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ewwa18's review
challenging
tense
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? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Animal death, Confinement, Rape, and Classism
hollywatson's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual violence, Rape, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Infidelity, Sexism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Animal death, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Torture
hannahbisbis'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? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Well, that was horrifying — except for the claim that matriarchy is inevitable, especially when dealing with varying levels of wealthy, infantile “genius special boys” who want to have indistinguishable sex mommies and to go wild. Yet, it was honestly so accurate in talking about the violence inherent in and underneath “professionalism” and “civilized” culture as well as society’s gross obsession with technology, which can be a way to recreate and to perpetuate violence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Blood, Alcoholism, Murder, Violence, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Incest, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
emmacb's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I enjoyed this book at the start, but sort of lost it as I continued to read.
It feels like the sort of book where the author is reeeeeally trying to say something and either it's going over my head or i just straight up disagree.
Or both.
The book feels like a comment on humanity in a similar way to lord of the flies where it's not so much a comment on actual human behaviour as the author's cynical idea of human behaviour that maybe says more about them than it does about humans! Also I had some thoughts on the depiction of women - it wasn't great. OK bad... to a degree that had me wondering if this was all a meta-commentary on people's depiction of humans in literature because surely noone thinks that's actually how women (or men tbh) would behave in the scenarios described in the book.
It feels like the sort of book where the author is reeeeeally trying to say something and either it's going over my head or i just straight up disagree.
Or both.
The book feels like a comment on humanity in a similar way to lord of the flies where it's not so much a comment on actual human behaviour as the author's cynical idea of human behaviour that maybe says more about them than it does about humans! Also I had some thoughts on the depiction of women - it wasn't great. OK bad... to a degree that had me wondering if this was all a meta-commentary on people's depiction of humans in literature because surely noone thinks that's actually how women (or men tbh) would behave in the scenarios described in the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Alcohol
Moderate: Animal death, Incest, Sexual violence, Rape, Homophobia, Confinement, and Death
fransbooks's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Moderate: Sexual violence and Animal death
Minor: Incest
yossy_cookie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I'm not really sure what I just read or if I enjoyed it. This book is incredibly clever and well written, it describes the residents of a new luxury tower block and the "high rise" was an allegory for society in general. Like "Lord Of The Flies", it describes the descent of humans that are confined in an artificial society.
This felt like the kind of book that needs to be studied. I think you could study every page of this book and draw conclusions about everything - the choice of words, the imagery... Even from the main characters being called Wilder (who lives on the lower levels) and Royal (who lives on the top) - I think there is so much you could explore within this book if you wanted to.
There were a lot of parts of this book I didn't enjoy though and often found it heavy going. Some of it is quite disturbing. One relief is that the book itself is quite short.
It's a book I respect, and I think it achieved what the author wanted it to achieve, but I don't think that I would say I particularly enjoyed it. I wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for a light read though.
This felt like the kind of book that needs to be studied. I think you could study every page of this book and draw conclusions about everything - the choice of words, the imagery... Even from the main characters being called Wilder (who lives on the lower levels) and Royal (who lives on the top) - I think there is so much you could explore within this book if you wanted to.
There were a lot of parts of this book I didn't enjoy though and often found it heavy going. Some of it is quite disturbing. One relief is that the book itself is quite short.
It's a book I respect, and I think it achieved what the author wanted it to achieve, but I don't think that I would say I particularly enjoyed it. I wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for a light read though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Violence, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, and Sexual violence
Minor: Cannibalism and Drug use
samwhoisthat's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Excrement, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Death, and Violence
domreadsb00ks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-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
3.5
Society collapses and pure prinal urges reign in the crumbling remains of a once promising new skyscraper. While Ballard provided an interesting prediction on how quickly people crumble in the face of their reality collapsing, his chaotic writing style threw me off, and the constant dehumanisation of the female characters stopped me from enjoying it that much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Sexism, Sexual assault, Murder, and Gun violence
annihilatrix's review
challenging
dark
sad
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Rape, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Violence
tankie_girl_boy's review
challenging
dark
fast-paced
JG Ballard is one of those authors that circled on the periphery of recommended lists for books I like, but whose critical 1960s and 70s work I'd never read and so when my selection for book club came up, I decided to rectify this gap and dig in to the architectural fantasies of brutal violence of High Rise. Even though I have my critiques, I'm glad I did, the over the top to the point of it being funny shock violence combined with the sharp observation that this tendency to brutality lurks 2cm under the skin of the genteel bourgeiosie make it worth the short and quickly paced descent.
I actually thought there would be more in this book about the way the design of the building launches the intra-upper middle class class war but Ballard keeps this bubling away in the background only letting it buble up through Anthony Royal's narration and the occasional aside by the others. This feels somewhat unsatisfying but I don't use that as an insult, there could be some comfort to seek in letting the engineering overdominate the causality of violence that Ballard does not allow you.
His use of sexual violence in the book is somewhat suspect, not in an of itself but in the other brutalities he strays away from or leaves to implication, especially considering the lack of access we are given to the internal lives of the women in the book that are afforded to the men commiting this sexual violence. This is not to suggest that sexual violence is off limits or that it would not be a feature in the internal logic of the work, but it seems to me that same sex sexual violence and canibalism would also fit this internal logic and the latter is only hinted at and the former glares as an omission.
Of the three narrators, I found Wilder the most compelling and his job as a documentary film maker is part of the key to why this is. Before he starts his murder rampage odessy to the top floor, my interpretation is that his use of the camera was as a crutch that allowed him to follow his desire toward lurid violence. In The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, Zizek mentions the Catholic institution of confession being the ideological and psycological permission for one to follow their desires and I think the documentary camera is used by Wilder in the same way. This is why he is willing to discard it as he becomes fully imeshed, the crutch is no longer nessesary and also the ambiguity around Ballard's use of language with terms like him "weilding" the camera.
The dog murder in the book was a particuarly nice touch, as it reminded me of the amount of dogs you'd hear in the hallway of one of those new build "luxury" flats when I lived in one. The combined pamering and cruelty towards dogs in this bourgois context was interesting and is played to its extreme in the book with the upper floors group treating them as the lower floors treated their children before they start to eat them.
Theories of the tyranny of the crowd and mob mentality emerged out of a deep fear of the working class at the end of the 19th century so it was interesting to lay these dynamics on the class that came up with the idea rather than the class they were trying to describe.
I reccomend this book, it was interesting and harsh in the way such a book as this should be.
I actually thought there would be more in this book about the way the design of the building launches the intra-upper middle class class war but Ballard keeps this bubling away in the background only letting it buble up through Anthony Royal's narration and the occasional aside by the others. This feels somewhat unsatisfying but I don't use that as an insult, there could be some comfort to seek in letting the engineering overdominate the causality of violence that Ballard does not allow you.
His use of sexual violence in the book is somewhat suspect, not in an of itself but in the other brutalities he strays away from or leaves to implication, especially considering the lack of access we are given to the internal lives of the women in the book that are afforded to the men commiting this sexual violence. This is not to suggest that sexual violence is off limits or that it would not be a feature in the internal logic of the work, but it seems to me that same sex sexual violence and canibalism would also fit this internal logic and the latter is only hinted at and the former glares as an omission.
Of the three narrators, I found Wilder the most compelling and his job as a documentary film maker is part of the key to why this is. Before he starts his murder rampage odessy to the top floor, my interpretation is that his use of the camera was as a crutch that allowed him to follow his desire toward lurid violence. In The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, Zizek mentions the Catholic institution of confession being the ideological and psycological permission for one to follow their desires and I think the documentary camera is used by Wilder in the same way. This is why he is willing to discard it as he becomes fully imeshed, the crutch is no longer nessesary and also the ambiguity around Ballard's use of language with terms like him "weilding" the camera.
The dog murder in the book was a particuarly nice touch, as it reminded me of the amount of dogs you'd hear in the hallway of one of those new build "luxury" flats when I lived in one. The combined pamering and cruelty towards dogs in this bourgois context was interesting and is played to its extreme in the book with the upper floors group treating them as the lower floors treated their children before they start to eat them.
Theories of the tyranny of the crowd and mob mentality emerged out of a deep fear of the working class at the end of the 19th century so it was interesting to lay these dynamics on the class that came up with the idea rather than the class they were trying to describe.
I reccomend this book, it was interesting and harsh in the way such a book as this should be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Sexual violence