Sandy's Reviews > Fahrenheit 451

Being a book lover I count this book as horror. Not in the sense of ghosts and goblins and monsters jumping out at you but if someone comes to my door with the intention of burning my house down with all my books and me if I don’t leave the house, that is scary. And with the first thing that happens in the book is Montag and his fellow firemen starting a fire after piling the books on the front porch. In this world, firemen didn’t stop fires but started them. On page 32 is blasphemy; Ben Franklin is one of the first book burners. And having two atomic wars in 2022; we are so close to that time now. This book was written in 1951 and how far away 2022 must have felt like. The author didn’t get too many things wrong though. Huge tvs, ear pods that are called seashells in the book. Everyone talking to each other through the tv feeling they are being social when it’s just superficial. As an introvert, I could not handle the loudness of the wall tv and shallowness of this world. I need quiet and books. I said at first there were no monsters jumping out at you but really there is. The Hound is a mechanical “dog” that is pretty scary.

I read this for a book club selection. Since it is September and banned and challenged book month I thought reading a book about banning books was perfect. And it was. I’m so glad I read it. It was banned in some schools because of language and violence but was reinstated after people protested. Yay to those people. We need books like this.