A review by theoblongbox
1984: The Graphic Novel by George Orwell

4.0

This book was certainly better than I thought it would be. I am a big fan of Orwell’s other book, Animal Farm (it is one of my favorite books), and I did not know if this would live up to that. It’s not quite as good, in my opinion, but it’s still better than most of the books I have read lately. There were some twists in the book that were both expect and unexpected. The whole thing builds together very very well. I didn’t find Winston to be the most memorable character in the world, but I still wanted him to have a good outcome. I was still rooting for him. A part of me wishes the book spent more time on the proletariat, but at the same time, keeping them kind of distant also added to the story in some way. The book does a good job of revealing things, but also not revealing things. It really is a book of contradictions, just like the party. Of course, the book has a lot to say about the world and people look to it for political meaning. I didn’t read it with that intent. You can choose to see parallels in it, but you can also just read it for entertainment. Overall, I can definitely see why this is a classic book.

I’m really glad that I read the book in this format. The illustrations by Fido Nesti actually add a lot to the story. There is an overarching red coloring throughout the entire book that is kind of mixed with grey / beige and black and the entire thing together makes it all feel menacing and also bland and hopeless.