Reviews with content warning for Death - 1984

Reviews tagging 'Death'

1984 by George Orwell

141 reviews

marygg3's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Audible needs to take the casting directors and give them a raise. An incredibly powerful book on its own, it was turned into a masterpiece by the talented men and women who participated in its realization. The dramatization was incredible, the cast on point and the music outstanding. All in all, one of the greatest pieces of literature and an amazing adaptation.

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swimfast724's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I read this in high school and I'm so glad I did. It was hard to read, it was very long, and it was pretty sexually explicit. But I'm glad I read it because it opened my eyes. It fascinated me so much that it basically defined the dystopian genre I never knew existed and it's now my favorite genre. It's hard to get through the description but it's so important. Not a word is wasted.
The fact that Orwell basically predicted the future is both incredible and terrifying. We need to stop before it's too late. I have a favorite quote from Einstein that says: "I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots and the world is doomed." This is exactly where we are as a society today.

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sofiam19's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense 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? Yes

4.0

Rating this based off the Audible version I listened to, which for the performance and music alone zwas wow… always knew what the story was about but never read it. It was enjoyable and I can see why it’s a classic. Sure it’s extreme - that’s the whole point. Tom Hardy as Big Brother was awesome, but he did sound like Bane lol.

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andrealinia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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gvstyris's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective 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? Yes

4.25

But if there was hope, it lay in the proles. You had to cling on to that. When you put it in words it sounded reasonable: it was when you looked at the human beings passing you on the pavement that it became an act of faith.

Although I would argue that 1984 is far from the most realistic dystopian novel I have ever read, its influence on popular culture (and the wider genre!) is absolutely undeniable. I was surprised upon re-read how conceptual Orwell's Oceania is: it manages to still read a little like a political manifesto despite lacking Animal Farm's much more explicit allegories. This novel is also incredibly accessible because Orwell really breaks down the world for the reader, which was a welcome change after Dune.

There are a couple areas where 1984 really shined for me. Primarily, newspeak. Orwell aptly portrays language as a tool for control and manipulation, and the appendix's inclusion really made a difference for me. I was also in complete awe of the pages devoted to 'Goldstein's' agenda, which highlight the broader sociopolitical context of this novel so cleverly. They reminded me of The Handmaid Tale's 'Historical Notes' section -- genuinely such a cool way to place Orwell's world within a timeline that the reader is familiar with.

A couple criticisms have turned me off from a higher rating. As pointed out in the afterword of my copy, race is entirely absent from Orwell's world, which is a somewhat bizarre (and unconvincing) choice given its post-Holocaust setting. The misogyny and subtle racism are also pretty distasteful, which I think is important to acknowledge in a novel intending to speculate on the fate of humanity. Julia's character is relatively vapid and disinterested in broader political affairs, which was a struggle for me when contrasted so obviously with Winston's 'intellect.'

That being said, 1984 is absolutely worth the read, and outshines Fahrenheit 451 in almost every way possible...

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.

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bilbili's review

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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te_ss_i's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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_jennilein_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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malloryjo0521's review

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Difficult read, poor pacing. Very important message.

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pupaebug's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective 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? No

5.0

This book was so good. Obviously everyone knows the premise of 1984. Everyone can use the phrase "Orwellian" and have a semi-understanding of what they are actually referring to. So going into this book, I knew the base level of what I was getting myself into. A male protagonist disillusioned with a totalitarian regime. However, I was absolutely not expecting this book to be such a gripping read. A real page-turner.

I absolutely love the world-building of a totalitarian regime. It is why I loved the Handmaid's Tale so much, it was really cool to see a regime that seemed to spring out of our own society and our own history. After reading this, I realized that all the things I loved about the Handmaid's Tale were inspired by this book. Just like Winston, I wanted to know absolutely everything about the Party. Did the

Brotherhood

exist? What was the

Inner Party, what did they know, and how did they get the privileges they have

? Could

O'Brien, or Julia

be trusted? How did this regime come to be? Is the Party

lying about the wars with Eurasia and Eastasia

? Was

Big Brother

real? And, just like Winston, I was engrossed by any new information I received. I meticulously read

Goldstein's book,

accepting it as fact about the Regime. I fully accepted that

Winston and Julia were safe in Charrington's shop

and

were learning the real truth about Oceania.

"You are the dead."

was shocking. It was great. It felt like I had the rug pulled out from under me. As much as I was wary of

O'Brien

and felt that

him giving so much information to Winston so quickly was a trap

, I never expected that

Charrington and the shop was in on it.

That was insane. After this point, the book's

slow devolution into a horror novel

was both difficult to read and difficult to put down. It was truly scary. It made the reader fully understand how a person could be convinced that their very reality is changeable, just because the government says so. Every single thing in this novel came back to haunt Winston. His

dreams about O'Brien, his love for Julia, his fear of rats, his mom, all of the people in Oceania he had known, his diary, everything

. That is incredible horror and a true nightmare.

Winston being released from the ministry of love at the end of the novel was unexpected, but a perfect ending. We were able to see just how broken he was. He was nothing of his former self, be truly believed that all of his real childhood memories were false memories, and he was brought to joy throughout his day only by news of Oceania's war victories. The last line of the book, "He loved Big Brother," to me suggests that he is about to be shot and killed. He did not even get those final ten seconds of regaining dignity and individuality that he dreamed of before getting shot.

I know that this book is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. What an incredible read.

P.S. Throughout reading this book I felt I could pinpoint the exact moments that inspired Margaret Atwood to write The Handmaid's Tale. The use of the word Unperson (Unwoman, in THT), The emergence of a new society in the wake of the old one, with the war effort always in the background to encourage patriotism and limit rationing of goods. The presence of a regular scheduled catharsis time for all of the citizens to get their rage out on the "enemy" (Two Minutes Hate in 1984, Particicutions in THT). I also really think Margaret Atwood read the Appendix in 1984 and was inspired to include the Historical Notes section in the Handmaid's Tale. It's just too similar. An essay written by an academic after the events of the story that suggest that things have gone back to normal and the totalitarian regime has ended. Newspeak is no longer used, the Party is spoken of as if it is a thing of the past, free thought is free again.

This review is so long. This book is amazing. The general consensus is always about how important a book this is, and it absolutely is important. However, I think a lot more people would choose to pick it up if they knew how genuinely enthralling this book is as a piece of psychological horror.

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