challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

 
 
The Party really said Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss! 😭

3.5/5

 

 

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challenging reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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dark reflective tense slow-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: Complicated

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

orwell absolutely peaks as a writer in 1984, an absolutely thrilling read from front to back. the three-act structure works in the book's favor and helps unravel the plot in an enhanced way. 
near the end it is already evident how the story will inevitably end, but reading it, feeling the emotions of our protagonist as
he is put through unimaginable horrors before meeting a death he's been desiring since the beginning of the book
, proved to be a crushing yet rewarding payoff. 

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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: Yes

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

So this was actually my second read of this book, the first having been around 10 years ago. Just as I did the previous read through, I was struck by just how much of this book is relevant to our world today. This is one of the books that I will keep coming back to again and again throughout my lifetime.
The book itself is a somewhat dramatised (hopefully) version of Stalin's Russia/Nazi Germany. It has so many layers to it, and I', still not convinces I've worked out just how deep the 'Party' goes in their propaganda, gaslighting, and plotting against its own citizens.
This is an incredibly well planned out (or perhaps the word is researched) and realised world, where even the bits that are fiction could very easily be real. That, I think, is the true terror of this book: How easily society could go from even today's status, to that found in this book. Thus, Orwell's intention to have this book serve as a warning was fully realised.

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challenging tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

This was only a little bit of a chore to get through. I get that it was like, the big thing for its time, but I couldn't get past the messy, disjointed storytelling, the weak attempts at symbolism, and the unlikeable characters. God, the unlikeable characters! Though I will grant them the fact that their god-awful personalities are a result of their surroundings. Julia's only personality trait is being not-like-other-girls. Martyr Winston admits a rape fantasy in the first 20 pages of the book, so I stopped sympathizing with him pretty much immediately.

This book just feels all over the place in a few ways, especially in its pacing. It didn't feel well-rounded or expertly crafted, more like Orwell had a bunch of ideas he slapped together for an excuse to publish twenty pages of grandstanding right in the middle. Yawn.

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