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michaeljkaplan's review
4.0
Dark and sobering. A little rushed in the writing. A little frantic perhaps. But I found it thought provoking and scary. Glad I read it. The ideas will stick with me for a long time.
caseysilk's review
I am not rating this book because I don't think it would be fair. I picked it up because I loved Hawley's previous book and I am a fan of his TV writing. This book is dystopian in nature but takes so much from the current state of affairs and goes one or two steps further. So well done because I am completely scared to death right now. So kudos to the writing as usual but not a book that I can personally handle right now.
wescovington's review
3.0
Hawley's theme was a subtle as dropping an anvil on your head. It's entertaining and disturbing at the same time. I just expected a little more from it.
hedread's review
5.0
The intro Author's Note alone is worth opening this book. It's a book about math, all kinds of math. It's a fairy tale, but maybe not a fairy tale. A story that sounds very much like the current times in America. Brilliantly written, but not a happy or easy story. I'm grateful to have read this book. It's a book with big ideas and I'm grateful to such incredibly gifted writers like Noah Hawley.
laurazdavidson's review against another edition
3.0
At first I thought I was really going to enjoy this book. But then it got weird... and preachy. If you're expecting [b:Before the Fall|40670008|Before the Fall|Noah Hawley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1530290179l/40670008._SY75_.jpg|42901355], be warned. This is completely different, ugly and violent.
jplassman's review
3.0
This is a very well-written book and I think Noah Hawley is a talented writer. It is only a three star book for me because of the abundant and graphic violence. If you have a high tolerance for that, you might enjoy the compelling story.
henrymarlene's review
3.0
"You see how irony becomes violence?
now the joke's on you."
I end up reading books about the not too distant future, unknowingly about the world after a pandemic where the world is broken. Ironically? Or is it a genre for the current times? "Anthem" is a call-to-arms of dissident and afflicted youth full of anxiety and a world they will inherit that is too broken to fix. In unison, and all alone, they begin a very dark high and disturbing protest: a epidemic suicide in response to a world that is crumbling without anything or anyone who can fix it. That alone is depressing. Add to that moments of dull flat writing, often about nothing and you reach the first third of this book. It gained much more momentum in the last third, but as it ended, I'm not even sure about how it did.
In a way, I thought I was reading a modern and dystopian version of The Wizard of Oz. There is a wizard who is more a sexual predator. There are rich men who seem to be analogies of Trump. None of the adults are working in the best interests of the young. And the young are just trying to find the best in what they can. Because, yes! The children are our future, but they have realised that they have not been taught well, and it is up to a 14 year old called the Prophet to lead the way. After escaping an institution, they convince each other that they are the saviours of the world with a hopeless innocence that seems too coincidental, naive and happily ever after. The world does seem a little sucky, but if the youth of tomorrow just churn out more violence to solve problems, they won't get far.
"We act, in other words, like hatred, intolerance, and violence are normal."
now the joke's on you."
I end up reading books about the not too distant future, unknowingly about the world after a pandemic where the world is broken. Ironically? Or is it a genre for the current times? "Anthem" is a call-to-arms of dissident and afflicted youth full of anxiety and a world they will inherit that is too broken to fix. In unison, and all alone, they begin a very dark high and disturbing protest: a epidemic suicide in response to a world that is crumbling without anything or anyone who can fix it. That alone is depressing. Add to that moments of dull flat writing, often about nothing and you reach the first third of this book. It gained much more momentum in the last third, but as it ended, I'm not even sure about how it did.
In a way, I thought I was reading a modern and dystopian version of The Wizard of Oz. There is a wizard who is more a sexual predator. There are rich men who seem to be analogies of Trump. None of the adults are working in the best interests of the young. And the young are just trying to find the best in what they can. Because, yes! The children are our future, but they have realised that they have not been taught well, and it is up to a 14 year old called the Prophet to lead the way. After escaping an institution, they convince each other that they are the saviours of the world with a hopeless innocence that seems too coincidental, naive and happily ever after. The world does seem a little sucky, but if the youth of tomorrow just churn out more violence to solve problems, they won't get far.
"We act, in other words, like hatred, intolerance, and violence are normal."
jdintr's review
5.0
This was one of the best books I read in 2022.
The Anthem echoes the "Anthem for Doomed Youth," the World War 1 poem by Wilfred Owen, but it has many other tinges as well of patriotism, and honor.
In a world not too different from ours, where a President rules in limbo, awaiting election results he can accept, a group of teenagers negotiate a environment where teen suicide is endemic. Gun-crazed
While acknowledging the environment, the "heavy" in the novel is a Jeffrey Epstein-esque character who moves above the law, luring children into his lair and trapping them there. In the book's climax the "doomed youth" make there way through a civil-war-like landscape to try to take him down.
The book was so topic, so entertaining. I really enjoyed it. An excellent read, indeed.
The Anthem echoes the "Anthem for Doomed Youth," the World War 1 poem by Wilfred Owen, but it has many other tinges as well of patriotism, and honor.
In a world not too different from ours, where a President rules in limbo, awaiting election results he can accept, a group of teenagers negotiate a environment where teen suicide is endemic. Gun-crazed
While acknowledging the environment, the "heavy" in the novel is a Jeffrey Epstein-esque character who moves above the law, luring children into his lair and trapping them there. In the book's climax the "doomed youth" make there way through a civil-war-like landscape to try to take him down.
The book was so topic, so entertaining. I really enjoyed it. An excellent read, indeed.