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jackbifrost's review
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
nixmixus's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Prescient but also eerily fantastical. When faced with the twilight of fascism, how would you react?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Death and Violence
charnewb's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Death
james1star's review
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
inkling's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
3.0
They is a dystopian novel that explores what life would be like if art and free thinking is seen as a crime. I found it a challenging yet interesting read. Not so much happens in it, but Kay Dick creates a tense atmosphere very well. The writing is very disjointed, for lack of a better word, and apart from the narrator the characters are new in every chapter. This made it quite confusing and unlike anything I've read before. I was very intrigued by the premise of this book, but I expected more of an exploration of who "they" are, where did they come from? How could this have happened?
It didn't quite meet my expectations, and wasn't really my thing. However it is a very short book so well worth a try! It might be just what you are looking for.
It didn't quite meet my expectations, and wasn't really my thing. However it is a very short book so well worth a try! It might be just what you are looking for.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence
Minor: Grief
eevee314's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Very interesting read. Truly did did create a sense of unease throughout Written in a way that I'm sure will turn some reads off but makes more sense as you learn about the world over the course of the book. Honestly something I'd love to study and write papers about just to organize my thoughts.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Moderate: Animal death
holly_ey's review
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
Unusual, clever and dark. Also surprisingly uplifting in an odd way, back-handedly providing the secret to happiness and human fulfilment. Very sad that it wasn't appreciated during the author's lifetime.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty and Violence
bookb1itch's review
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
3.0
I read this because it was featured on a list of great short fiction. In my school library, we are always on the lookout for engaging short fiction for our more reluctant older readers. I thought this might fit the bill. 107 pages later, I confess to not REALLY understanding it myself. I felt I was working harder than any teen would. Although the writing is clever and creepy, I didn't find enough to recommend we buy it for our library.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death
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
allyjshand's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
I loved the premise of this book and was took in by Margaret Atwood’s review. A dystopian novella, similar in concept to 1984, that discussed the suppression of art, love and emotion by an anonymous group. Some of Dick’s short stories had me gripped, particularly the first few. Although after that, the characters lacked distinguished personalities and I lost interest in the story slightly and failed to understand some of the nuances of the plot.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse