I’ve been meaning to read Fahrenheit 451 for a while now, but never got around to it because of the hundreds of other books that I’ve been meaning to read. And truthfully, I finished reading it about three weeks ago, but have only now found the time to sit down and write this review.

I was thinking of studying it for my Honours degree, and I used that as an opportunity to read it. Now that I’ve read it, I’m not actually going to be studying it, but at least I can cross the novel off my list (I don’t actually have a list – who has time to write one?).

You’re probably noticing a pattern. My last review was a dystopian novel as well; that’s because I am a dystopian fiction writer. Or, a speculative fiction writer, but they really mean the same thing. Regardless, I read a lot of dystopian fiction (Margaret Atwood will probably feature a lot on this blog).

Set in a futuristic world, Guy Montag is a fireman, and in this dystopian setting, firemen actually start fires, instead of putting them out. That is, they’ll burn down houses if the person living inside owns outlawed books. Guy doesn’t doubt his job, but when he meets new neighbour, free-spirited Clarisse, and then a woman willingly burns herself alive in her own home (with her beloved books), Guy starts to second-guess his morals. And so Guy starts to hide books in his house, and read them aloud to his wife. And then he gets caught, and murders his boss, and then is on the run.

This novel is not too long, so for all those ‘I don’t read’ people, you have no excuse. Even though I’m not using this novel for my Honours thesis, I’d thoroughly recommend it.

My Score: 8/10
The Next Novel on my List? 1984 by George Orwell