Name: Julia
Rating: 3.791666666666667 (12 reviews)

Sandra Newman

Julia

Jemima Scott

Lindsay

It struck Julia that luxury was as much the absence of things as their abundance.

All was false. It was known to be false, but everyone lied about the lies, until no one knew where the lies began and ended.

She didn’t have the freedom to think of what was right. She must do what was safe. It was as Ampleforth had said: one had no choice, one must only live through it as if one had.

An imaginative, feminist, and brilliantly relevant-to-today retelling of Orwell's 1984, from the point of view of Winston Smith's lover, Julia, by critically acclaimed novelist Sandra Newman. Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It's 1984, and Britain (now called Airstrip One) has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and is ruled by an ultra-totalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, everything about this world is as it is in Orwell's 1984. Julia has known no other world than that of Oceania and, until she meets Winston Smith, never imagined one. She's an ideal citizen of Oceania. Cheerfully cynical, believing in nothing and caring not at all about politics, she routinely breaks the rules but also collaborates with the regime whenever necessary. Everyone likes Julia. But when one day, finding herself walking toward Winston in a corridor, she impulsively hands him a note--a potentially suicidal gesture--she comes to realize that she's losing her grip and can no longer safely navigate her world. The passing of that note sets into motion the devastating, unforgettable events of the classic story. Julia takes us on a surprising journey as seen through the eyes of an indestructible young woman trying to survive in Orwell's now-iconic dystopian world, while laying bare our own world in bold and proactive ways, just as the original did almost seventy-five years ago.

started out intriguing, from the perspective of Julia, but then just turned sour. After her questioning and torture it just went … on and then ended quite rapidly, which did not match the tone set throughout the book. I don’t know, just feel disappointed - nonetheless, I still think that both the original (which is obvs not reviewed here!) and this retelling are such stark reminders and, especially right now, such important reads. 

sina (she/her) 

Julia is an interesting character study. The author flips Julia's story that we think we know from 1984 on its head. She also delves deeper into Julia's childhood and what happens after she is released from the Ministry of Love. 

It's been about a decade since I've read 1984, so my memory was a little hazy regarding the telescreens, proles, Party, Big Brother and more. If you're not at all familiar with Orwell's original text, I think reading Julia would be a bit of a struggle and you might not get as much from it. The author doesn't really bother to explain too much here, perhaps taking for granted her readers already know all there is to know about Oceania, Ingsoc, Eurasia (or Eastasia) and Airstrip One. She could have taken advantage of the freedoms afforded her in this book by going into more detail and adding additional context instead of wasting parts of the book on something that felt entirely out of place. 

The beginning was strong when setting up Julia and her life. It was probably my favorite part. This book felt extremely slow at certain points, but its depictions of Julia's childhood made it feel more than just a straight up reimagining of 1984. And the ending, at least, was not as bleak as 1984's. But I just did not like what went on between Julia and Vicky. I didn't see the need for it and thought it took away from my enjoyment of this book. I didn't like Vicky as a character and didn't see why Julia did. 

When Julia is being tortured in the Ministry of Love, the tone of the book shifted to that of a horror novel. I almost felt sick reading it. To have Julia survive shows her strength, but then the book shifts back to its original tone. I didn't really like the author's depiction of Winston Smith, either. I remember reading 1984 and being so moved by his and Julia's relationship, and that was certainly not what went on in this book.

Overall, it was a different take on a classic story that didn't quite hold up to the original. Too much was unforgivably changed or added that could almost ruin the original. At least the ending was better and a little more hopeful.

Amanda

Julia is an interesting character study. The author flips Julia's story that we think we know from 1984 on its head. She also delves deeper into Julia's childhood and what happens after she is released from the Ministry of Love. 

It's been about a decade since I've read 1984, so my memory was a little hazy regarding the telescreens, proles, Party, Big Brother and more. If you're not at all familiar with Orwell's original text, I think reading Julia would be a bit of a struggle and you might not get as much from it. The author doesn't really bother to explain too much here, perhaps taking for granted her readers already know all there is to know about Oceania, Ingsoc, Eurasia (or Eastasia) and Airstrip One. She could have taken advantage of the freedoms afforded her in this book by going into more detail and adding additional context instead of wasting parts of the book on something that felt entirely out of place. 

The beginning was strong when setting up Julia and her life. It was probably my favorite part. This book felt extremely slow at certain points, but its depictions of Julia's childhood made it feel more than just a straight up reimagining of 1984. And the ending, at least, was not as bleak as 1984's. But I just did not like what went on between Julia and Vicky. I didn't see the need for it and thought it took away from my enjoyment of this book. I didn't like Vicky as a character and didn't see why Julia did. 

When Julia is being tortured in the Ministry of Love, the tone of the book shifted to that of a horror novel. I almost felt sick reading it. To have Julia survive shows her strength, but then the book shifts back to its original tone. I didn't really like the author's depiction of Winston Smith, either. I remember reading 1984 and being so moved by his and Julia's relationship, and that was certainly not what went on in this book.

Overall, it was a different take on a classic story that didn't quite hold up to the original. Too much was unforgivably changed or added that could almost ruin the original. At least the ending was better and a little more hopeful.

Prakash Rajendran

Just as horrific as the original yet adds a surprising angle from Julia.. 

I was as naive as Smith! As many of us have been 🤦‍♀️

In retrospect, one of the best things I liked in 1984 was:

Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter: only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you — that would be the real betrayal.’

The way this passage made me feel about both Smith and Julia was totally missed or ruined in Sandra’s version. Am i alone in this thought?

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".

Daniel Santos

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".

Julia

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