A review by miagw962
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

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

5.0

"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."

Like most of the books that I read that absolutely blow me away, I find it hard to articulate exactly how I feel. Brave New World just struck a chord with me as soon as I started reading it. The intricacies of the dystopian world Huxley thought up in the 1930s is utterly bewildering. That was interesting enough for me but then came the story and the characters, the tragedy, the Shakespeare. I just am at a loss for words (as always). Just like to point out that John the Savage is one of the most interesting and complex characters I've ever read and I love him so much. He represents normalcy for us but 'savagery' for that society (also like to point out that the use of the word 'savage' is probably not appropriate, especially considering that John interacts with a community of Indigenous people - this book is a product of its time so it's good to keep that in mind). His inner conflict is outwardly shown through Huxley's beautiful prose - I actually do not know why but I cared about him so so deeply!!! And that's why the ending literally put me through the ringer. The tragedy of it all. There are so many truly poignant moments in this story that will stick with me for a long time. I wish I had something more interesting to say about this book and I'm sure if I was reading it for a high school English class I would! But I just really really enjoyed it, probably more than Orwell's 1984. Just something so familiar and unsettling about it - hearing about a world like this and envisioning it becoming a reality. 
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