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accio_gays's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Had to read it for English Lit. It was slow and a slog in some places. I hate Winston with a passion, especially after what happens in room 101 . The ending was so disappointing, NGL. I really wanted Winston to have revolted and won over The Party, and for him to escape the dystopian world in some way . It was really thought provoking though, I enjoyed really thinking about what the characters were saying etc, and how they interact in a world not entirely unlike our own. There are some quotes within the book that just made me go on a thought tangent, it was just so exciting to think about. Probably wouldn't have read it if I hadn't taken English tbh, it's not really a book I would've voluntarily picked up. But I'm kinda glad I did, in a weird and twisted way. I love a book that allows me to think. However the outdated and clearly Christian views (the religious undertones that run through the book, about purity, and Big Brother being a higher power etc that just may be the English student in me though) that run through this book made me want to throw it across the room (which I did). the descriptions of many minorities including Jewish people, Fat people, women etc DISGUSTING. I get that Orwell was from the 1940s or whatever but the views of the main character are nasty and say so much about how much of a shitty person the author would've been in our time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Torture, Violence, and Confinement
Moderate: Abandonment, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, War, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Colonisation, and Fatphobia
Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Slavery, and Vomit
elodie_melodie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Violence, and War
Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Misogyny, and Sexual content
simixfe's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
There was no need for this to be this f*cking long.
The concept was good but the implementation was lacking...
I probably would have enjoyed it if it hadn't been written by Orwell
I read it a second time for my A-level and surprisingly I liked it even less. As for now, I would only give it 2⭐ My criticism from the first time reading it still holds true for me but the second time it felt even more annoying and repetitive...
The plot could be summarised with only a few words
Winston: all women bad, government bad too
Julia: I love you
Sex
Talking about rebellion
More sex
Even more sex
Receives "the book" from O'Brien
Info dump
Arrest
Torture
Rats
Gives in
End
And a lot more passages with only info dump
The concept was good but the implementation was lacking...
I probably would have enjoyed it if it hadn't been written by Orwell
I read it a second time for my A-level and surprisingly I liked it even less. As for now, I would only give it 2⭐ My criticism from the first time reading it still holds true for me but the second time it felt even more annoying and repetitive...
The plot could be summarised with only a few words
Winston: all women bad, government bad too
Julia: I love you
Sex
Talking about rebellion
More sex
Even more sex
Receives "the book" from O'Brien
Info dump
Arrest
Torture
Rats
Gives in
End
And a lot more passages with only info dump
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Antisemitism, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Police brutality
Moderate: War, Child death, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide, Murder, and Slavery
ac_hamilton's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism and Antisemitism
bradiehilliard's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
tiredurbanist's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence
starofash's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
1984 is a book about a surveillance state. it's worldbuilding is very strong, and it deals with interesting questions like "what is realitiy?", "(how do we know) what happened in the pasr?" and "what influence does language have on us?", but other than that, i must say that this is not a very good book.
the main character, winston smith, is portrayed as extremely careful and untrusting for the first part of the book, but one encounter with a woman who (apparently) loves him is enough to make him throw all his concerns about how awfully loyal to the party and undeserving of trust all young women are over board and he then enters a relationship with her.
his actions seem to contradict the character as we got to know him in the first 100 pages of the book.
(he also had r@pe fantasies about his love interest, julia, in these first 100 pages of the book and she later says that she "hates women". there's a lot of misogony in this book!)
also, the whole book basically builds up to this high suspense point where winston gets in contact with a high-ranking party member who he is convinced is part of the rebellion, or at least dislikes the party and the big brother, but once it actually happens, the book is basically over. there's a whole lot of dense, mildly interesting political theory and directly after that, the thing winston knew would happen from the start actually happens,he gets tortured and his spirit breaks and the only interesting things are the mindcontrol and that two characters we trusted before weren't actually trustworthy and then the book ends. it's not very rewarding, honestly. you wait 3/4 of the book that finally something happens, and just as it gets to it, the book's over.
i AM glad i read it, but i don't think my life would've been worse if i hadn't.
the main character, winston smith, is portrayed as extremely careful and untrusting for the first part of the book, but one encounter with a woman who (apparently) loves him is enough to make him throw all his concerns about how awfully loyal to the party and undeserving of trust all young women are over board and he then enters a relationship with her.
his actions seem to contradict the character as we got to know him in the first 100 pages of the book.
(he also had r@pe fantasies about his love interest, julia, in these first 100 pages of the book and she later says that she "hates women". there's a lot of misogony in this book!)
also, the whole book basically builds up to this high suspense point where winston gets in contact with a high-ranking party member who he is convinced is part of the rebellion, or at least dislikes the party and the big brother, but once it actually happens, the book is basically over. there's a whole lot of dense, mildly interesting political theory and directly after that, the thing winston knew would happen from the start actually happens,
i AM glad i read it, but i don't think my life would've been worse if i hadn't.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Rape, and Torture
Moderate: Antisemitism, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Racism, War, and Xenophobia
Minor: Child death and Death of parent
bibs's review against another edition
dark
reflective
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? N/A
3.0
- Spoiler Free - (still in process)
I had pretty high hopes for this book, everyone that I talked to loves it, and when I started it after years of wanting to read it I was shocked at the misogyny expressed that no one had told me about. This fact put me off reading it and may have tainted the rest of the experience for me; this review is solely my experience with it given my background and expectations, if you like this book and don't mind the problems it may have in my eyes, that is totally valid!
I think the book (personally) doesn't hold as the masterpiece it is said to be; I find the messages to be all very in-your-face, nothing is left for the reader to think about and form their own opinion on. This doesn't really hold as a good criticism of Socialism, either, because it basically makes a strawman argument against it (I've heard that "Animal Farm" is better in that regard).
Before I list my problems with this book, I want to say that Winston is a pretty unlikable character.
Main Sins:
- The descriptions of fat people are all pretty bad and made me want to burn the book because they had no relevance to the plot;
- Winston just hates all women and thinks that they're all dumb, blind Party-followers or just weak, until he finds one that says "I love you" and then he suddenly stops hating women *sigh*. Also pretty big TW for rape bc this mas is honestly crazy;
- He has some hope that poor people can change the current situation but overall he isn't that nice to them in his narration (writing their lines with grammar errors was a pretty low blow in my opinion), for the most part, they just mindlessly accepting anything that is thrown at them;
- The representation of Communism/Socialism seems more like a Capitalist Society with some mentions of food and clothing stramps for Party-members
Also, George Orwell acts like older generations don't spend their days complaining about the current state of society, and saying that young people are all degenerates (I understand that under a totalitarian system people won't have the same freedom to express their ideas, but the proles seem to live with pretty little surveillance compared to Party workers/members and they still don't emit any opinions like "When I was young...")
Conclusion:
That said, I still think that this might be a worthy read if you're aware that this is a book with very outdated views regarding some issues and you feel like it can still be interesting, you should go for it. It wasn't mindblowing for me personally but this is a favorite for many of my friends.
I had pretty high hopes for this book, everyone that I talked to loves it, and when I started it after years of wanting to read it I was shocked at the misogyny expressed that no one had told me about. This fact put me off reading it and may have tainted the rest of the experience for me; this review is solely my experience with it given my background and expectations, if you like this book and don't mind the problems it may have in my eyes, that is totally valid!
I think the book (personally) doesn't hold as the masterpiece it is said to be; I find the messages to be all very in-your-face, nothing is left for the reader to think about and form their own opinion on. This doesn't really hold as a good criticism of Socialism, either, because it basically makes a strawman argument against it (I've heard that "Animal Farm" is better in that regard).
Before I list my problems with this book, I want to say that Winston is a pretty unlikable character.
Main Sins:
- The descriptions of fat people are all pretty bad and made me want to burn the book because they had no relevance to the plot;
- Winston just hates all women and thinks that they're all dumb, blind Party-followers or just weak, until he finds one that says "I love you" and then he suddenly stops hating women *sigh*. Also pretty big TW for rape bc this mas is honestly crazy;
- He has some hope that poor people can change the current situation but overall he isn't that nice to them in his narration (writing their lines with grammar errors was a pretty low blow in my opinion), for the most part, they just mindlessly accepting anything that is thrown at them;
- The representation of Communism/Socialism seems more like a Capitalist Society with some mentions of food and clothing stramps for Party-members
Also, George Orwell acts like older generations don't spend their days complaining about the current state of society, and saying that young people are all degenerates (I understand that under a totalitarian system people won't have the same freedom to express their ideas, but the proles seem to live with pretty little surveillance compared to Party workers/members and they still don't emit any opinions like "When I was young...")
Conclusion:
That said, I still think that this might be a worthy read if you're aware that this is a book with very outdated views regarding some issues and you feel like it can still be interesting, you should go for it. It wasn't mindblowing for me personally but this is a favorite for many of my friends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Body shaming, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, and Police brutality
Moderate: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Genocide
lalu's review against another edition
first read in 2017: 4 stars
London, 1984: England is part of "Oceania", one of the three super states into which the world has been divided after the Revolution. Winston's job at the Ministry of Truth is the "correcting" of old newspaper articles on order to reflect the current political and societal sitiuation - because what the Party says is and has always been the truth. Also: Big Brother is watching you.
In this almighty surveillance state Winston tries to start a revolution and gets subsequently brain washed.
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" didn't fully convince me as a novel, but the idea behind it is disturbingly impressive and shows alarming parallels to today's North Korea...
dnf'd in 2021 - Warning: strong language!
London, 1984: England is part of "Oceania", one of the three super states into which the world has been divided after the Revolution. Winston's job at the Ministry of Truth is the "correcting" of old newspaper articles on order to reflect the current political and societal sitiuation - because what the Party says is and has always been the truth. Also: Big Brother is watching you.
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" didn't fully convince me as a novel, but the idea behind it is disturbingly impressive and shows alarming parallels to today's North Korea...
dnf'd in 2021 - Warning: strong language!
I had no urge to read this book again, but my book club chose it, so... I read 84 pages. What really struck me this time is the sexism. Already in the first chapter we encounter said sexism
He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones.
... antisemitism (when describing Emmanuel Goldstein, the "Enemy of the people")
It was a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy aureole of white hair and a small goatee beard - a clever face, and yet somehow inherently despicable, with a kind of senile silliness in the long thin nose [...]. It resembled the face of a sheep, and the voice, too, had a sheeplike quality.
... and murder and rape fantasies about a female colleague
Vivid, beautiful hallucinations flashed through his mind. He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows like Saint Sebastian. He would ravish her and cut her throat at the moment of climax [...]. He hated her because she was young and pretty and sexless, because he wanted to go to bed with her.
This could be seen as stylistic choices or whatever - but I hated it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Sexism, and Sexual content
Moderate: Rape and Racism
Minor: Antisemitism
ghostpath's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Torture
Minor: Antisemitism, Misogyny, and Racism