Reviews

This Perfect Day by Ira Levin

dajna's review

3.0

It's good, but I didn't like it as much as the other ones.
It's the usual scenario of a totalitarian entity - Uni - who's running the planet: I saw some of the Matrix in it. Few people realize that their life is not a real one and they try to fight back. Only Chip will succeed.

To be honest, I don't think that life in Uni is as bad as in other alternative realities. And once in a while Chip is annoying: a know-it-all in infancy and a macho man in his adult, non-sedated life. There is a rape and it doesn't add anything to the story, so why go there?

marjoleinrath's review

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

kytimeforbooks's review

4.0

I loved the story and was able to enjoy it, but the treatment of the women characters was nothing short of infuriating. I expected more from the creator of the Stepford Wives.

ditte's review

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

lukerik's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

A particularly well thought out world. It actually feels quite real rather than a collection of clichés. Very Levinesque in it’s exploration of horrible things being done to people without their consent. Also explores moral questions around personal accountability. 

Basically, people in the past (our future) have programmed a computer to control the entire population through a combination of drugs, and genetic and social engineering. Basically condemning their own descendents to a half lived life and the end of which they are killed. 

There’s a great twist at the end which luckily I’d managed to forgot in the thirty years since I last read it. Be careful what you read about it before starting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Rape, Violence, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, and Murder

megancassidy's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

shiradest's review

2.0

I may read this again, as it has been a rather long time since I read it, after being shocked to hear that my parents had read it together just before I was born, around the time this book came out, I believe.

I was very disappointed at the selfishness of Wei, and at the idea that a world with so much potential could go so badly wrong. That a man who could have done so much good for the entire world would choose to hoard that benefit for himself. But maybe it is "more real," as another reviewer put it. Certainly more real than [b:Brave New World|5129|Brave New World|Aldous Huxley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1575509280l/5129._SY75_.jpg|3204877] .

I just felt so bitterly hopeless at the end, after all of the struggle. I felt such fear for humanity. There has to be a better way. And a better future.

laurenmakena's review

adventurous challenging mysterious 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

3.0

mokey81's review against another edition

5.0

Wow! I loved this book. I love this genre, but I have to say that this may be right up there with 1984 and Brave New World. And what is wonderful about this book is that it is fresh. Yes, it is a dystopian future where humans walk about in a drugged haze, with no passion or personalities. But it's so much more than that. And all the other dystopian books are lingering in your mind, coloring your perception of this book. That makes it all the more enjoyable.

What I love about book like 1984 and This Perfect Day is the truth of humanity we see in it. How humanity yearns for something, even when it doesn't know there is anything else to yearn for. I just...I love it. Thank you, Ira Levin. This was a great book. :)

typesour's review

5.0

This book is what 1984 wants to be when it grows up. "This Perfect Day" is an extraordinary novel about a Utopian society and the people that don't think it is. Unlike most post-end-of-the-world novels, the protagonists in this book achieve their goal--though perhaps not in the way they expected. Levin writes with authority and ease; the reader enters into the created world effortlessly and has a hard time coming back to the present day.