High-Rise

I like this audiobook, it was narrated by the actor Tom Hiddleston on Audible, I can fall asleep to him narrating anything.
Tom Hiddleston is in the film, that's based on the adaptation of this book & Audiobook.
The film based on the book is also good as well.
I like the absurd behaviour of the people living in the apartment complex in the book & film adaption.

I think it would be better as a movie, tbh. Usually I prefer the source material, but the book just didn't grab me like I hoped

4.5 Stars

first page of this is a masterclass in storytelling, so compelling. i'll have to chew more on the final takeaway but i really liked the way the book feels like an extended thought experiment. to me it doesn't feel like a matter of “agreeing” with the premise or not. i don't know if ballard does and it doesn't matter to me. i really liked the exploration aspect of it. 

ballard's language is very dense - there's a lot packed in every sentence. for a barely 200-page book it's not a particularly fast read, but that's okay because you want to spend time with the words. i see people's complaints about there not being enough motivation for the characters but in such a “concept-book” i actually don't mind it and might prefer just fully going along with the restrained narration. in a way it feels fitting, that there is very little motivation except a drive that the characters themselves don't really understand (or just think they do). same goes for the “lack of realism”. feel like if you're going into this expecting it to be fully realistic you won't have a good time indeed. but if you're willing to enter the world of the high-rise and understand that it is the only world there is for the time being this is very captivating read. 

A disturbing novel set in a recently developed high-rise apartment building. I should have been prepared for a wild ride when the first sentence of the books starts with “Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog...”. Such a lot of social commentary and satire embedded in this intricate novel. Not a fun read but I'm certainly glad I read it. I'm keen to explore more of Ballard's writing.

0.5

What had begun as a harmless piece of vanity - an ironic joke at his own expense - had soon taken on a more serious role, a visible index of his success or failure.

The “thin veneer of civilization” to be sure.

OMFG!

I found elements unrealistic, but I enjoyed it more as the book went on.

My first foray into Ballard, which is probably ridiculously long overdue.

So. Yeah. Privileged rich people in a big building go Lord of the Flies, but it's quite absurdist. No one is poor, just varied levels of wealthy. And with all the tech at their disposal, they all go slowly mad until they are warring with each other and destroying everything in the building. The devolve each of them into something bestial and crude.

I don't find this story to be viable, but if I liked it more, liked the characters more, I could suspend my disbelief.

The movie doesn't help the situation. I thought the cast was distracting. And all I could picture WAS the cast throughout this book.

Not my favorite, but because Ballard is important, and I loved the movie ‘Empire of the Sun,' this will not be my last.

This was similar in a lot of ways to the movie Snowpiercer. I did like this book better than that, but still not my favorite. It's another ‘humanity is the worst' kind of story, which there are many of. 3 out of 5 because I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but I would find it hard to recommend to others or ever read again.