Fahrenheit 451 book review

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Published by Simon & Schuster on November 29, 2011
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 194
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Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.
Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television 'family'. But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people did not live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.
When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.

This was a book that had been on my TBR for what seemed like forever and I thought now was the perfect time to get it read Fahrenheit 451. I do think this one is one that I’m going to have to reread I think to get the most of the story and really get to grips with the story behind the story and understand why it is seen as being one of the best classics. I did enjoy the story and what it was trying to do but I feel as though everything was SO rushed and over-complicated that the important parts for me were lost and buried. I really wished that this had been a little longer and we would have had more of an insight into the world and everything going on.

Fahrenheit 451 follows the story of Guy Montag a fireman in a weird futuristic world where he burns books rather than saving houses. I really wanted to connect with Guy and his life but I think the way the narrative is told rubbed me up the wrong way and I lost track of what was going on. I think that there isn’t enough focus on Guy and his life and also Clarisse because I feel as though I spent most of the book trying to figure out who he was and why he was acting the way he was. I definitely would have enjoyed this book more if I had had more information and more of a connection to the characters as a whole. I loved the concept of Clarisse and how she saw the world and shared that with him but I feel as though, like everything in this book it moved too quickly and I just wanted it to slow down a little bit.

The best bits of Fahrenheit 451 was definitely the idea of censorship and how the lack of literature can determine which way a society ends up going. I loved watching Clarisse interact with the world and how she saw the things around her. I wish there had been more of her insight in the book because it seemed to add a little bit of levity to the story which made it easier to read.

This is a hard one for me because I know I should love Fahrenheit 451 and that it is revered and loved around the world but for me there was a massive disconnect. I felt no love or empathy for any of the characters and there was so much I felt was missing or rushed through in the story that it made it really hard for me to love this book as much as I wanted to.

Probably not, this is definitely one for a reread but for now I can’t say I would recommend it. I think there are better books out there and this one definitely didn’t hit the right cords for me unfortunately.

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!