A Sort-Of Review
By Molly Drummond / Spinebreakers Crew
Before I start, I’m going to tell you now. I didn’t finish Nineteen Eighty-Four. I couldn’t, to be honest. Not because it was boring, or I ran out of time, or my house was burned down or I lost it, or anything. It was actually because I just couldn’t read it anymore. I will finish it one day, so I guess this should have a Part One on the end of it. So…
When I read Nineteen Eighty-Four, around a year ago, I had High Hopes for it, having read Animal Farm when I was twelve and (after finally bidding farewell to the Kleenexes) thinking it was brilliant. And I’m not even into that kind of dystopian genre stuff. I usually think it’s a bit daft. But, anyway, I started it and was hooked immediately. Occasionally I would leave it a little too long and have to start the odd chapter again, but it was well on its way to becoming a book I would recommend at any opportunity.
I thought it was funny in places, almost always creepy, great descriptions and clever as well. The characters were brilliantly described and… basically it was a great book. I got up to the part where he joins (I can’t remember the proper name) the people trying to overthrow Big Brother, and then I had to put it down, because I really, really didn’t want Winston to get caught. And I knew he would. You can thank school textbooks for that. They had an excerpt in from Nineteen Eighty-Four and I always remember these things because I really don’t want to remember them. It makes them stick in your mind. It doesn’t help that I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Nasty Rat Descriptions. But I’m definitely going to finish it. Someday.