Reviews with content warning for Drug use - A Clockwork Orange

Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

70 reviews

colie923's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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readwithkel's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-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

3.25

I understand the literary value of this book

And I’m glad I listened to the edition with the final chapter. I did really like that ending.

However - the language killed me. I was almost a third of the way through the book before I had any idea what was going on. Thank goodness for the Sparknotes dictionary.

This was very dystopian and almost a sociological/psychological kind of book, but it was just too violent for me personally.

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shane_delier's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense fast-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

4.0

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valencethehuman's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

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tayoreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny slow-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

3.75

A lot to think about with this one. Still not sure how I feel about it all... Honestly would recommend the read though.

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sabrinz's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.5

It's one of THE classic books that I had on my to-read list for a while. Now that I have I still have not been able to put all my thoughts and feelings about this book into words or even precise thoughts.
Even though the story is quite short with about 200 pages, it does take some time to read. While the linguistic aspect Burgess integrated with his youth slang being is amazing from a linguistic point of view and quite interesting when you read the background of these words, it made reading the story rather slow. However, at some point you do get used to the words and the reading speeds up (you'll also be able to guess most words from contex - I did know some Russion but even then it took me quite a while to make some connections between the actual Russian word and the slang that was based on it).

The story follows Alex, a 15-year old teenager, and his gang of 3 friends and their violent antics at night. Like many other youths in this story, they rebell against their government the only way they can think how - with violence. Even though some of their deeds are glossed over, they are quite burtal.
Alex, thinking himself the leader of his gang and not really taking responsibility for their actions, gets arrested when one of their break-ins goes wrong. In prison, he bides his time until he can get back out and go right back to the life he left behind. Seeing an opportunity to shorten his sentence by volunteering for a method that will guarantee his release in two weeks, Alex becomes the subject to a terrible conditioning that leads him to associate any form of violence with intense pain, thus forcing him to be act and think in a non-violent way.
The third part of the book is about Alex back in his life and the struggle that ensures from his conditioning.

The entire story contains a multititude of topics, but in the center stands the question of choice. Can we take away a person's choice even if it is someone like Alex?

Even though the last chapter was meant as somewhat of a hopeful outlook and a small redemption for Alex in the form of him growing up and settling, it felt to mee like a gloomy end. Alex decides that he wants a family of his own, but fears that his children will have to go through similar things he has (i.e. acting out as teenagers) and that the cycle of violence will be never-ending.

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