Reviews with content warning for Child death - 1984

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

Content Warnings

bradiehilliard's review against another edition

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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

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therobinjoyce's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

3.0

Winston, the main character, lives in a dystopian country where individual thought is banned and where only the leader, an entity known as Big Brother, is allowed to reason and to decide. He is conflicted by his own thoughts and urged by his natural instincts to question the wisdom of Big Brother. Throughout the pages of the book he moves hopefully toward his own liberation and the liberation of all mankind from Big Brother’s terrifying regime, but in defying Big Brother with his own thoughts, he dooms himself to the full wrath of this totalitarian government.

This book really isn’t for the faint of heart. Obviously, 1984 was written well before our day and the style of writing evidently shows that, but the principles and concepts conveyed in the pages of this book are very thought-provoking (as all of George Orwell's books are) and relevant even today.

Amazingly, he has created a dystopian world far different from what the reality of 1984 was actually like, but one, nonetheless, that is a stark warning to mankind if they continue down certain paths even nowadays.

Throughout the pages of the book, Orwell warns of the serious danger totalitarianism poses to society and goes to extreme lengths to demonstrate the terrifying degree of power and control which a totalitarian regime can acquire and maintain even without the use of much modern technology.

It was truly frightening to behold at certain points and definitely one to read. If you're after a gripping, dark, dystopian tale of seemingly doomed hope and espionage against a totalitarian government, you will most likely be thrilled to read this book. If however, you suffer from any kind of nervous disposition, please do not attempt this novel. One look at the content warnings below will give you a good understanding of why I say this...

TRIGGER WARNING: Torture, Violence, Physical Abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Death, Forced Institutionalization, Sexism, Gore, Sexual Content, Body Horror, Emotional Abuse, Rape, Sexual Violence, Suicidal Thoughts, Murder, Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Blood, War, Alcohol, Hate Crime, Genocide, Body Shaming, Gun Violence, Alcoholism, Medical Content, Cursing, Child Death

Content Warnings

starofash's review against another edition

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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.

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bibs's review against another edition

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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.

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mayachari's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad 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? No

3.0

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artemaia's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

While I doubt society would ever take this form completely, the failings and evils in mankind that tend in this direction make this book a worthwhile cautionary tale and worth reflecting and pondering.

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