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mprov80's review
Well written, at first compelling but, despite being a short book, I lost interest. Didn't find any of the characters or their situation relatable or insightful in the slightest. Story itself was disappointingly dull, despite the slow build-up of depravity. Didn't care for the scenes of animal torture.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty
v_v_v's review
dark
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Death
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
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
emmathebookworm's review against another edition
To be honest, I only started this book because Tom Hiddleston narrated it.
I loved the concept, it just didn´t work for me. It was quite good in the beginning, but everything went downhill from there. Even Tom ‘sexy British accent’ Hiddleston couldn’t help me through it.
This is one of the very few times the movie is better than the book.
I loved the concept, it just didn´t work for me. It was quite good in the beginning, but everything went downhill from there. Even Tom ‘sexy British accent’ Hiddleston couldn’t help me through it.
This is one of the very few times the movie is better than the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Animal death, and Misogyny
Moderate: Rape
wcked's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
4.0
The audiobook was great. The changes that the people in the building go through is unsettling, especially as the author gives us access to the minds of the three male leads. What most disturbed me was the way the women changed, because it really showed how the values of this new society differed from ours, and how easy it would be for us to become numb to depravity. I was hoping for no animal violence, but alas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault
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
mariska17's review
challenging
dark
reflective
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Classism, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Minor: Colonisation, Death, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Incest, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Vomit, and Cannibalism
atomicbomb_'s review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
kaayaak's review
dark
tense
slow-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
4.0
Lord of the flies meets modern day society
Listened to this read by Tom Hiddleston. Great experience but not sure if I absorbed the book very well bc I kept getting lost in his voice and I’m not good at auditory learning lol. Seemed really good and well written but take my review w a biased grain of salt. It twas dark tho
Listened to this read by Tom Hiddleston. Great experience but not sure if I absorbed the book very well bc I kept getting lost in his voice and I’m not good at auditory learning lol. Seemed really good and well written but take my review w a biased grain of salt. It twas dark tho
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Cannibalism, Sexual violence, and Sexism
Minor: Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Abandonment