I really love the cover of this book which makes it stand out on a display. I've seen this book listed in must have reads for Autumn 2023 as a "companion piece" to 1984 and being touted as a potential award winner. It is authorised by the Orwell Estate which is qite a coup. I've also seen it lauded as "Feminist retelling of 1984" which I disgaree with because Julia, sadly, is exploited and abused by a male tyrant for her sex in a Mata Hari type role where she is tasked with befriending and sleeping with various men to uncover their true thoughts. 1984 is a slim, sparse, chilling and thought provoking book whereas this is a long novel that feels melodramatic and overblown. It is much more graphic in terms of violence and sexuality and it also changes a few key elements of the original story. It was an interesting idea but it didn't add anything to the "world" of 1984 for me.

It takes a writer of courage to ‘retell’ an iconic modern classic such as ‘1984’, a favourite of all time, personally.
It is very difficult at the start not to compare, and to see Julia functioning in the Oceania with which we are very familiar. It’s all there: telescreens, posters of BB, Newspeak, Doublethink, the Ministries and slogans. And of course, brutal methods of control.
But thankfully, Newman very quickly establishes Julia’s complex character and her own story. Her character and background are fully fleshed out and she emerges as a gutsy feminist, high profile member of The Junior Anti-Sex League, collaborator with BB and a survivor.
Through her, we are taken into the SAZ where proles live a feral existence and chillingly, we meet Weeks, owner of the flat with the ‘picture’ which speaks!
The only section I didn’t like were the detailed torture scenes. Too visceral, too detailed and the moment when we hear ‘Don’t do it to me’ is truly shocking.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #Granta for my ARC

I started this - then thought I wonder when I read 1984 as my memory of the story was a bit fuzzy, I realised I must have read it in about 1982 as I felt that I needed to read it before 1984. I then sat and felt old for a while.

Having got over the inevitability of the passing of time I got on with reading. I really enjoyed this retelling of the story through Julia's viewpoint which gave a different angle to the manipulation and propaganda of the Big Brother regime. Reading it whilst Putin is blowing people out of the sky and ordering a new school curriculum in Russia and occupied Ukraine adds a sense of it could and still does happen.

The ending had a certain inevitability, yet still leaving enough to keep you thinking.

A good read!

1984 from the perspective of Julia.

It is a long time since I read 1984, so I prepped for Julia by reading 1984. What a book that is. An extra treat was the foreword was written by Christopher Hitchens.

Well prepared I picked up Julia. The first thing that struck me was the writing Newman doesn’t write like Orwell, but why would she. I found the writing in Julia too “flabby” and repetitive. It was if I had just finished a nice crisp Thai salad and now was wading through what many Americans think is typical brown English food.

I did enjoy the way Newman backfilled the story. She had clearly worked hard at deconstructing 1984 and rebuilding it with a lot more padding.

At the end of the day it didn’t work for me…pity.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Do you remember 1984? Not the actual year, but George Orwell's chilling vision of a malevolent totalitarian society crushed by decades of Soviet tyranny which introduced the concepts of Big Brother, Room 101, Airstrip One and Newspeak into our popular culture.
Sandra Newman's compelling new novel imagines the story not from the viewpoint of Orwell's tragic hero, Winston Smith but from the perspective of Smith's clandestine lover, Julia.

Wow! There is a lot to unpack in this. With shades of Margaret Atwood in here, I think it is a unique take on 1984. Completely brutal and sickening in parts (room 101 was terrifying), yet deliciously subversive in others. I love the naivety of the early Julia compared with her gradual realisation that things were not right. The ending is well done. It's not an easy read but one to persevere with. Will def read other books by her now.

I see that the author is doing a talk at the Southbank related to this book on dystopias, which might be good to attend! I also had no idea that there had already been another 1984 rewrite published in March!

This was such a wonderfully written book. Recommended for a fun weekend of reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a advanced copy of the book in exchange for a review.

This is a rather interesting take on 1984 - especially in the light of the recent book about Orwell's wife. I will admit to being an unfashionable Orwell-disliker, not least because of his treatment of female characters, so hugely enjoyed this one. Not the greatest literature out, but definitely worth reading.

This is the second book I have read recently told from the perspective of Julia in a retelling of 1984. If I had read this version first, there's a chance I would have given it 5 stars, but as I read it second, I preferred the other version. "Julia" by Sandra Newman is a good book and faithfully follows the story in 1984 but from Julia's perspective. However, I didn't think it added much more to the story. I was pleased to read it though.

I was kindly given an eARC copy of Julia by NetGalley.

I enjoyed 1984 when I first read it. I was excited for Julia when I first heard about it as I was hoping that it would expand the 1984 world that we have been introduced to. For me, it didn’t do this. While it was an interesting story about the character, at times it felt over dramatic and forced. I enjoyed the female point of view as many of these types of books are purely male-centric, so this was refreshing. But, for a feminist retelling, your character doesn’t need to be a tyrant-sanctioned hooker?

The background characters of 1984 were connected through Julia and it did shine light on one’s childhood in this particular regime, but the whole story felt unnecessary and it didn’t add anything to the 1984 world that interested me very much

Thanks ever so much to @grantabooks for sharing this title with me on @netgalley!

Julia by Sandra Newman.

It’s fair to say this is probably the book I was most hyped up for this year and boy, it did not disappoint. As a long time fan of 1984, I could not wait to get my mitts on this feminist retelling of the dystopian classic from Julia’s point of view, with the blessing of George Orwell’s estate, no least!

What can I even say? The novel captures the same dark, unsettling tone as the original and develops the already complex world of Oceania and beyond, taking us to nooks and crannies that weren’t explored in 1984 but that only serve to complete the terrifying reality they live in. One of my favourite aspects of 1984 is the history and ‘world building’ behind how Oceania and the other territories came to be and I was delighted to see there was extensive background information throughout the book.

Julia is a compelling protagonist who clearly deserves to tell her side of the story. Not all of what we saw in 1984, especially with regards to her illicit relationship with Winston, is as it seems. There are twists and turns here that meant I could not put down my Kindle for ages and the final section and ending were just breath-taking and also slightly surreal (in a good way!) Throughout most of the book, I could genuinely feel their fear of being caught, of being arrested, of being hurt, and this is testimony to Sandra Newman’s skill.

It’s quite a feat to go up ‘against’ one of the best novels of the 20th century but Julia is a perfect match and companion to 1984. I better see you all queueing up to buy this in October.

5/5

Very good, especially Part three. That ending! Brilliantly done.
The book expands the character of Julia from 1984, so her background, her childhood and family and her life in London. It expands the world of 1984 from the claustrophobic atmosphere of the original centred on Winston Smith and it mostly works well although for me the first section dragged but once they’re arrested and taken to Love it was almost impossible to put down. In the end it was an impressive read.

‘Most strange of all was that no one was in the room. All that beauty sat unattended. The piano alone received the wasteful flood of electric light, light someone somewhere had worked to produce. One saw the hours of a stranger’s life pouring uselessly over the silent piano.’

*proof review*

This will go down as one of my favourite reads of the year. Initially I went into it rather skeptically - but from the very first page any doubt fled from my mind as to the marvel of this novel.

Julia is an especially refreshing character to read in the Big Brother universe; her character from the original novel is taken to a whole new level, and she reads excellently. What I especially liked about Julia was that she has actual agency over her story, not just agency of thought as most oppressed characters tend to have, especially when she lives in such an unsettling place for women. Her power, especially once under the guise of the Think Police , is one to be reckoned with. She is strong, both of body and mind, and the scene where she is in Room 101 is one of the most best written heroic scenes I’ve read in fiction.

Truly, a bad-ass.

The only fault I can find with this book is that sometimes it tends towards over-explanation which took me out of the action at times, but this was quickly remedied.

I was initially quite hesitant to read Sandra Newman's 'Julia' as there have been quite a few authors adopting a revisionist approach to Greek myths and now it seems, classical literature, and I wasn't sure whether this book would land. I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I liked reading 'Julia'. I actually managed to finish it in a day as I couldn't stop reading.

First of all, for fans of the original - George Orwell's '1984' - you may be disappointed that Winston Smith in 'Julia' is very much a peripheral character. However, I feel that this was an incredibly smart move on Newman's part because all our attention is taken up by the 26-year-old Julia who can more than hold the narrative. We're actually encouraged to take as little interest in Winston as possible, who Julia sees as a sexual conquest rather than the love of her life. For those hoping for a romantic ending, those notions are soon crushed when we realise that for Winston, Julia was just a means to and end. A foolish young woman who can easily be discarded to save his own skin.

I don't want to give too much away but Julia's character who navigates different aspects of society within the totalitarian regime, mixing with both the proles, members of the inner party and of course, the other young women who live alongside her in the women's hostel, reveals much more on how this society works especially if you're a woman. Although people of colour (referred to as a 'nationality') don't figure prominently, when they are seen I feel their portrayal is quite realistic as it shows the impact that a totalitarian regime (that sees no value in difference) has on these communities who are used in Julia's words as 'dogsbodies'.

When Julia finally makes her escape, I thought for sure that Newman would be tempted to paint a happy ending as Big Brother begins to be destroyed by revolutionaries. However, Julia's happy ending is left open to interpretation as we realise that the regime set to take over from Big Brother may be just as bad as the regime it's replaced.

Overall, 'Julia' definitely packs a punch and raises weighty questions concerning class and the people who generally tend to benefit from revolutions. I can't wait to read more from this author.