Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

14 reviews

dnietoperafan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was my first time reading Lord of the Flies. I found it to be quite entertaining. I knew there was going to be a somewhat dark feel to it, but I wasn't expecting how the plot turned out to be at all. I really enjoyed reading it, and would definitely recommend it.

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rowy148's review

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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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mattyvreads's review

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adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Right, so, I missed this one in high school. It was never an assigned reading for me and I sure as f#ck wasn’t gonna pick it up on my own… Especially at that time.

Then, recently, I was looking through a list of classic books and I thought “why not?”

It is so understandable to me that this is a classic. It’s horrifyingly compelling and perfectly paced. The characters are memorable, and the philosophical discussion of human nature is just as mystifying today. 

That debate is: in a perfect vacuum, or let’s say… an early 1950s deserted island suddenly infested with immature and uncooperative schoolboys — are people essentially good, or essentially bad, or essentially both? I bet Hobbes and Rousseau are getting all jazzed up in Heaven, just reading this damned review. 

The book itself is incredibly well-written. The story builds to it’s climax in such a profound and unsettling way, as you see their humanity chip away and their animalistic urges take over. Golding prays on the reader’s imagination and paranoia. We see the boys suffer the same fate — they become pray to their own delusions and fear, and for some, it is the death of them. It’s a story of children, in over their heads, thinking (or forcing themselves to think in order to survive) that they have it all figured out. Suddenly living to survive turns into a new way of life, and eventually, living to kill.

Damn, I gotta quit while I’m ahead. That was good.

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bluelizzz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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the_embodiment_of_chaos's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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

3.5


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agatha_hopkins's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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postit's review

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adventurous dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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thehawksflight's review

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Marooned on an uninhabited island, 'civilised' children and prepubescents are presumably unable to democratise, instead regressing into various expressions of 'savage tribe' behaviour. The relatively short read is an exposition of groupthink/de-individuation, populism, superstition and even manslaughter, among other things if you want to go deeper in your anaylsis.

I choose to believe in the essential good of humans, even very young ones, with a tendency toward collaboration and altruism during calamity. William Golding clearly thought otherwise.

The trope(s) have been copied, parodied, interpreted so much over the years that I found the book itself hard to enjoy in its own right.

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lotus440's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5


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sandy_21's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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