Lord of the Flies
Ratings1,900
Average rating3.6
HOLY F*CK, this book is disturbing yet it was a good read; a must-read classic!
I thought I wouldn't connect to any of the characters, but I was wrong! Ralph was a born-to-be leader, brave chief that only had one goal in mind shared with Piggy: to be rescued from the island. I wish we got to know more about Simon because man hE IS PRECIOUS. RIP to Simon and Piggy. They didn't deserve to die at all. I'm not even going to talk about Jack. No.
“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”
To be honest, the beginning was a bit boring, and there were times where the dialogue gets confusing. Other than those, the story was well-written!
Had a profound and influential effect on me when I read this in my teens. What more can one want from a book?
⭐⭐
Not a book for me and not one I would recommend. It didn't hold my interest, and probably felt more of a chore to get through. Not completely terrible, but I didn't have a good experience. This book was an enjoyable read, but there are several things I wish were done differently.
I read this novel in high school and later in college, as many kids did. It's considered a classic for good reason. It's a well-crafted allegory with beautifully descriptive passages. But would I get much out of rereading a novel for a third time as a well-read, literary-critical adult? It turns out, I did. For this review, I listened to the audiobook version as read by the author, William Golding, which I will discuss at the end of this review.
Before reading this novel again, I read The Coral Island, the novel William Golding claimed to write Lord of the Flies as a counterpoint to. Both books have the similarly named Jack, Ralph and Peterkin / Piggy main characters, but Lord of the Flies has additional cast members in Simon, Roger, and more. Both books, at their core, are about boys stranded on an island without adults around to take care of them.
The narrator of Lord of the Flies tells the lost boys' story vividly and, at times, poetically, yet keeps an emotional distance from the boys, never eliciting empathy or affection for them or their dilemma. Golding explains before starting his story that these boys represent scaled-down society and, if left to their own devices, would reduce their company to all-out anarchy. This is where Golding's genius lies: creating a premise to contemplate where evil instigates. Golding demonstrates that the disregard of rules and order is what nurtures evil, and it's hard not to disagree with Golding because of the way he structures his story with these three particular fetid protagonists.
Ralph is not an empathetic character, as demonstrated by his disregard of Piggy's feelings throughout the novel, only to have the tiniest bit of remorse for Piggy when it's too late. Jack's self-esteem is so low that he props up his toxic masculinity with bold promises of hunt kills and other threats of violence. Even Piggy's sniveling and hurt feelings are tossed to the side because of his brazen toadiness. It was plain to see from the start of the novel where it was going with these three malcontents leading the stranded children. There was no chance for a positive coexistence on the island without the moral compass of grownups or adults around to steer them right.
But unlike The Coral Island's slow first half of pastoral observations of the island (there were a couple of natural disasters those three boys easily overcame), Golding wasted no time after the first chapter wallowing in detailed observations of nature. He quickly jumped into the meat of his narrative, dissecting the boys interactions with his keen eye, their one-upmanship on full display, their decisions based on hurt feelings and wounded pride. The economy of Golding's storytelling was a marvel and his ability to create some truly beautiful sentences was astounding. By the time the story abruptly stopped, my mind was racing with the possibility of redemption for these terrible boys, these little lords of corruption.
Finally, the narrator for this book–the author himself, William Golding–was excellent. In fact, his narration was one of my favorite parts. He made practically no effort to discern between the boys with character voices or tonal inflections. He read the story straight and let the writing stand for itself. His crotchety, British accent gave his reading a gravelly quality and I quite enjoyed his coarseness as well as his thoughts about the story at the beginning and end of the reading. Golding was a great choice for narrator for this great book.
One of those books I read over and over again! When we were assigned it in school, I read ahead because I couldn't stop myself. An amazing look at what makes us human and what truly makes us ‘civilized'. EVERYONE should read this, no matter what gender/culture. It makes one wonder what they would be like if they were thrown into a similar situation. You look into yourself, and sometimes it's terrifying what you see.
Read in school years ago and studied it. It made quite an impression. Re-read it several times over the years and as I get older I see different dimensions in the dynamics, perceptions and personalities.
I read this for school many years ago and I cannot give it a proper rating because I do not remember all of it, but I do remember that I enjoyed it.
One of the best books, even if also one of the scariest, that I ever read and had children in it.
Weird. Grossly inappropriate to make kids and teens read in school. Joyfully wallows in toxic masculinity
This I thought was an interesting story but my favorite part was the ending ( and not because it ended!) We have some boys that crashed landed on an island and have to survive. They have everything they need to live and there are no terrors or beast on the island except for themselves. This is a combination of things I like; The first being little boys with an imagination trying to form a society. I remember doing this as a kid by either playing survival games or even house where everyone has a role but also want to have fun and do their own thing. You can break away from these games and I think that's what some of the boys think it is because they can't break out of what has happened and may loose themselves in imagination. The second thing is that this book has a very powerful commentary and ideas about human nature and law. I was interested basically the whole book, I think I might have liked it better if I read it instead of listening to an audio book of it. The audio book was fine, It was read by the author which was cool. He would read it pretty calmly and I think that kinda took away from the dramatic moments. He did talk about his work and I enjoyed hearing his thoughts to the reactions of the book and the questions people would ask.
This was a dark read and I really did enjoy it!
My favorite part was the ending. [ When the boys see officer (basically the boys are at war in this part and the officer is also in a war. So in a way, what is the difference between savages and civilized world when there is still violence? ) they do end up getting rescued. This should be the happy ending to the book but all the kids are sobbing on the beach. This is the part that gave me chills. (hide spoiler)] ~Ashley
wayyy better on the re-read. i'm glad i didn't understand anything too deeply when I read this in school - it's quite dark
If you’re a fan of Lord of the Flies and also love animations like I do, I’d strongly recommend “Primal”. Both this book and the show are amazing.
the beginning is very slow, yet still very crucial. the second half races to catch up, but instead of losing you, it grabs you and pulls you along with it. even if this felt like half "Lost" and half absolute nightmare, i still enjoyed this very much.
“Después de todo, no somos salvajes. Somos ingleses”. Frena un poco Jack que esta frase envejece bastante mal
I am giving this book 5 stars, despite being sooo near DNF-ing it. Again. (I know that's a sin to say).
I started reading Lord of the Flies some two years ago, and I quite quickly DNF-ed it... But I knew I had to come back to it at a later date. The themes on human psychology just seemed too exciting. So I was a bit more prepared this time. I knew it was suuuuperslow in the beginning. But I didn't think it would be as slow as it actually was.
I have some words on the writing:
I just don't think me and William Golding vibe very well together. I could read a paragraph several times, and still don't understand anything. And I feel like this type of writing weirdly reminded me a bit of Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor...? Which I had to force myself to read through 6 months.. I don't know why it reminded me of Strange the Dreamer, but maybe some of the descriptions of the island made me remember the “dreamy”, almost “uneasy” feeling I got from Laini Taylor as well. Now that I'm thinking of it, maybe this was exactly what Golding wanted, though. To give the reader this sense of stress that something awful was going to happen. So maybe I actually like his writing after all?
The last couple chapters were the best, in my opinion. But there were a lot of important scenes earlier in the book as well, contributing to the angst in the end. I had to put down the book a little bit during the end chapters, because I was afraid that I might get a heart attack or something from how hard it was beating.
This is just a ruthless story. That's how I have to describe it. And it scares me that I could've been any one of these boys, if I were stranded on an island like them.
Actually, I think I like Goldings writing after all.
Lord of the Flies was on the list of “suggested reading” for Leaving Cert students in Ireland circa 1986. I didn't like the sound of it, and decided to read Animal Farm, and something by Evelyn Waugh instead. (There, you see, it's not all crime thrillers with me.)
I'm glad I decided to swerve this one back then, I think it might have traumatised me a little.
As an adult I found it quite a disturbing read. How quickly things changed on that island. How quickly the rule book was torn up, and children became savages.
Teenaged me would have felt a lot of empathy for Piggy. Adult me was shocked at the treatment of Piggy, though I'm not sure why. I'm not so naive I don't realise that children are perfectly capable of extreme acts of violence.
Adult me appreciated this book much more than teenaged me would've done. Adult me also thinks if they'd put Stephen King on the “suggested reading” list, I might have had a better result in Leaving Cert English.
ça va je l'ai pas lu trop vite c'est cool
je pense que c'est un des meilleurs livres que j'ai lu récemment (depuis Le Sud de Luis Borges au moooins)
super
jai bcp aimé
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Summary: A ship full of boys crashed on an island, leaving them stranded with no adult supervision. The boys start creating their own society and government, but they don't foresee the sinister possibilities for the ways this society could turn out.
“Tenéis que daros cuenta que el miedo no os puede hacer más daño que un sueño.”