Fahrenheit 451 Review
Guy Montag is the average firefighter and citizen. As a fireman in a society that embraces technology and repels literature, his job is to burn books and the places in which they are found. As a model citizen, he never questions this. Day after day, he repeats the destruction and then returns home to his dull wife who spends all of her time with her T.V. 'family'. When he meets a new neighbor, though, his perspective starts to change. He begins to see the value of books and questions everything after a few mysterious events.
Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Let's begin:
When one of my old teachers lent this book to me, I was very excited. She gave me quite a few classic books to read, but this was the one that sounded the best to me. I mean, how can something that highlights the value of one of my favorite things in the world- books- go wrong, right? Since my life essentially revolves around books, this novel practically validates my life. I could not wait to read a book that would portray the thoughts I have about books that I cannot properly express myself.
I was very disappointed with this in the end, though. *cue a bunch of angry book dragons* I know, I know. This is an extremely popular book beloved by many book dragons out there, and I can understand why the concept is so adored. I did like the concept myself. It was my favorite part of the whole thing. Sadly, I think that people may be overlooking all of the pretty major flaws to this novel because the concept is so loved. In fact, this book is lacking in almost everything necessary for me to become invested in the read. Now, let me explain myself before you start judging me.
One of the major flaws that I just couldn't get past was the world-building. There was hardly any and what was there, in my opinion, was pretty poor. I found myself getting very confused. I could not understand how the world worked besides the obvious 'technology good, books bad' aspect. The wife's T.V. 'family' made no sense to me and there were many other aspects that were mentioned but never actually explained. This resulted in me being detached from the book and the world right away.
Next would be the lack of characterization and character development. The only character readers really get to know is Guy, and I still did not feel much of a connection to him. All of the other characters are stagnant. They don't change at all and readers basically know nothing about them except that they mindlessly follow the rules of this nightmarish dystopia. Due to this, I had a hard time understanding some of their actions. For instance, the whole situation with Beatty that occurs in the later portion of the book (I will not say more so as to avoid spoilers) made minimal sense because I do not know enough about Beatty to get a proper understanding of his actions.
This next aspect is something that is personal preference. Everyone enjoys different writing styles. The style of this one simply didn't suit my personal taste. I felt like there should have been more descriptions and the ones already in the novel should have been more vivid. I thought the language used was kind of bland which resulted in me getting bored. For a fairly short book, I got distracted a lot. I kept noticing that my mind was wandering and I did not remember anything that I had just read because I was bored. It got so bad, in fact, that I gave up rereading towards the end. Some things also did not make sense to me potentially because of the writing being sort of disjointed and separated in a funky way.
The saddest part about this read is that I felt nothing. Forget about the desired physical reactions- I didn't even have a mental reaction. There was no horror or sadness or intrigue anywhere. As a major book lover (like I said, my life basically revolves around them), I expected to feel horrified at the mere idea of a book being burned. Instead, I felt nothing. I got more feeling from realizing the lack of feeling while reading than I did from the actual book.
Overall, I was expecting a lot more from a book that is so revered amongst people that love literature. I was disappointed to find a great concept with not much to back it up. The idea behind the book is fantastic in a horrifying kind of way, but the execution was dismal. I am definitely in the minority with this opinion, though, so maybe it's just me. Please feel free to let me know if you think I am missing something. I would really like to understand what the majority of people see in this book besides the concept that I'm just not.
Rating: 1.5/5 stars
Author: Ray Bradbury
# of Pages: 256
Genre: Classic, Science Fiction, Dystopia
Series: Standalone
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