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A review by brethetech
1984 by George Orwell
dark
reflective
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
2.5
I know it’s a classic for a reason and that it laid the foundation for so much more but please don’t go into this book thinking you’re going to gain much from it like I did.
At several points it felt like I just had to get through it to keep my promise to myself that I would read at least one classic this year.
The pacing was nice it skipped large swaths of time and lingered in moments but it always felt right.
But I was never attached to the main character, or any character at all, I didn’t learn anything, and I wasn’t entertained for more then a brief 50 or so pages where I wanted to know what would happen next.
If you want to read this for antiauthoritarianism, or because it’s a dystopia there are better picks nowadays that are both going to be more interesting and dive deeper into the topic. And in fact that is my main gripe with this that the facts that it presents are not novel to me, and it just keeps hammering them in instead of going deeper. I know they were novel at the time and even perhaps for a while after, or to a specific audience where this is a new topic but not to me, or probably anybody interested in reading books on this topic today.
Or maybe I’m just stupid and am missing something idk.
At several points it felt like I just had to get through it to keep my promise to myself that I would read at least one classic this year.
The pacing was nice it skipped large swaths of time and lingered in moments but it always felt right.
But I was never attached to the main character, or any character at all, I didn’t learn anything, and I wasn’t entertained for more then a brief 50 or so pages where I wanted to know what would happen next.
If you want to read this for antiauthoritarianism, or because it’s a dystopia there are better picks nowadays that are both going to be more interesting and dive deeper into the topic. And in fact that is my main gripe with this that the facts that it presents are not novel to me, and it just keeps hammering them in instead of going deeper. I know they were novel at the time and even perhaps for a while after, or to a specific audience where this is a new topic but not to me, or probably anybody interested in reading books on this topic today.
Or maybe I’m just stupid and am missing something idk.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Xenophobia
Moderate: Suicide, War, Classism
Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit