Scan barcode
A review by afrathefish
Julia by Sandra Newman
2.0
the biggest letdown of the decade, and it’s astounding to me that the orwell estate allowed this to get published.
this is just a tumblr 1984 julia x OC AU fic under the tags nympho, feminism slay, be gay do crime, exhibitionism, surprise pregnancy and general shenanigans. like i’m struggling to believe this is an actual piece of work. and what a waste of such a marvellous premise. no direct spoilers, but i’m frankly astounded, the level of creative liberties this story took away from the original work. and i know that’s how retellings are meant to work. it just feels like in this case, the liberties taken wipe away several of the core messages in the original book.
there were some positives. while she doesn’t quite manage it entirely, newman attempts to parallel orwell’s sardonic, drab but engaging tone in 1984, and while a lot of the story falls apart at its seams, the quality of the writing is rather high. it doesn’t sound like orwell, but it does sound like an AI attempted to replicate orwell and credit is given where credit is due because yeah. it wasn’t bad at all. also newman’s attempts at adding more breadth to the variety of experiences to this world was quite good. the original book fails to consider how totalitarianism affects anyone that is not a middle class man. winston, for all his whims, is just a man who is hardly the most oppressed in his world, yet through the narrative of 1984 you’d think he hit the bottom rung of society, with the level of self victimisation you see. oh your thoughts are being monitored?? so is everyone else ?? very resemblant of men of that calibre today, actually. and so the thought into how existence under the party would affect people of different backgrounds, and how vastly different the female experience would be under that was somewhat well thought out. in some cases, the argument for sex being an act of resistance was also not badly explored. making julia bi was also a choice, and had it been done thoughtfully, would’ve been a wonderful adaption that would have made perfect sense. there were also moments from the book that had been re interpreted quite well. the whole i love you note, the twist with julia and o’brien. quite splendid. also the portrayal of her relationship with winston was … it validated my understanding that orwell’s portrayal of their relationship was very straight man esque. however, the shift between them meeting and them falling in love made no sense and came out of nowhere. they had the chemistry of a rat chewing through rock. like it gets several things right, but because i can’t get over the fuck ups, as few and far between as they are, i’ve been left so disappointed.
the rest, the rest read like very well done fanfiction. a lot of the creative liberties taken in this story genuinely delineates from the original work so much that it’s hard to actually respect it and see it as a “female centering” and “empowering” narrative. firstly, the use of capitalist, socialist and communist was so fucking dumb. it’s clear in 1984 such terms were omitted, and while it’s no secret that 1984 was orwell’s vessel to vent his criticisms of his experience of the left, anyone with half a critical brain can see how a lot of the inspiration behind the workings of “the party” come from notions of the far right. and so when this novel chooses to consider the party to be communist in nature, so much of the ingenuity of the original work is not only discarded, but frankly spat on. it just repeats the same dumb red scare shit you see everywhere, and seeing it done in this novel is just ?? insulting. like the glorification of capitalism ?? none of it really makes sense if i’m honest. also the additions newman chooses to add removes the continuity and the attempts to parallel 1984 directly. the book mentions AI. that sort of shit seems futuristic for us in 2024. it took me out entirely when i was expected to believe this mirror’s orwell’s timeline of the events of this book occurring in 1984, yet had random shit from comtemporary times. there was a level of genius needed to make this novel work properly, and i don’t think newman was that.
other points of the retelling just felt fucking dumb. some re interpretations were thought well, the others were just through the lense of sex and torture and humiliation. and i’m so tired of the tortured female MC in ‘feminist retellings’. i understand it may have been appropriate in this context, but again if it had been refined a little more, such experiences could have been portrayed in a way it had much more impact. the pregnancy shit just pissed me off.
julia’s character somehow also feels quite shallow. she likes sex . she sleeps with people. she doesn’t like the party. oh, did i mention? she likes sex. like that’s the book. it’s nice seeing a degree of female cameraderie in the book, like that’s done well. but it’s hardly worth a standing ovation. she’s not written badly, but she hardly lacks nuance and her portrayal from 1984 is barely expanded on, except for the fact that it goes into more of her breadth of experience. i was expecting to see her mastery, her cunning, and while you see some of it, i think it could have been expanded on further. also im so sorry but the vibes were giving like … im outraged abt barbie noms over genocide that is happening. don’t ask me to explain. also can we have more to female liberation than “and then she was free to fuck!!”. PLEASE. this book does do more than that, but doesn’t expand outside of sex enough for me to consider it to be anything else.
moreover, the last 40 pages of this book actually made very little sense and felt like a fever dream. i get it was supposed to provide a little hope and contrast against the ending of 1984, but that could have happened in any other way than the way it chose to go down. it made no sense and just felt like the author was throwing shit at a wall to see what stuck, but ended up keeping all the shit. it’s nonsensical and ridiculous and honestly??? imho a blatant rip off of the ending of mockingjay from the hunger games.
i just cannot reconcile what i’ve read as a orwell-approved (via his estate) retelling of the original work. it has strong points. but it genuinely read like fanfiction. and because it didn’t have any of the tropes or any of the ships i enjoy, and some of the liberties used in this book actually proactively take away from the meaning of the main book, it wasn’t a fun time.
this is just a tumblr 1984 julia x OC AU fic under the tags nympho, feminism slay, be gay do crime, exhibitionism, surprise pregnancy and general shenanigans. like i’m struggling to believe this is an actual piece of work. and what a waste of such a marvellous premise. no direct spoilers, but i’m frankly astounded, the level of creative liberties this story took away from the original work. and i know that’s how retellings are meant to work. it just feels like in this case, the liberties taken wipe away several of the core messages in the original book.
there were some positives. while she doesn’t quite manage it entirely, newman attempts to parallel orwell’s sardonic, drab but engaging tone in 1984, and while a lot of the story falls apart at its seams, the quality of the writing is rather high. it doesn’t sound like orwell, but it does sound like an AI attempted to replicate orwell and credit is given where credit is due because yeah. it wasn’t bad at all. also newman’s attempts at adding more breadth to the variety of experiences to this world was quite good. the original book fails to consider how totalitarianism affects anyone that is not a middle class man. winston, for all his whims, is just a man who is hardly the most oppressed in his world, yet through the narrative of 1984 you’d think he hit the bottom rung of society, with the level of self victimisation you see. oh your thoughts are being monitored?? so is everyone else ?? very resemblant of men of that calibre today, actually. and so the thought into how existence under the party would affect people of different backgrounds, and how vastly different the female experience would be under that was somewhat well thought out. in some cases, the argument for sex being an act of resistance was also not badly explored. making julia bi was also a choice, and had it been done thoughtfully, would’ve been a wonderful adaption that would have made perfect sense. there were also moments from the book that had been re interpreted quite well. the whole i love you note, the twist with julia and o’brien. quite splendid. also the portrayal of her relationship with winston was … it validated my understanding that orwell’s portrayal of their relationship was very straight man esque. however, the shift between them meeting and them falling in love made no sense and came out of nowhere. they had the chemistry of a rat chewing through rock. like it gets several things right, but because i can’t get over the fuck ups, as few and far between as they are, i’ve been left so disappointed.
the rest, the rest read like very well done fanfiction. a lot of the creative liberties taken in this story genuinely delineates from the original work so much that it’s hard to actually respect it and see it as a “female centering” and “empowering” narrative. firstly, the use of capitalist, socialist and communist was so fucking dumb. it’s clear in 1984 such terms were omitted, and while it’s no secret that 1984 was orwell’s vessel to vent his criticisms of his experience of the left, anyone with half a critical brain can see how a lot of the inspiration behind the workings of “the party” come from notions of the far right. and so when this novel chooses to consider the party to be communist in nature, so much of the ingenuity of the original work is not only discarded, but frankly spat on. it just repeats the same dumb red scare shit you see everywhere, and seeing it done in this novel is just ?? insulting. like the glorification of capitalism ?? none of it really makes sense if i’m honest. also the additions newman chooses to add removes the continuity and the attempts to parallel 1984 directly. the book mentions AI. that sort of shit seems futuristic for us in 2024. it took me out entirely when i was expected to believe this mirror’s orwell’s timeline of the events of this book occurring in 1984, yet had random shit from comtemporary times. there was a level of genius needed to make this novel work properly, and i don’t think newman was that.
other points of the retelling just felt fucking dumb. some re interpretations were thought well, the others were just through the lense of sex and torture and humiliation. and i’m so tired of the tortured female MC in ‘feminist retellings’. i understand it may have been appropriate in this context, but again if it had been refined a little more, such experiences could have been portrayed in a way it had much more impact. the pregnancy shit just pissed me off.
julia’s character somehow also feels quite shallow. she likes sex . she sleeps with people. she doesn’t like the party. oh, did i mention? she likes sex. like that’s the book. it’s nice seeing a degree of female cameraderie in the book, like that’s done well. but it’s hardly worth a standing ovation. she’s not written badly, but she hardly lacks nuance and her portrayal from 1984 is barely expanded on, except for the fact that it goes into more of her breadth of experience. i was expecting to see her mastery, her cunning, and while you see some of it, i think it could have been expanded on further. also im so sorry but the vibes were giving like … im outraged abt barbie noms over genocide that is happening. don’t ask me to explain. also can we have more to female liberation than “and then she was free to fuck!!”. PLEASE. this book does do more than that, but doesn’t expand outside of sex enough for me to consider it to be anything else.
moreover, the last 40 pages of this book actually made very little sense and felt like a fever dream. i get it was supposed to provide a little hope and contrast against the ending of 1984, but that could have happened in any other way than the way it chose to go down. it made no sense and just felt like the author was throwing shit at a wall to see what stuck, but ended up keeping all the shit. it’s nonsensical and ridiculous and honestly??? imho a blatant rip off of the ending of mockingjay from the hunger games.
i just cannot reconcile what i’ve read as a orwell-approved (via his estate) retelling of the original work. it has strong points. but it genuinely read like fanfiction. and because it didn’t have any of the tropes or any of the ships i enjoy, and some of the liberties used in this book actually proactively take away from the meaning of the main book, it wasn’t a fun time.