Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

143 reviews

margaret_s_library's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

Moderate: Gaslighting, War, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Toxic friendship

eeeeeli_is_probably_lonely's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Police brutality, Genocide, Death, Confinement, Classism, Violence, Slavery, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body horror, Slavery, Suicide, and War

mme_carton's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Stalking, Torture, Violence, Vomit, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Grief, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Rape

sissiisreading's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Classism, Addiction, Deportation, Alcohol, Police brutality, and War

softgirlari's review against another edition

dark reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

feels quite slow but paced for the majority of the book, not much happens and feels dragged out, but then gets interesting and thought-provoking towards the end 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Classism, Murder, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

Minor: Suicide and Police brutality

reminiscences's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Medical content, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Torture, War, and Vomit

laurenu8's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Blood, Gun violence, and Death of parent

emmalouisereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

The story and the world Orwell has created is chillingly realistic as a dystopian. 

I knew a lot of the story from what I gleaned from popular culture. The only surprise really is whether there is a happy or sad ending - which I won’t spoil.

I think I would have appreciated a more ruthless editor. There are times where we have the same information repeated to us over and over, and I found myself thinking, I know Orwell, you told me this. There’s also a large amount of a book read by the main character which confirms what the main character knows, which of course we also knew.. so it would have been perhaps fine to say the book confirmed his knowledge?

At any rate, this is a disturbing tale. Too close to possible in some parts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Classism, Confinement, Murder, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, and Misogyny

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and War

Minor: Self harm

torismazarine's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: War

Minor: Child death and Death

ravensandlace's review against another edition

challenging dark informative 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? Yes

2.0

Title: 1984

Author: George Orwell

Genre: Adult Dystopia

Format: my own paperback book

Star Rating: 2.5 stars

tw: misogyny, antisemitism, war, parental death, assault, burning, torture, mind control

So, I read this book back in high school, over 10 years ago. I know, I am old. I remember thinking “Oh this is such a good book!” I also felt really proud of myself for reading an “adult” book. Up until that point, I had normally read young adult books. I found a beautiful paperback edition, while I was thrift shopping of course, and thought “Great! I’ll give this another go and see if it holds up!”

Ugh. This book sucked and I am so disappointed that I did not like it the second time around. Sure, the message was good. Big Brother is always watching, etc, etc. It’s a metaphor for the government and how if it goes left unchecked, bad things will happen. I get that. My problem was with the main character, Winston, and the ending. I’ll explain both. 

Winston is the absolute whiniest main character I’ve ever read about and I read Shadow and Bone (if you all have read that book, you know who I’m talking about). He wanted to kill a woman because he was attracted to her. Who does that?  In fact, he dislikes all women and had nasty things to say about them. He would constantly shit on women because they used their feminine wiles to get people to join some sort of group. He also had such an ego about him that was completely undeserved. He knew he wasn’t a catch but at the same time, still acted like he was better than everyone just because he didn’t think like the others.  

The ending made me so mad. This is going to be a spoiler of sorts so read this next paragraph if you don’t care about spoilers or if you have already read the book. We were made to root for Winston, fighting against the Party. That things were going to go well for the Rebellion and that maybe we would see the Party getting taken down. But no. Winson learns to love the party and therefore loves Big Brother due to mind control. I don’t remember if I liked the ending or not when I read it in high school. I really just remember being confused. But now, I’m just mad. Thank god I only spent like one dollar on this book.  

Overall, I believe this is an important book about government control. But don’t rely on Winston to be an example of how to defeat said government control. He is nothing but a whiny, misogynistic wuss. I still recommend this book. Just be prepared to be mad about the ending and about Winston.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Antisemitism, Blood, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Torture, Violence, and War