Julia

Eagerly anticipating the release of “Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell's 1984,” I was thrilled by the prospect of revisiting the dystopian world through the eyes of Julia, a character whose enigmatic presence in Orwell's masterpiece had always intrigued me. While the idea of expanding upon Orwell's universe was enticing, the realization that the book was commissioned by Orwell's estate dampened my enthusiasm. It was hard to ignore the potential for commercial motives to overshadow the creative integrity of the project.

Upon reading the novel, my initial apprehension proved to be well-founded. The narrative lacked the captivating prose and thought-provoking depth that characterized Orwell's original work. The author's attempt to flesh out Julia's character fell short, failing to capture the essence of her complexities and motivations. Additionally, the plot deviated from the established canon of 1984, introducing inconsistencies and undermining the cohesiveness of the story.

While I commend the author's endeavor to explore Julia's perspective, the execution ultimately failed to live up to the promise of the premise. For those seeking a profound and immersive exploration of the themes raised in 1984, Orwell's original masterpiece remains the definitive text.

Never before had I read anything by author Sandra Newman. Actually, I've only heard about her because of "Julia", which I knew was going to be a story set in the same universe of Orwell's "1984", telling us what happens from the point of view of Winston Smith's love interest in the original story.

But Sandra Newman was so brilliant because she gives us much more than that. She ably describes Julia to us and how rich her own world is — her friends, her job, her problems, conflicts and decisions —, so much so that we can at the same time identify the key moments from the original story and the new ones, and thanks for that, because this new "1984" perspective is so entertaining and so deep in itself, so creative to the point of making "Julia" unputdownable to me. The book trespasses the original boundaries of Orwell and gets a very fine ending, a surprising one, to say the least.

I'm so very glad I've had the opportunity to read "Julia", and now can barely wait to read more from Sandra Newman. Totally recommend this if you like dystopias and "1984".

Adds an interesting dimension to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, but I kept wondering if it's more than fan fiction here. Tends to read rather slowly in the first half, but picks up toward the end as you increasingly anticipate the climax you already know about from the original novel. It was kind of fun to live in Orwell's world again; recurring high points of Newman's story are the passages that parallel scenes from Orwell's—it was fun to see the same lines delivered from this other perspective, and felt like I was traveling along this other narrative thread that wove in and out with Orwell's from time to time.