Scan barcode
A review by mattyvreads
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
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? Yes
4.75
Right, so, I missed this one in high school. It was never an assigned reading for me and I sure as f#ck wasn’t gonna pick it up on my own… Especially at that time.
Then, recently, I was looking through a list of classic books and I thought “why not?”
It is so understandable to me that this is a classic. It’s horrifyingly compelling and perfectly paced. The characters are memorable, and the philosophical discussion of human nature is just as mystifying today.
That debate is: in a perfect vacuum, or let’s say… an early 1950s deserted island suddenly infested with immature and uncooperative schoolboys — are people essentially good, or essentially bad, or essentially both? I bet Hobbes and Rousseau are getting all jazzed up in Heaven, just reading this damned review.
The book itself is incredibly well-written. The story builds to it’s climax in such a profound and unsettling way, as you see their humanity chip away and their animalistic urges take over. Golding prays on the reader’s imagination and paranoia. We see the boys suffer the same fate — they become pray to their own delusions and fear, and for some, it is the death of them. It’s a story of children, in over their heads, thinking (or forcing themselves to think in order to survive) that they have it all figured out. Suddenly living to survive turns into a new way of life, and eventually, living to kill.
Damn, I gotta quit while I’m ahead. That was good.
Then, recently, I was looking through a list of classic books and I thought “why not?”
It is so understandable to me that this is a classic. It’s horrifyingly compelling and perfectly paced. The characters are memorable, and the philosophical discussion of human nature is just as mystifying today.
That debate is: in a perfect vacuum, or let’s say… an early 1950s deserted island suddenly infested with immature and uncooperative schoolboys — are people essentially good, or essentially bad, or essentially both? I bet Hobbes and Rousseau are getting all jazzed up in Heaven, just reading this damned review.
The book itself is incredibly well-written. The story builds to it’s climax in such a profound and unsettling way, as you see their humanity chip away and their animalistic urges take over. Golding prays on the reader’s imagination and paranoia. We see the boys suffer the same fate — they become pray to their own delusions and fear, and for some, it is the death of them. It’s a story of children, in over their heads, thinking (or forcing themselves to think in order to survive) that they have it all figured out. Suddenly living to survive turns into a new way of life, and eventually, living to kill.
Damn, I gotta quit while I’m ahead. That was good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, and Blood