Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Julia by Sandra Newman

11 reviews

greylovesbroccoli's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Classism, Drug use, Police brutality, Miscarriage, War, and Death

Moderate: Body horror, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, and Death of parent

lolsous's review

dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

4.0

I think this is a good and needed update of 1984. Julia is such a quiet (and flat) character in the original and this book does an excellent job of filling in the blanks, as well as telling it's own interesting story and raising relevant sociaital critique. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

chanimilo's review

challenging dark hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Violence, Gore, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Murder, Vomit, Rape, Gun violence, Excrement, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, and Classism

risemini's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Pregnancy, Death, Police brutality, Sexual content, Torture, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Vomit, War, and Death of parent

ferranda's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Torture, Violence, Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, War, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

feeohnaemily's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, Confinement, and Abortion

Moderate: Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Excrement, Dementia, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Pregnancy, and Suicide

berdandy's review

challenging dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Self harm, Police brutality, Abortion, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Vomit, War, Excrement, Alcohol, Confinement, Body shaming, Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Murder, and Sexual content

beetree's review

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This absolutely lives up to the original. Wow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Abortion, Torture, War, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction, Death of parent, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Drug use, Hate crime, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Confinement, Animal death, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Self harm, Ableism, and Deportation

lilybear3's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

I was so excited to see this book announced.  I read 1984 right before this so it'd be fresh in my mind and I'm glad I did.  I think someone could read this alone and be okay, but the story, environment, and characters (specifically those we met already) would be bare.  This book does rely on your knowledge of its source material, but I don't think that's a bad thing.  It felt like easter eggs, but it incorporated the original so much.  The book's concept is 1984 through Julia's perspective so seeing the timelines line up is really cool.  Incorporating these quotes and moments is seamless, like they aren't forced.  I loved that we finally got a book that explored Julia's backstory and what she was thinking and going through.  There were a lot of unexpected moments for me and they weren't always climatic, but they were interesting and added depth.  CW:  descriptions of torture and injuries and we obviously know bad things happen so definitely check those content warnings; it was a lot at times, but I've read worse.  I had a lot of thoughts I wanted to share and most of those are hidden because spoilers.

I love the feminist direction of the story.  Obviously, a lot of it hit because we are going through similar things the U.S., like for some, abortion/miscarriage=murder.  There's broader commentary like women are expected to just take the pain and not have access or resources to get care.  Also women being okay with being alone and wanting alone time. 

From my journal entries:  WOMEN AS TOOLS AND COMMODITIES when O'Brien recruits her to help the Thought Police and seduce men to the "private room."

Julia is our

bi/pan heroine.  This quote is so good:  "It was just part of the feminine nature to love and be loved at the drop of a hat, to make a romance of sharing a pair of slippers and putting them on warm from another's feet."

  Upon reading 1984, you think of Winston as kind of intelligent and right for opposing the Party,

but my god you realize he's a dolt AND he never truly loved Julia, he just loved rebellion even though his verbal activism was performative.  I think there’s an interesting mirror in that Winston wants her to blindly follow him while the party makes people blindly follow them.

  Also love that

O'Brien's spiel in Room 101 was stolen by a woman, just to show that he never had an original idea.

  For Julia's character

how much of a feminist she is is ambiguous.  There are times where she is and some times she is not.  It's really up to interpretation.  I think this is realistic in that she has been in the Party for so long that there is internalized misogyny and Party thoughts that she hasn't fully broken away from.  This could be commentary on white woman feminism (or the fact that the author is a white woman).  About halfway through, I wrote:  Still can't tell if she's content seducing men for the Thought Police and wants to be in the Party (genuinely or out of survival) or she doesn't want to do this at all and wants to rebel from within.  It feels like it could be both.

Ending:

I don’t know if I fully understood the ending.  Like I don’t think I got her reaction to seeing big brother and why he was actually some old guy named Humphrey Pease.  And glad Vicky escaped but now she’s caring for Humphrey.  I don’t know if I fully grasp the meaning of the questions being asked to Julia.  They’re the same questions that O’Brien asked Julia and Winston.  Julia is hesitant and says “whatever you think” and the Reynolds writes yes for all of the questions and sort of decides for her, but Julia agrees.  I think this could be because the first time, Winston answers yes for her and she didn’t have a say, but now she does? So the ending is that she escapes London and gets rescued by the Brotherhood or Free Men and pledges to help them in weakening the Party.

The writing is more contemporary, though there are words and sentence structure that feel reminiscent of 1984.  I was so engaged and I couldn't put this book down.  I am personally taking this sequel/different POV as cannon.  1984 is still one of my favorite books of all-time (I even have a tattoo) so this is a great continuation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Abortion, Vomit, Pregnancy, War, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Torture, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Body horror, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Slavery

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Gore, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Cursing, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, War, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Miscarriage, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Abandonment, Biphobia, Dementia, Dysphoria, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Violence