This was a very interesting read. It’s years since I read 1984, however I can remember what happens ,it’s one of those books that stays with you.This is told from Julia’s point of view . The author sticks to the story very well but there are very violent scenes in this version , some that I can’t seem to get out of my head. It also has very graphic sex scenes as well , for what reason I seem to be unsure. This is a feminist retelling which I thought worked very well, Julia has a voice and we learn so much about her background and what it was like to be a woman under Big Brother. All the original characters are present, Winston ,O’Brien , the thought police etc., but Julia has main stage. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it but I didn’t really enjoy 1984, However the author does make it real and therefore so scary and depressing.The ending is different and gives food for thought.

I hadn't read 1984 since I was a young teenager, and probably far too young to appreciate it, so I re-read it just before reading this book.

I'm glad that I did as there were a lot of subtle links between the two books, often with the more minor characters, that I appreciated a lot.

With both books, I much preferred the first half of the book where we were learning about life in Airstrip One, before we got to the Ministry of Love.

I've read that some people felt that the prose and ideas in this novel didn't compare to the original, but I found the ideas quite refreshing and interesting. I don't suppose much would live up to a classic like 1984, but I didn't notice any glaring deficiencies in style or content.

PERFECT.

Julia is a reimagining of 1984 had it been written in Julia's perspective.

This gives such a great deep look the opression of women in the big brother government I think I might have loved this even more than 1984!

Julia was such an interesting character to read of, and you'll find that Newman did AN EXCELLENT job of understanding and developing her character.

An interesting take on 1984 from the perspective of Julia. It gave life to other characters in the tale and expanded upon the world of 1984 well. A captivating read.

Having loved the first book I really enjoyed this different perspective! It really opens out the brutality of totalitarianism.

An intriguing premise and easy to read. Enjoyed the witty writing which brought the characters and story to life.

Julia by Sandra Newman is a brilliant and thought-provoking retelling of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984. Newman takes us on a journey through the eyes of Julia, Winston Smith's lover, offering a unique and feminist perspective on the horrors of totalitarianism. Enjoy is probably the wrong word to use about a novel of this kind, especially one that takes us into the heart of Room 101.

Newman has a strong writing style and I warmed to Julia as a character. She’s a survivor, fiercely independent and determined to live her life on her own terms, even in the face of overwhelming oppression. Julia is complex and compelling, deeply flawed but resilient. The novel has an ending point that feels satisfying but the narrative continues and goes somewhere even more surprising. It’s a thought-provoking and challenging read. I highly recommend Julia.

Told from the view point of 1984 character, Julia Worthing, Newman’s feminist retelling is brutal and clever. I love the author’s spin on Orwell’s work, focusing on themes that affect the women of Oceania but would not have directly affected the original novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith. I like the way she fleshes out the story and extends past the bounds of the original story to tell a compelling new narrative of her own. For fans of 1984, or for new readers looking for a female led dystopia. A word of caution, it is definitely not for the faint hearted, with heavy themes and distressing scenes.

It’s been a while since I read 1984 but for like so many others, it was a truly seminal book for me that shaped my reading taste. As soon as I heard this was going to be a release, I knew I had to request it. I thought this book was great, albeit a little slow in places but I think overall it it’s a great new take on the dystopian world Orwell created whilst honouring the original work.

I cant remember a lot of detail from my first reading of 1984 some 20 years ago, so my opinion only hinges lightly on my very positive memories of that reading.

I think a female perspective that allows us to consider male focussed modern classics from the female experence is always appealing to me. I thought Julia was an intruiging character, with progressive perspectives in some ways that only works because the novel is set in a dystopian world that we didnt know in detail for how it impacted women.

Amongst all of that is the still very important messages from 1984, which hit even harder as I feel like we're not much further from the contemporary issues Orwell was considering then.

I think you can enjoy this book without reading 1984 as Sandra Newman has wrote a novel with tension, questions about authority, society, freedom, war and peace, language and the female place in the world. I will be re-reading 1984 and is a classic for a reason and I love that this book helps us to explore Orwell's ideas from another perspective.

Julia by Sandra Newman is a novel that reimagines George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel, 1984. The story is told from the perspective of Julia Worthing, the love interest of the protagonist, Winston Smith. Newman’s novel is a feminist critique of Orwell’s work and explores the role of women in a totalitarian society.
The novel takes place in an imagined future where the world is in perpetual war. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, has become a province of the totalitarian superstate Oceania, which is led by Big Brother, a dictatorial leader supported by an intense cult of personality manufactured by the Party’s Thought Police. The Party engages in omnipresent government surveillance and propaganda to persecute individuality and independent thinking.
Newman turns Orwell’s classic vision of the future inside out, and readers will find themselves gripped and surprised by what happens when the object of Winston Smith’s gaze looks back, and retells their journey into love and resistance. The portrait of Julia’s childhood brings the reader to a deeper understanding of her gritty focus on survival.
As she probes his vision and moves beyond it, Newman provides an imaginative critique of Orwell’s novel. At the dormitory hostel where she lives, Julia’s connections with other women are revealed. These intimate relationships become the beating heart of the novel, and demonstrate how women’s lives under this totalitarian state inevitably differ from men’s at every point.
In summary, Julia is a vibrant retelling of 1984 that offers a fresh perspective on Orwell’s classic work. It is a feminist critique that explores how women’s lives differ from men’s under totalitarianism.

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC

#julia #sandranewton #1984 #George Orwell #Oceania #airstripone # totalitarian #dystopian #sciencefiction #fiction #doublethink #bigbrother #winstonsmith #grantapublications

As the copyright for Orwell's cannon dystopian novel lapses, Sandra Newman presents us with a fresh persepctive. That of Julia, Winston's love interest in the original novel. Used as little more than a cypher and bit of titillation by Orwell, it is refreshing to see her imbued with a life and a mind of her own. It's a welcome tonic for the uncomfortable attitudes towards her in 1984 (let's never forget Winston's professed desire to murder her!).

Where it works well Newman provides a new understanding of the original novel, creating reasons and motivations for things that go unexplained in the original. The she builds on the world that Orwell created in a way that makes it more grounded and more real, more insight into people's lives and situations beyond the rather limited perspective provided by Orwell's narrative. Julia herself is a nice creation, full of life and less ground down that the lacklustre Winston.

Where it works less well are the long passages that are taken almost entirely from the original. Its bogs the narrative down and jars with Newman's own style, the effect is two conflicting voices rather than one harmonious story. Some of the additions or reinterpretations of 1984 work well, but others are less convincing, particularly the end. If there is one part of Orwell's work that should not be tinkered with, it is the end so the extension of Newman's version beyond that devastating final moment falls flat and feels slightly tawdry. And for a feminist retelling there's an attitude towards motherhood as a prime female motivator that is dated.

I’d read another novel based on Julia’s perspective in Orwell’s 1984 last year and enjoyed it, but this one trumped it! Sandra Newman’s version perfectly echoed the discomfort of the original novel while giving Julia a 3-dimensional, morally ambiguous character. A lot of it made me squirm with unease, but that’s exactly what you want from a good dystopian tale (my favourite kind of tale!).

It's decades since I read 1984. I was really looking forward to reading this new take on it. I didn't enjoy it, at all. I found it dry, slow and dull. Sorry.

"London, chief city of Airstrip One, the third most populous province of Oceania. It's 1984 and Julia Worthing works as a mechanic fixing the novel-writing machines in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. Under the ideology of IngSoc and the rule of the Party and its leader Big Brother, Julia is a model citizen - cheerfully cynical, believing in nothing and caring not at all about politics. She knows how to survive in a world of constant surveillance, Thought Police, Newspeak, Doublethink, child spies and the black markets of the prole neighbourhoods. She's very good at staying alive."


To be honest, when I first heard about 'Julia' I wondered if we really needed a re-telling of "!984", but I was intrigued enough to read it, and I'm glad I did.The story is told this time from the point of view of Winston Smith's lover Julia, and their relationship given a new twist.

While outwardly following the rules laid down by Big Brother and the Party, following the dull, regimented life expected of lower Party members, Julia has found ways to sidestep the regulations and live a slightly fuller life - or so she thinks. Big Brother has eyes everywhere, Julia's activities have been noted, and she finds herself drawn into a plot against Smith.

Newman has managed to catch Orwell's writing style, cleverly twining a new story around the original, and incorporating much of his dialogue. If anything the dreariness of existence under Big Brother's regime seems more overwhelming - perhaps because Julia desires more from life than Winston does. Unqualified support of the Party is necessary, sex and marriage are frowned on, and entertainment consists mainly of meetings given over to Party propaganda and the occasional game of table tennis. Being selected as part of a conspiracy plays into Julia's craving for excitement, but she isn't as essential as she feels; in fact she's merely being manipulated along with everyone else.

To say I 'enjoyed' this is maybe not the accurate word - it's a story about living without hope and with no real prospect of any in the future - but it's a powerful read. A word of warning - there are disturbing torture scenes, and explicit sex scenes.

Out of curiosity, I decided to reread "1984" immediately afterward, and actually found "Julia" the better of the two. Maybe it speaks more directly to me as a woman, but it benefits, I feel, from losing the long chapters of Goldstein's subversive text and the torture scenes which go on for far too long. In Julia they're short and sharp, but lose none of their terror.

Also, when your lover has betrayed you rather than face a couple of rats, what do you do? Julia's way is gruesome, if not sickening, but definitely effective. Proving once again that the female of her species is more deadly than the male

It's been years and years since I last read 1984 and, to be honest, I'd completely forgotten about the character of Julia. Newman has put flesh on her bones and turned the classic not on its head exactly but sideways by making Julia the centerpiece of the story. This felt less urgent than the original even given the state of the world today but that's probably the effect of having read many other novels in this genre. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Interesting and provocative.

I've not read 1984 so I hadn't got any pre conceived ideas about this book.
It's a brilliant book on its own. Very well written. Loved it.

1984 from a female perspective. Julia Worthing is re-imagined in this excellent novel by Sandra Newman. It captures the main threads of the original with the Ministry of Truth and Big Brother but from a feminist viewpoint. The narrative describes Julia’s life in detail and what she has to do to survive and her involvement with Winston Smith. Newman’s take is daring and doesn’t shy away from the brutality. Not for the faint-hearted but a satisfying read.

It is a very long time since I read George Orwell’s 1984, but much of it stayed with me and it all came flooding back when reading Julia by Sandra Newman. It must have been a huge task to rewrite the novel through the eyes of Julia, as the narrative very much follows what was included in the original, but with the addition of Julia’s history / backstory. (Which I liked.)
This retelling really worked. I very much appreciated the feminist slant, as the original did not consider the life of the main female supporting character (or any woman) in any meaningful way. I hardly remembered Julia - which I am now slightly ashamed of .
It is very popular at the moment for novels to be written as a retelling of a classic, and I quite enjoy them. This was no exception. Sandra Newman can really write, and she did not hold back on describing the horrors of Oceania. I am really glad I read it, but it isn’t for the faint-hearted, and my four stars is because there are not too many people I could recommend this book to.

What a powerhouse of a book. Sandra Newman has written a great companion novel to 1984. I usually dislike books related to another authors work but this was so well executed and fitted like a jigsaw puzzle piece alongside the original that it kept me hooked. I often wondered about the story of Julia while reading 1984 and wanted to know more about her, now I do. This strong novel has the same menacing tone as the original and can be visceral but is an absolute triumph.