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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Feels really Orwellian and delivers exactly that. Levin doesn’t disappoint, but I was hoping for something as haunting as Rosemary’s Baby
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Gaslighting
Call me crazy, but I cannot stand the rape-turns-to-love plot device. It ruined a 3 star book. I read both rosemary’s baby and the stepford wives, and this read like the men’s perspective version of them. The male protagonist is sexist, suffocatingly selfish, and attempts to reduce and ruin (or in his mind, “love”) the female character. I did not like reading it from chip’s POV.
dark
reflective
fast-paced
I have loved most book of Ira Levin's that i have read but i really did not enjoy this one anywhere near as much.
The general premise of the story is simple although there are one or two nice twists. The real issue for me was total lack of idea of consequences. We will over throw this bad computer so we can all live in poverty without enough food - which is exactly what the main character escapes to. This is more ideological than anything else which is fine but rather limited but definitely of its time - Logan's Run another example of bad society to rebel against without looking at what to replace it with or the consequence of changing a system people not being fed.
The part of the book that is unforgiveable is the rape by the main character and then the woman apologizing the next day cause it was her fault and he was only acting "normally". The scene adds nothing to the story other than showing what a selfish bastard the main character is.
The general premise of the story is simple although there are one or two nice twists. The real issue for me was total lack of idea of consequences. We will over throw this bad computer so we can all live in poverty without enough food - which is exactly what the main character escapes to. This is more ideological than anything else which is fine but rather limited but definitely of its time - Logan's Run another example of bad society to rebel against without looking at what to replace it with or the consequence of changing a system people not being fed.
The part of the book that is unforgiveable is the rape by the main character and then the woman apologizing the next day cause it was her fault and he was only acting "normally". The scene adds nothing to the story other than showing what a selfish bastard the main character is.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism
Writing a dystopian novel in the late 1970s wasn't an easy task. You'd have to say something 1984, Brave New World, and Lord of The Flies hadn't said. This book doesn't.
On top of it, it's just so damn clumsily written half the time. Thin characters, confusing descriptions of environments and action scenes, polemic dialog.
Levin can be a very engaging writer. Here, he leaves his economical, small-allegory skills at the door and attempts an epic history set in a complex and alien world. He fails.
On top of it, it's just so damn clumsily written half the time. Thin characters, confusing descriptions of environments and action scenes, polemic dialog.
Levin can be a very engaging writer. Here, he leaves his economical, small-allegory skills at the door and attempts an epic history set in a complex and alien world. He fails.
Damned if you do, damned if you done. Everyone wants a perfect world as long as they don't have to follow the rules.