One of the original dystopians, Brave New World starts off incredibly strong, with great world-building and creative construction. However, I think it suffers somewhat from the current existence of the wave of dystopian novels that came out at the beginning of the millennium. It would have hit a lot harder and been much more immersive had I read it prior to 2000.

The concepts are clearly visionary, given that the book was written in 1932, and there are many good and valid points made regarding human nature, civilization, and society. The writing does demonstrate some failure to age gracefully, as it is laden with racist terms and ideas. These moments tended to rub me the wrong way and pull me out of the story as they can be quite particularly cringeworthy.

The ending is poignant and thought-provoking. This presence of so much information and discussion that made me consider thoughts and ideas beyond the pages was ultimately what gave this read a little weight and made me bump my rating from a 3 to a 4.