A Clockwork Orange in Around the Year in 52 Books

Oct 07, 2008 Beth F rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, banned-books, vile-rapists, 2008, dude-lit, dystopia-and-apocalyptica

I had a set of preconceived notions about this book that have been completely blown out of the water by my first reading. I feel like a shmuck for not having read it sooner. Clearly, I’ve just joined the Clockwork Orange fan club.

There were a couple kids from my high school who loved this book—one guy in particular I could not stand. We were in a lot of the same classes and almost always ended up in an argument about one thing or another that usually ended with him saying, “OMG! You’re so inhib ...more

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Jun 01, 2018 Lesa Divine rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-it, 2018, i-own

I see why this is classic.
All I remember was Alex and his friends were a bunch of hoodlums out beating and robbing people.
I remember he liked music.
He sure can talk about nonsense.
I remember jail....and those white coats crazy house.
Maybe I'll rent this as a movie but I struggled reading this.
I'm stay away from classic. Maybe they ain't for me. ...more

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Dec 29, 2009 Libscigrl rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2016

A classic tale of Government gone bad....or good?

Alex, the punk 15 year old raper-burglar-murderer is sent to prison where he is used in an experiment to make him averse to violence. Is this fair? Is this right in the name of society? Does it even work? Those are a few of the themes/topics.

While the Nadsat language (think teenage slang) he used throughout the book is initially hard to see past, it does eventually grow on you. Some copies of this book contain a dictionary...I used Wikipedia for a ...more

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Jan 09, 2017 Ron rated it it was amazing

Beautifully written, and thought provoking. Much like the movie, only more so. But you have to hum your own music. This book was perfect, and the movie is better, but with the book you eventually figure out the enigmatic title. (I think.)

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Jul 15, 2024 Tanya rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 23, 2018 Jesse rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-around-the-year, 2018-popsugar

This was a really interesting book. I was not at all familiar with the story, having never seen the movie either, and the first thing that really struck me was the super interesting slang/dialect. I was fascinated by it! It was like a puzzle that I had to figure out a little at a time as the book went on. I really enjoyed the last chapter of the book, which apparently was left out of the first US edition as well as the movie.

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Oct 07, 2025 Trish added it · review of another edition

Shelves: world-book-day-50, horror, dt-500-must-reads, dystopia-apocalyptic, classics-c20, how-many-100-list, book-club-bible, 2025, 2025-3-src-autumn, science-fiction

After reading. Well, I never need to read that again. It's what I'd call a Car Crash book - you know how bad it's going to be, but you can't stop yourself watching/reading it. I can't think what to rate it, so I'm not going to.

Before reading. I'm not at all sure I'm going to like this, but it's banned book week so I decided to read something well outside my comfort zone. ...more

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