adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense 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: Yes

Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had once been different?

Winston Smith holds a piece of evidence, a torn page of a magazine that can making the population of Oceania aware of the totalitarian government’s constant manipulation of history. However, with little to no freedom he has—with cameras everywhere, from walking down an empty alley down to the limited number words he’s allowed to use, he tries to keep the rebellion to himself. Until he met Julia, a woman 10 years younger than him who he had an affair with. Winston’s first act of rebellion.

Orwell experienced the dictatorships of both Nazism and Stalinism, drawing on these experiences to create the novel's plotline. The book serves as an eye-opener to the true nature of totalitarian governments. The book shows the forced brainwashing and submission of people. The practice of being punished for thoughts alone. However, with the lack of technology during these past dictatorships, total control of people cannot happen. Orwell then writes about a dystopian future where even things like marriages should only happen if the government agrees upon it, where kids are trained to be spies even to their parents—even the smallest space inside one’s home can be monitored by the thought police.

The book is well thought from the portrayal of what happens during war down to the limitations of language used. However, there seems to still be an issue with the portrayal of women. In a book where every societal issue was adressed, the patriarchy is still implied as “normal”. No woman was ever portrayed as someone who’s not used for pleasure or someone that’s not submissive.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I just finished listening to the audiobook edition and all I can say is WOW. It wasn't just an audiobook but an immersive performance that I finished in one sitting as I didn't want to stop listening. 

This isn't the kind of book that I'd typically go for but it was free as part of my audible subscription so I figured why not and I'm so glad I did. 

The world building was incredible and had a very gripping way of highlighting the issues of oppression and dictatorship. 

The voice acting was fantastic and really helped me connect with the characters on a deeper level and I really did feel for them. 

O'brien,
what a nasty man he is! I just felt it in my gut when they went to him that he wasn't to be trusted. And the torture scenes were so detailed and atmospheric that I truly felt I was in the room with them, I couldn't listen to those bits with my eyes closed!


Would I give such a high rating if I read the book as opposed to listening to the audiobook? I honestly can't say, but this was amazing and I highly recommend this to anyone looking to get immersed in a story!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark reflective slow-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

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark reflective tense 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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: Yes


 Review of 1984 by George Orwell

This is my long-awaited review of 1984. Like any review, it won’t be perfect — and that’s kind of the point. My thoughts on this book will evolve. My critiques will deepen, and so will my respect. But this is what I’ve got after sitting with it for several days since finishing. And how fitting it is to read this novel as a Black biracial woman in America, in 2025 — but that’s for another space and time.


This will obviously be long, heartfelt, and maybe a little ranty. 
 
Themes I Loved: writing as resistance, the power of controlling reality, state violence & normalized brutality, manufacturing distracting for the poor, silent/subconscious protest.

Writing as Resistance

One of the most powerful moments is Winston’s journaling. The simple act of writing becomes an act of rebellion — a form of spiritual and political survival. As he says:

“But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.” (p. 27)

This moved me deeply. It reminded me of I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Hoffman , and the idea that to write is to have been alive. Even if no one reads it, the act proves you existed. It’s almost like overcoming the fear of one’s impermanence. It’s self-recognition, like the moment a child looks into a mirror and realizes, That’s me. That’s what Winston does.



🧠  Power is being able to Control Reality

The Party doesn’t just surveil — it controls memory, history, and even thought. This is the essence ce of power. To subjugate the mind. As O’Brien says, “God is power”. This theme chilled me. It’s about manufacturing the conditions of truth, and by doing so, shaping the soul of a society. You control reality in multifaceted ways. That’s why there is a system dedicated to it. 

And it makes sense why power would want to destroy individualism. Individuality is tied to mortality — to be human is to die. But when one becomes part of an eternal collective (like the Party), they “transcend” death. They become divine.



📺 State Violence & Normalized Brutality

I was struck by the normalization of public violence — watching, participating, even fantasizing about it. It reminded me of American history: the postcards of lynchings, the picnic-like atmospheres, the grotesque glee. Violence becomes a ritual of allegiance. It becomes culture.



🎰 Manufacturing Distraction for the Poor

One of the most disturbing but brilliant critiques is how the Party creates pornography and lotteries for the proles — distractions that keep them passive. It’s not unlike how liquor stores, gambling houses, and underfunded schools are concentrated in poor communities today. Or how systemic issues like sex trafficking remain untouched, while superficial moral panics dominate the media.

And then there’s Goldstein — the perfect mythic villain. He may not even be real, but his image is more powerful than any real person could be. He’s like a Satan figure: a scapegoat that justifies fear, hate, and obedience. It made me question the symbolic function of real-world villains like Osama bin Laden. Regardless of guilt or innocence, the myth is more important than the man. Justifying war requires a name, a face — even if the real architects of terror are closer to home.



🥀 Silent, Subconscious Protest

I was haunted by Winston’s description of that felt, instinctual resistance:


“Always in your stomach and in your skin there was a sort of protest…” (p. 59)
“The only evidence to the contrary was the mute protest in your bones…” (p. 73)

Even without full awareness, the body resists. There is protest in the gut, in the skin, in the ache of knowing something isn’t right — even if you can’t articulate it. That feeling is universal.





😡 What I Hated: Julia’s Portrayal

Julia was such a disappointment. Like Clarisse from Fahrenheit 451, she’s reduced to a trope: the sexually rebellious but intellectually shallow woman. As Winston (and Orwell) say, “You’re only a rebel from the waist downwards .” That line infuriated me.

Julia becomes little more than a plot device to awaken Winston. Her dissent is sensual, not political. Her intelligence and agency are minimized, as if women can only rebel through sex. This isn’t just frustrating — it’s dangerous. It implies women aren’t truly revolutionary, that their protests are shallow or narcissistic. This is a massive flaw in Orwell’s perspective, and unfortunately common in dystopian lit written by men.

Yes, Julia’s surface-level dissent says something about modern rebellion — how easily it’s co-opted or commodified — but placing that entire theme on a woman reinforces a misogynist trope. Both the author and his characters are shaped by patriarchy. And this is why I think any critique of totalitarianism must also be a critique of patriarchy, of sexual repression, of state control over bodies — especially women’s and furthermore black bodies. 

Think of reproductive injustice, or regimes like the Taliban. Think of Trump-era policies where women were encouraged to bear more children “for the nation.” Patriarchy is always foundational to fascism.

🔥 Final Thoughts

There is so much to say about this book — and I’ve barely scratched the surface. But what I’ll take with me is the idea that even in the face of total erasure, the act of remembering — of writing — is revolutionary. So is the ache in your body when something is wrong. So is the refusal to let myth become unquestioned truth.

This book is both a warning and a mirror.

And we would do well to keep reading it — and reading between the lines.


My favorite overall quote: “In a way, the worldview of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interest in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding, they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain if corn will pass in digested through the body of a bird”. 



Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark reflective 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

I really like the style of narrative. Some plots points were really unexpected. 
Chapter 9 is very hard to keep up with, it's not like the rest.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark reflective tense medium-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

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings