Reviews with content warning for Grief - They

I think the fact that I read this book as an audiobook let me down with my enjoyment of it.
The book is a series of scenes in the narrator's life, with little context though you pick up fiarly quickly what's going on. However it didn't fit as cohesive narrative making it quite difficult to follow as an audiobook, especially when read while doing other tasks.
I may try to get hold of a physical copy to see if it's better when I can flick back and forth in order to understand things more clearly.

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james1star's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

Kay Dick’s ‘They’ was originally published in 1977, achieving some praise but was soon pushed out of print being lost until quite recently. This fact considering the book’s focus on censorship and the meaning of artistic expression leads to thoughts. I read up that she was a bisexual intellectual and yes Kay love that, I’m intrigued to maybe check out more from her but this didn’t exactly hit the mark for me.

In ‘They’ we follow an unnamed protagonist who lives alone by the coast with a dog - in my reading I thought this person was probably a woman as people call them ‘love’ a few times and just felt they were written female if that makes sense, I also believe they change from chapter to chapter but this may not be the case - across nine chapters. Each is like a mini story in itself with multiple characters that don’t repeat but there are some recurring events just different scenarios. As the novella progresses, the reader is introduced to the various aims and methods of the group known as ‘they’ who are threatening the main characters and general population to some extent. It’s clear the thing ‘they’ dislike the most is the arts and artistic expression whereby they over time confiscate/steal/destroy works of human creativity (books, paintings, records, poems, etc), terrorise/kidnap/imprison/kill offenders and try to enact conformity onto people. Displays of emotion (e.g. grief of a lost love which is seen as the worst as it signifies the fact love has meaning), non-conformity and those who live alone are also under attack. The characters attempt to live with the fear and put their own energy into creating works as fighting back wouldn’t prove useful, but this is a hard pill to swallow.

The group called ‘Them’ are written to be anonymous and all we know is their general dislike and the fact their numbers are growing. I think this is done well as Dick doesn’t add any humanity to them or their actions, the characters know they are a present threat and don’t bother to interact with them as this’ll obviously prove fruitless. What I didn’t like that much was how were given a similar level of disconnect with the named characters in each chapter/story. There are too many, too short stories so the reader can’t experience the characters in full, so no one is memorable, less and longer chapters would have been better in my opinion. BUT I do like the ambiguity of how each ends and this is probably what Dick was going for, so I respect it and see why but still didn’t really like it if that makes sense. The questioning and leaning into the horror genre were okay but maybe needed more expansion, it’s definitely a dystopia.

The writing was okay. I appreciate it’s meant to be rather fast paced but lots of short sentences did break the text up a little too much. There’s some nice metaphors and descriptive language that’s useful in describing locations for example. The violence isn’t exactly graphic but the recurrence of animal cruelty/death is something I hate to read so Yhh, but it could have been worse.

Last point: in the final chapter, a character is only referred to as ‘the autistic child’ whilst everyone else is given a name. This irked me so much, like Dick just give him a name!!! Having autism isn’t someone’s whole personality, it just felt unnecessary and like she was using the boy’s autism to belittle him in a sense, I dunno?? This was a small part but it stuck with me.

I’m happy this was found and I would say it’s worth reading but it’s possible the impact wasn’t something I picked up on. Possibly a re-read might prove useful but we shall see.

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inkling's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

They is a dystopian novel that explores what life would be like if art and free thinking is seen as a crime. I found it a challenging yet interesting read. Not so much happens in it, but Kay Dick creates a tense atmosphere very well. The writing is very disjointed, for lack of a better word, and apart from the narrator the characters are new in every chapter. This made it quite confusing and unlike anything I've read before. I was very intrigued by the premise of this book, but I expected more of an exploration of who "they" are, where did they come from? How could this have happened?

It didn't quite meet my expectations, and wasn't really my thing. However it is a very short book so well worth a try! It might be just what you are looking for.

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bex_knighthunterbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

My favourite part of this book was the introduction by Carmen Maria Machado… Unfortunately, this didn't work for me despite loving horror and dystopian fiction. I really struggled with the writing style, which was incredibly simple, sparse, and matter-of-fact. I struggled to get into any reading flow with this style and it left me feeling distanced from the stories. It also felt like key information was missing, leaving me me confused in many places about what was actually going on. Just in concept this was already going to be hard for me as I have historically struggled with even mosaic novels, and the concept for this was even less tied together - it was created by the author editing a selection of short stories to tie them together. The stories each featured different characters and different but similar settings, but none of the characters stood out to me and I found them easy to mix up. We never get any name or traits for the main character - it seemed likely it was all from the same perspective but I wasn't sure because we get no internal monologue or personality. I was interested in the questions this collection/novella was trying to explore around the suppression of art but I don't feel that I got much on this topic and I was left feeling I had missed the point of a few stories - I would be intrigued to read a literary analysis of this one! There was an unsettling vibe that came through the stories and some chilling small sections (e.g. a woman being told after breaking her ankle that she was being allowed to show pain for 48 hours and her using this to express all her suppressed grief, and a woman who jumps into a pond every morning because she is affected by the memory of being burned alive). I also enjoyed the small moments of absurd darkness amongst the descriptions of mundanity. I was tempted to DNF but got on slightly better when I treated this more as a short story collection and tried to read each story in one sitting.

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spooderman's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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sorcha's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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nstew16's review against another edition

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dark hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

For fans of dystopian literature, the introduction by Carmen Maria Machado is so full of insight and appreciation for the genre.

As for the book itself, the writing style alone was amazing. If you love the ocean, art, and reading, this book explores the beauty and responsibilities of both so candidly. Stylistically it reminded me a lot of Kate Wilhelm's Abyss.

I was also reminded while reading of the many reasons why I don't actively seek out horror. The last time I read anything resembling horror was reading Roald Dahl's The Landlady. It does exactly what it should as a horror.

It ends as I expected it to, with no resolution but a hint of hope. I don't think a reader can possibly as for anything more from this short exploration into what it means when creativity is feared.

Other books that They reminded me of:
1. Abyss
2. The Landlady
3. The Circle/The Every

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