Okay, um... wow. Was not expecting that to pack the punch it did.



Or rather, I was really hoping it would, and I was not let down.

Having read so many YA dystopian books - some good, some not so good - it was refreshing to go back to the roots of the genre. Rather than a Girl Who Is Different From Other Girls who is able to Overthrow The Repressive Government Using Her Super Skills Of Being A Good And Moral Person, we met Joe Bloggs - who, in this instance, is called Winston Smith. He's your average, dull person, and that's what makes this book so chilling. Unlike all those YA books, its purpose is not to empower you and make you feel like You Could Be Katniss Too. We can all identify at least something with Winston, and we feel everything he does.

As well as being essentially an essay on politics and sociology, it's an essay on human nature. The things we will and will not do, the things we're afraid of, the things we're willing to fight for, and how far (in this case, there being a limit) we're willing to go for them. How easily we believe things, forget things, persuade ourselves that something is true or not true. And honestly, that is the most terrifying thing about this book.