Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

1984 by George Orwell

45 reviews

therobinjoyce's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

Winston, the main character, lives in a dystopian country where individual thought is banned and where only the leader, an entity known as Big Brother, is allowed to reason and to decide. He is conflicted by his own thoughts and urged by his natural instincts to question the wisdom of Big Brother. Throughout the pages of the book he moves hopefully toward his own liberation and the liberation of all mankind from Big Brother’s terrifying regime, but in defying Big Brother with his own thoughts, he dooms himself to the full wrath of this totalitarian government.

This book really isn’t for the faint of heart. Obviously, 1984 was written well before our day and the style of writing evidently shows that, but the principles and concepts conveyed in the pages of this book are very thought-provoking (as all of George Orwell's books are) and relevant even today.

Amazingly, he has created a dystopian world far different from what the reality of 1984 was actually like, but one, nonetheless, that is a stark warning to mankind if they continue down certain paths even nowadays.

Throughout the pages of the book, Orwell warns of the serious danger totalitarianism poses to society and goes to extreme lengths to demonstrate the terrifying degree of power and control which a totalitarian regime can acquire and maintain even without the use of much modern technology.

It was truly frightening to behold at certain points and definitely one to read. If you're after a gripping, dark, dystopian tale of seemingly doomed hope and espionage against a totalitarian government, you will most likely be thrilled to read this book. If however, you suffer from any kind of nervous disposition, please do not attempt this novel. One look at the content warnings below will give you a good understanding of why I say this...

TRIGGER WARNING: Torture, Violence, Physical Abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Death, Forced Institutionalization, Sexism, Gore, Sexual Content, Body Horror, Emotional Abuse, Rape, Sexual Violence, Suicidal Thoughts, Murder, Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Blood, War, Alcohol, Hate Crime, Genocide, Body Shaming, Gun Violence, Alcoholism, Medical Content, Cursing, Child Death

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senny's review against another edition

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

2.75


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antoniaodernein's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious 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? No

4.0


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bibs's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

- Spoiler Free - (still in process)

I had pretty high hopes for this book, everyone that I talked to loves it, and when I started it after years of wanting to read it I was shocked at the misogyny expressed that no one had told me about. This fact put me off reading it and may have tainted the rest of the experience for me; this review is solely my experience with it given my background and expectations, if you like this book and don't mind the problems it may have in my eyes, that is totally valid!

I think the book (personally) doesn't hold as the masterpiece it is said to be; I find the messages to be all very in-your-face, nothing is left for the reader to think about and form their own opinion on. This doesn't really hold as a good criticism of Socialism, either, because it basically makes a strawman argument against it (I've heard that "Animal Farm" is better in that regard).

Before I list my problems with this book, I want to say that Winston is a pretty unlikable character.

Main Sins:
- The descriptions of fat people are all pretty bad and made me want to burn the book because they had no relevance to the plot;
- Winston just hates all women and thinks that they're all dumb, blind Party-followers or just weak, until he finds one that says "I love you" and then he suddenly stops hating women *sigh*. Also pretty big TW for rape bc this mas is honestly crazy;
- He has some hope that poor people can change the current situation but overall he isn't that nice to them in his narration (writing their lines with grammar errors was a pretty low blow in my opinion), for the most part, they just mindlessly accepting anything that is thrown at them;
- The representation of Communism/Socialism seems more like a Capitalist Society with some mentions of food and clothing stramps for Party-members

Also, George Orwell acts like older generations don't spend their days complaining about the current state of society, and saying that young people are all degenerates (I understand that under a totalitarian system people won't have the same freedom to express their ideas, but the proles seem to live with pretty little surveillance compared to Party workers/members and they still don't emit any opinions like "When I was young...")

Conclusion:
That said, I still think that this might be a worthy read if you're aware that this is a book with very outdated views regarding some issues and you feel like it can still be interesting, you should go for it. It wasn't mindblowing for me personally but this is a favorite for many of my friends.

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ghostpath's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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