Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

1984 by George Orwell

212 reviews

lorraine19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

The beginning can be a bit difficult to understand and slow to get into. But once as you really get into it and appreciate the world building, it opens your eyes to why this is considered a classic. There is a deep examination on what it means to be human at the root of this book that I think is often overlooked in favor of the political debates. The characters are complex people in a complex world. It is a very dark read but not a "feels good" book if that's what you are looking for. I personally appreciate the seriousness and the depth of this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

airfryer's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Blood and Vomit

Minor: Rape

daybreakreads's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.0

Painfully slow, dull writing. I normally enjoy dystopian novels but this one was just trying too har. Everything was for shock value, which ended up making nothing surprising. I find it ironic that the story involves sending a warning against scaring people into believing your political ideologies, but the author is a socialist and is advocating for socialism. The government claims to be socialist, but at one point it’s revealed it’s not actually socialist, and the only way forward is to become socialist. I don’t care what your political leanings are, there’s blatant hypocrisy by the author in trying to scare people into becoming socialist whilst advocating against scaring people into agreeing with your political opinions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, and War

One n word usage

kaymay29's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Slavery, Stalking, Death of parent, and Colonisation

modrinkscoffee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny

laughingkatana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

2.0

I completely understand why this book is a staple in the U.S., I understand the messages it hold, and I even see why people like it, but I did not enjoy the book even slightly. It is incredibly boring and drawn out. The author paints a tedious life through tedious writing and description. The only plus is how in depth the dive into the main characters thoughts and emotions is. I'm glad I read it, but honestly probably wouldn't recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Classism

getjinxed's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, and War

natbooks_'s review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual content

mganallirt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and Gaslighting

multimindz's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Orwell can't write women worth a toss. Really marred the importance of the book to me. Just wanted to start with that.

Many times I wondered to myself "how did this book become so famous?" I meant I get it to some degree, the "this is how one can be controlled by the state and why that is bad" part is so dead on, I would haved suggested this work to Chinese protesters as a primer of what they are up against - if there wasn't so much anti-Asianness (they're not the only historically marginalize group shown in an problematic light - it is almost fair to say that if Orwell and Lovecraft knew each other, Orwell probably wouldn't find too much issue with him, with exception to "I find him and his work a bit creepy but he's rather okay". Lovecraft would probably think Orwell some "dainty snowflake, but I would still call him a friend"). I'd rather find another work that conveys the same and with less racial animosity. Those works exist.

I wouldn't super mind the racist stuff if it were part of the tale, in the way of "this is how the state corrupts and creates scape goats" but nope. It's regular degular "you're reading a literary work penned by a White person, what were you expecting?" level. I don't care for the "it was his era" excuse, he just saw Nazism and wrote a book inspired by, what were then, recent events, he had the brain cells to do better. Thus I super minded the racist stuff (and the gender stuff, he knew women in his life, no excuse).

Winston is a character I found, well, to use a modern term, a walking incel. Old (but wants young women), selfish (he's married and doesn't care about his wife nor the sex worker he bought ... when he found out the sex worker wasn't young. Definitely doesn't care about Julia outside of "someone who I want to touch my dick"), lives by the Reggie Watts lyric of the song "F*ck Sh*t Stack": "I like women. I like women. I like the concept of a woman. Turn that concept into an object." Pathetic, awful, cowardly, useless, pointless and a sheer bore of a human that made me think "please tell me he kills himself or someone brutally murders him". Even the torture scene wasn't enough for me, I had and still have zero sympathy for such a character as Winston. [Sarcasm] Oh noes, he found out that pain is real and standing up for something can have unpretty consequences. Ah alors, what ever, what ever shall Winston do? [/sarcasm] He is the way he is and the life he lives by sheer choice and will. Magnificently small minded, awed easily due to his own sheer stupidity as if he is something special now that he has a Pretty Young Thing and a Secret Book by his side. Oh, and a feeling he had of "The state should be overthrown! - by the people beneath me, I don't wanna do it, I could die. It's fine if the proles beneath me die, that's what they're there for, to die so I may just sit here, muse and pretend my redundant life is worth something." Common feeling of the middle class and up, I get it, but as someone from the working class: screw you, bro. Die for your own cause. If it means that much to you, you should be okay with potentially pushing up daisies over it. Otherwise, just be honest and say "It isn't that I dislike the system, I love it a lot - I just don't like my place in it"

Winston is alive by sheer luck of being surrounded and picked up by genuinely smarter people, such as Julia (she could do better) and others. His dawning of realization that something was amiss in the world he lived in was the simple fact that he couldn't bink Julia due to the red sash on her waist that meant she dedicated her virginity to the state. Really? Orwell couldn't think of something better?

Everything made this book a chore to read. Even the book referenced (and read out) in the book could easily fall under "White Guy Diatribe".

Long story short: The book sucked. I can see why works like these make teens and adult fall out of love with reading. It's dry, unintriguing, angering for all the wrong reasons (the racism and sexism in the work, which isn't there to help illustrate the issues of being in a totalitarian, surveillance state, it's just there because, welp, a White guy wrote it). I get the cultural importance of 1984 but that importance is heavily diluted with the story being as pathetic as it was. I just was left so many times wondering "how did this book become so famous?" This book was an absolute chore to read.  

I would have given it a 1.75 star if it weren't a famous work. It has some noteworthy cultural value (aka, it gets referenced everywhere things get dystopian). The work gets one (1) star for that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Medical trauma, and War

Minor: Sexual content