. It is why I loved the Handmaid's Tale so much, it was really cool to see a regime that seemed to spring out of our own society and our own history. After reading this, I realized that all the things I loved about the Handmaid's Tale were inspired by this book. Just like Winston, I wanted to know absolutely everything about the Party. Did the

Brotherhood

exist? What was the

Inner Party, what did they know, and how did they get the privileges they have

? Could

O'Brien, or Julia

be trusted? How did this regime come to be? Is the Party

lying about the wars with Eurasia and Eastasia

? Was

Big Brother

real? And, just like Winston, I was engrossed by any new information I received. I meticulously read

Goldstein's book,

accepting it as fact about the Regime. I fully accepted that

Winston and Julia were safe in Charrington's shop

and

were learning the real truth about Oceania.

"You are the dead."

was shocking. It was great. It felt like I had the rug pulled out from under me. As much as I was wary of

O'Brien

and felt that

him giving so much information to Winston so quickly was a trap

, I never expected that

Charrington and the shop was in on it.

That was insane. After this point, the book's

slow devolution into a horror novel

was both difficult to read and difficult to put down. It was truly scary. It made the reader fully understand how a person could be convinced that their very reality is changeable, just because the government says so. Every single thing in this novel came back to haunt Winston. His

dreams about O'Brien, his love for Julia, his fear of rats, his mom, all of the people in Oceania he had known, his diary, everything

. That is incredible horror and a true nightmare.

Winston being released from the ministry of love at the end of the novel was unexpected, but a perfect ending. We were able to see just how broken he was. He was nothing of his former self, be truly believed that all of his real childhood memories were false memories, and he was brought to joy throughout his day only by news of Oceania's war victories. The last line of the book, "He loved Big Brother," to me suggests that he is about to be shot and killed. He did not even get those final ten seconds of regaining dignity and individuality that he dreamed of before getting shot.

I know that this book is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. What an incredible read.

P.S. Throughout reading this book I felt I could pinpoint the exact moments that inspired Margaret Atwood to write The Handmaid's Tale. The use of the word Unperson (Unwoman, in THT), The emergence of a new society in the wake of the old one, with the war effort always in the background to encourage patriotism and limit rationing of goods. The presence of a regular scheduled catharsis time for all of the citizens to get their rage out on the "enemy" (Two Minutes Hate in 1984, Particicutions in THT). I also really think Margaret Atwood read the Appendix in 1984 and was inspired to include the Historical Notes section in the Handmaid's Tale. It's just too similar. An essay written by an academic after the events of the story that suggest that things have gone back to normal and the totalitarian regime has ended. Newspeak is no longer used, the Party is spoken of as if it is a thing of the past, free thought is free again.

This review is so long. This book is amazing. The general consensus is always about how important a book this is, and it absolutely is important. However, I think a lot more people would choose to pick it up if they knew how genuinely enthralling this book is as a piece of psychological horror.

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