A review by belleanndthebook
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

dark reflective medium-paced

4.0

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is the classic dystopian and predecessor to 1984 and Brave New World that you have never heard of because it wasn’t written in English and banned in it’s mother country, Russia. If you are a fan of these dystopian classics, I cannot recommend reading this one enough. Personally, as a fan of these classics as well as the more modern dystopian novels like The Hunger Games, I absolutely enjoyed reading this and seeing where the origin of so many of the cornerstone ideas of the dystopian genre came from. 
 
I would absolutely recommend the edition of We by Ecco released in 2021. It featured Bela Shayevich’s translation as well as footnotes, which added brief, yet incredibly interesting, context like where historical racial attitudes/stereotypes affected the portrayal of certain characters in the story. This edition also had an introduction written by Margaret Atwood and an essay written by George Orwell, which only served to add to the context of this novel as a classic in light of the more modern dystopian genre. 
 
Stream-of-conciousness perspectives are not my favorite, so I also would recommend the audiobook by Louise Brealey and Toby Jones for the incredible voice-acting, which made one of my least favorite styles of narration more interesting. Additionally, thanks to NetGalley for an ebook arc!
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