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dalek_caan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Suicide, and Sexual assault
kokoberry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Vomit, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Grief, Infidelity, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Misogyny, Suicide, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Self harm
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Cursing, Fatphobia, and Pregnancy
Minor: Abortion, War, and Animal death
cursed_sapphire's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
4.5
The characters are interesting but not likeable, I recommend knowing that going in. This book is an exploration of a potential future built on consumption, sameness, and constant pleasure. The characters are meant to embody different parts of humanity/society. Bernard is only content if he's more special than everyone else, Lenina wants more monogomy than is normal but otherwise accepts everything, Helmholtz is just kinda bored and wants to be a tortured poet, etc. John is supposed to be the last real person, representing a true believer in religion and art which cannot survive in this society. Mind you, John is a very 1930's Christian ideal of a true, good person. And while his obsession with suffering for his sins serves as a counter to the painless society of the book, it came across a bit overzealous for me. It felt like Huxley was trying to make John suffer all the pain everyone else never had to, but that made him feel a little too obsessed with pain instead of the virtues he claims to care about. The same could also be said about his obsession with chastity.
This is a book more focused on ideas than on characters. The plot is a bit sparse, but that leads to a slice-of-life feeling, where the day-to-day life is the focus. There's a certain horror in the mundaneness that the characters experience, and that brings out the themes in a different, but still very effective way.
Overall I recommend this for anyone who likes the philosophical side of sci-fi/dystopia, as long as they are able to handle the old-fashioned lense.
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Addiction, and Suicide
Moderate: Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Sexual harassment
gbentley's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Moderate: Xenophobia and Drug use
Minor: Sexism and Suicide
honkinggoose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Addiction
Moderate: Body shaming and Classism
Minor: Gaslighting
sophia_teknoe's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Drug use, Racism, and Suicide
n_degeorgia's review against another edition
3.75
Eugenics is horrifying and the opening inciting moment really caught my attention but the rest of the story casts sexual liberation and modern convenience as the pinnacle of all evil. Fascinating read but the politics and morality of the 1930's is loud and clear and I think a 2024 understanding of these issues is more nuanced!
Graphic: Racial slurs, Drug use, and Suicide
taralouise52's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Suicide
viviankeithley's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Grief, Self harm, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, and Classism
carlaabra's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A dys?/u-topian future where humans are mass manufactured, embryos conditioned and children brainwashed into predetermined castes (Alpha through Gamma) and personalities (make the future miners like the dark, make the farmers like the dirt, make the laborers enjoy their labor). Above all, make everyone unthinking and “happy”—no suffering, no obstacles, just base desires and their immediate satisfaction, perfect workers and consumers. We follow Bernard, the self righteous loser, Helmholtz, the writer created with too much intelligence yet yearning for something valuable to say, Lenina, a woman beginning to question society but who chooses the hollow comfort of drugged happiness over true feeling, and finally John (The Savage), born the old-fashioned way on Savage Reservations where humans live a harsh but felt existence. John is removed from the reservations into the Civilized World in an experiment: can the savage appreciate such easy and empty pleasures? Should he?
Some of this book seriously lagged. But it’s worth it for the themes. What does it really mean to live a good life - to fulfill a purpose? What is happiness - is it always good, and is suffering always bad? Is the primary goal for human civilization to extinguish, indeed to obviate, any and all hardship? At what cost? There’s an interesting religious parallel that’s touched on, the holiness of suffering (the *passion* of the Christ; asceticism more generally). I was reminded of Calvin: how terrifying it is to consider predestination and therefore how strong a test of our faith to go on believing, God‘s will be done.
Minor: Sexual content and Suicide
Nihilism