Reviews tagging 'War'

1984 by George Orwell

275 reviews

aude's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Torture, Violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Confinement, Alcohol, Sexual content, and War

Minor: Racial slurs and Rape

dropout's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Great idea which is still relevant today. Storytelling and characters not very deep or literary. But that just clearly wasn’t the intention of the author. He prioritized the lesson this book is supposed to teach over making it pretty and that is in a way the beauty of the book how raw and ugly it is. The writing style still made it a little hard to get into it and some passages were not very interesting to read. Allover still worth reading and would clearly recommend to every adult.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Classism, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit, Chronic illness, Death, Excrement, Hate crime, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Police brutality, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and War

castle_samj's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I have both simultaneously and impossibly completely read this book and wholeheartedly denounced its utter existence or potential to exist. 

I think I’m disappointed. I had long expected this book to contain some more SCIENCE to its -fiction, yet mostly it dealt with drama and confusing or blurring the lines of reality. I’d wager this was more intended as a political protest and warning tragedy of the existing world governments in the 1940s than a prediction of what was to come. While a lot of the meta-content has, in fact, evolved to become true, it equally mispredicted some changes, lending to its true purpose of protest. 

I can not recommend reading this book. Read a synopsis or something, or read Part 2 Chapter 09 and nothing else. I’m not even sure if Orwell was antisemitic by making the ‘villain’ be Jewish (

there’s no good closure on the purpose of Goldstein other than to be the scapegoat for the opposition to the Party, and nothing other than hateful rhetoric toward him or his ideology

) but he doesn’t do aftercare for any of the awful things; you just get a tragedy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, Self harm, Genocide, Racial slurs, Slavery, Kidnapping, War, Addiction, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Bullying, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Classism, Murder, Colonisation, and Torture

Moderate: Addiction and Alcohol

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Antisemitism, and Grief

beth_48's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

An interesting story, and in some ways scarily believable! Feel like the second half of the story could have been longer though 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Hate crime, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide, Alcohol, Police brutality, Racism, Torture, Colonisation, and Sexual content

abby_can_read's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

🎧
I didn't hate this book, but I didn't really like it either. It was just a book that I read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: War and Sexual content

Minor: Rape

chitti's review

dark medium-paced

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

4.0

“Perhaps one does not want to be loved so much as understood.”
I just sat staring at the last pages for a few minutes. Left me with goosebumps. 
I could feel how Winston felt at the end - that dread, but also the relief. 
Around halfway through the book I was like, this is just a cute little romance about two rebels. But, wow - the third part is just astonishing, i’m lost for words. Goldstein’s treatise pained my soul, though.
A timeless masterpiece - unforgettable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, War, and Physical abuse

Minor: Rape and Alcohol

maiabradley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Rape, War, and Sexual content

Minor: Confinement

bookswithlydscl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

2024 re-read, I still love it (though the sections with Winston reading Goldstein's book are unnecessarily long). Re-read to hopefully enhance my reading of 'Julia' and loved having the refresh of pivotal scenes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and War

blynn817's review

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Moderate: Xenophobia and War

Minor: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, and Sexual violence

tkivinen's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A dystopian classic for a reason. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Torture, War, Police brutality, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content, Suicide, Homophobia, Death of parent, Infertility, and Suicidal thoughts