A view of the world of 1984 from a young woman's perspective. Only a slight overlap with Orwell's great original. I'm not a woman, so this was a fresh way of looking at the world. I did wonder, reading the description of Inner Party world, whether the author had read the House of Government, but if not she captured the duality of the world of a ruling class, which proclaimed the importance of the collective and spoke Newspeak, but were at the same time immeasurably better off than the ruled. Captured the cruelty of such a world and its lackeys and the doublethink of the Inner Party. Read it as well as 1984, and Darkness at Noon

Told from the view point of 1984 character, Julia Worthing, Newman’s feminist retelling is brutal and clever. I love the author’s spin on Orwell’s work, focusing on themes that affect the women of Oceania but would not have directly affected the original novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith. I like the way she fleshes out the story and extends past the bounds of the original story to tell a compelling new narrative of her own. For fans of 1984, or for new readers looking for a female led dystopia. A word of caution, it is definitely not for the faint hearted, with heavy themes and distressing scenes.

Completed 'Julia' in two days. It retells 1984 from Julia's point of view. The prose is written in the the style of Orwell’s book. It is part critique, part retelling and part sequel. Though it is also more ambitious, more explicit and more graphic than the original. It's also 100 pages longer and there are a lot more characters. 1984 was all told from Winston Smith's point of view. And here in the first passage, we learn that at the Ministry of Truth, he's known by his co-workers as “Old Misery”. He's a self-obssessed would-be intellectual, vain and obsessed with 'the truth'. He claims to know all about the Proles yet has only ever once had a conversation with one (the old man in the pub in the original book). Here Smith only appears intermittently. Julia is a fascinating character. We get her backstory growing up in a SAZ -“Semi-Autonomous Zone.” Or the countryside, which descends in starvation and mass executions. And the final part of the book goes beyond Julia and Winston’s final meeting in 1984 to an epic finale. I absolutely loved it. If you're familiar with the original, you'll be genuinely surprised by the twists and expansions of the original. It expands Oceania, particularly in depiction of Julia's life in a hostel, life in the Prole districts and a very vivid Ministry of Love. The depth and detail of life in Airstrip One are frequently stunning.

Sandra Newman expands on Orwell’s dystopian world, adding new depths to the well-known story and taking the reader through the perspective of Julia. Highly recommend any readers of 1984 to pick up this book, you’ll be absorbed back into the world of Airstrip One.

Sandra Newman takes on the monumental task of telling Julia’s story (the main female character in George Orwell’s 1984) and delivers it with triumph. Unlike the original which is low on detail about the female characters, “Julia” tells the story from a woman’s point of view and Newman gives more insight into women’s lives and their background stories. Newman bases “Julia” on the same original dystopian construct but, whilst paying homage to Orwell’s masterpiece, brings her own voice to make it an extremely modern novel. Newman also brings a fantastic twist to the story making “Julia” more dramatic, daring and clearer than the original. It is an unsettling, brilliant and provocative novel that compliments the original beautifully.