BOOK REVIEW: Lord Of The Flies – by William Golding

Title: Lord Of The Flies
Author: William Golding
Genre: Classics, YA, Horror, Dystopia
First published: 1954
Finished reading: August 6th 2014
Pages: 272

“He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one’s waking life was spent watching one’s feet.”

Oh my, those are a bunch of seriously messed up kids William Golding described in Lord Of The Flies! I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading this classic for the Dusting Off The Shelf Read-A-Thon, and I seriously didn’t expect the pack of savages slash maniacs that include about half of the main characters of this book. I had quite a few eyebrow raising moments while I was reading about the actions of Jack and his crew… And what is even more screwed up is that somehow I couldn’t really feel sympathy for Ralph, Piggy and the little ones. And those were suppost to be the good guys… Or should I say kids? Anyway, it is an entertaining read if you not mind some pretty creepy moments and enjoy the horror genre. Definitely not the typical YA dystopian read!

In Lord Of The Flies we read about a bunch of schoolboys who have to survive on a deserted island after a plane crash. Am I the only one who’s having enormous Lost flashbacks with this description? They seem to be doing ok at first, working together to make both shelters, a fire and look for food. Ralph and a fat boy called Piggy (I have to admit I was really annoyed by that name) are sort of in charge, and use a conch to gather the boys every time they want a meeting. Ralph has the looks and Piggy the brains AND the glasses to start a fire… But there is another boy who wants to be the leader: Jack the hunter. And while Ralph tries to maintain order and keep the fire going as a SOS signal for passing ships, Jack preaches in favor of his hunting expeditions.

Jack turns more and more savage, and when he kills his first island pig with his own hands, he becomes unstoppable. He manages to convince just about every boy of joining his band of savages, and now has all the power. They ban Ralph, Piggy and the twins from their ‘castle’, and care more about hunting pigs and feasting on its meat than keeping the fire going so they are able to get rescued. And when Ralph comes to their hideout to challenge Jack, both Ralph and Piggy have become the hunted… And things truly escalate.

If you decide to read Lord Of The Flies, brace yourself for the ending! It is what you would call an anti-climax, and I’m not sure if it was suitable for this book. All in all it’s an enjoyable classic in a creepy way… Although it should have a horror warning for the younger readers as Lord Of The Flies might cause nightmares to the weak hearted.

Dusting Off The Shelf Read-A-Thon: Day 4,5 & 6

Emily at Books & Cleverness is hosting a Dusting Off The Shelf Read-A-Thon in which I’m participating!. It’s all about finally reading those poor neglected books that have been collecting dust for six months or more…Below you can find my progress during days four, five and six.

• DAY 4: MONDAY AUGUST 4TH
  # Book finished: Stephen King – The Shining
  # Pages read: 91 (512/512; DONE!)
  # Book started: William Golding – Lord Of The Flies
  # Pages read: 40 (on page 40 out of 272)
  (Total pages read on Monday: 131)
  I was finally able to finish The Shining, yay! I ended up loving it, even though it is a very creepy story, and I definitely recommend it to horror fans. Very scary final scene at the Overlook!

• DAY 5: TUESDAY AUGUST 5TH
  # Book continued: William Golding – Lord Of The Flies
  # Pages read: 182 (on page out 222 of 272)
  Oh dear, that’s a bunch of seriously messed up kids! Am I the only one having terrible Lost flashbacks when reading Lord Of The Flies? Jack and his crew are seriously disturbed! I cannot wait to see how it ends though…

• DAY 6: WEDNESDAY AUGUST 6TH
  # Book finished: William Golding – Lord Of The Flies
  # Pages read: 50 (272/272; DONE!)
  # Book started: Edward P. Jones – The Known World
  # Pages read: 64 (on page 64 out of 388)
  (Total pages read on Wednesday: 114)
  I finally decided to take some time to update It’s All About Books and write some reviews that were due, so I didn’t get as much reading done as I would have wanted… But at least I’m now reading my third book (and with this one I will be completing the three challenges, yay!)

WWW Wednesdays #7 – August 6th

Originally featured at Should Be Reading… WWW WEDNESDAYS is all about answering the following three questions:

• What are you currently reading?

I just started The Known World by Edward P. Jones as part of the Dusting Off The Shelf Read-A-Thon… This one will fulfull the challenge of reading a book set in the past; it’s about a black farmer and former slave in the US. I cannot say much of it yet besides that it is nice to have a little time out of the horror genre.

 

 

• What did you recently finish reading?

I was able to finish Lord Of The Flies by William Golding today, and boy those were some screwed up kids! Definitely not what I was expecting of this classic… I’ve also finished The Shining by Stephen King, and both are part of the Dusting Off The Shelf Read-A-Thon. Reviews will be up before the weekend! (As well as the review of The Middle Passage by V.S. Naipaul I finished last week…)

 

• What do you think you’ll read next?

It’s probably going to be either And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini or The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss… It depends on my mood when I finish the book I’m currently reading. For now I cannot decide between the magical world of the Kingkiller chronicle and another surely mindblowing tale written by Hosseini… Any suggestions which I should read first?

Teaser Tuesdays #7 – August 5th: Lord Of The Flies

TEASER TUESDAYS is a weekly book meme originally featured at Should Be Reading. To participate, just open the book you are currently reading to a random page, and choose two ‘teaser’ sentences from somewhere on that page. (no spoilers!)

The book I’m currently reading is Lord Of The Flies by William Golding for the Dusting Off The Shelf Read-A-Thon. I started it yesterday to fulfill the ‘read a classic’ part of the read-a-thon, and I’m not too far into the book yet. I hope to read quite a few pages though today! Below a quote taken from one of its pages:

“Slowly the silence on the mountain-top deepened till the click of the fire and the soft hiss of roasting meat could be heard clearly. Jack looked round for understanding but found only respect. Ralph stood among the ashes of the signal fire, his hands full of meat, saying nothing.”

 

What are you reading right now?

Top Ten Tuesday #2 – July 1st: Classics

The Broke And The Bookish presents us every week a new top ten with a different theme. And this Tuesday it’s time to post my Top Ten Classics I’ve Read Or Are TBR! These ten books below are a general representation of the classics I’ve read during the last few years, with a few of them still waiting on my TBR pile… In no particular order and with short descriptions copied from Goodreads:

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author’s generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology.”
• Finished: March 7th 2014 // Review: here

• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee: “To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.”
• Finished: February 10th 2014 // Review: here
• Animal Farm by George Orwell: “Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs…”
• Finished: January 27th 2014 // Review: here

• One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey: “Ken Kesey’s hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched.”
• Finished: January 7th 2014 // Review: here

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: “Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Huxley’s ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece.”
• Finished: December 22nd 2013 // Review: here

• One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: “The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind.”
• Finished: April 23rd 2013 // Review: still pending

•  The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank: “Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.”
• Finished: before starting this blog // Review: N/A

• Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: “Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War, Margaret Mitchell’s epic love story is an unforgettable tale of love and loss, of a nation mortally divided and its people forever changed. At the heart of all this chaos is the story of beautiful, ruthless Scarlett ‘O’ Hara and the dashing soldier of fortune, Rhett Butler.”
• Finished: still on my TBR list

• 1984 by George Orwell: “Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. 1984 presents a “negative utopia,” that is at once a startling and haunting vision of the world—so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish.”
• Finished: still on my TBR list (to be read soon!)

• Lord Of The Flies by William Golding: “William Golding’s compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic.”
• Finished: still on my TBR list