A review by chrisrohlev1234
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

3.0

To begin, spoiler warning for not just this book but 1984 as well. From all of the recommendations, I was prepared to give this book five stars and until the last ten pages, that's what I would've done. I'll start this review with the good news and then move to the bad. The book was obviously a thought provoking book. It is easy to see why it is so commonly read in high-school curriculum. The themes of censorship. technology and ignorance are easily digestible by the young reader. The book introduced new concepts and ideas into literature and cinema. I drew tons of parallels from this book to other movies and books that I believed were heavily influenced. An episode of Black Mirror, Metalhead, about a terror inducing robot dog that's sole purpose is to kill what's left of humanity must have been based loosely on this book. Book of Eli, minus all of the religious aspects, is hugely related to Fahrenheit 451. I think what is most profound about this book is how true it's predictions have come. Now, censorship of books is at the same level I believe it was in the soviet union maybe worse. In the USSR books were banned on the basis of anti-communist and anti-Stalin. Books today that are deemed racist, homophobic and bigoted are not banned by the government but by the publisher. People have come to believe that if there is an idea that is wildly unpopular then it should be banned in a sense. Fahrenheit did a great job of predicting this. Also, I couldn't help but think of that video where the general dynamics dog gets kicked over and then gets back up on it's feet. I think technology has definitely come to something where it can begin to hurt us. The main reason I gave this book four not five stars was because of the ending. I truly believe that the ending was the worst part of the book. Establishing a new society of thinkers and starting a revolution from the ground up is such a common/feel good ending. Reading this book for the first time I would've given it five stars but after reading 1984, We, The Giver, I came to realize that all of these books have the same character development. A young man/woman who is integrated into a broken/authoritarian society learns of its evils, begins to think differently and revolts against the system. Now, there's absolutely no way I could come up with a plot like Fahrenheit 451 but I feel that it follows the same narrative of all the other famous dystopian novels. Maybe that is the way they have to be formatted, I can't think of anything else. Regardless, I liked this book and would recommend to anyone really.