Lord of the Flies

Reader reviewed by Jen

This classic novel is about a group of boys deserted on an uncharted island in a tropical location. Showing survival of the fittest first hand makes this book hard to put down. In this novel you will be shocked at some of the actions these boys resort to. Never once will Lord of the Flies bore you. It is action packed and very well-written. Hope you like it!

Reader reviewed by linda

Imagine 20 boys all alone on a deserted island without a single parent to tell them what to do. You would expect it to be fun and exciting, in the beginning it is, but as the rebellious hunters fight against the intelligent leader, many disasters start. 20 boys from an expensive private school are brought down to an island off the coast of South America because of a terrible plane crash. The boys are from different groups in the school, there are the choir boys, some very smart but weak boys, and the popular, athletic boys. The main character, Ralph, is selected to be the leader but other more popular and persuasive boys grab the attention of the group and turn them against Ralph.

Reader reviewed by FlooCrookshanks

I remember nabbing this book from school because it looked interesting but my English class weren't studying it. I read it in one night, it was that compelling!

As the title of my review suggests, I didn't like the ending much. The author built up the suspense so fantasically and it seemed to be gearing towards a dramatic ending, but to me it seemed to sort of... fizzle out. Just my opinion though, obviously; I know many who have enjoyed the entire book thoroughly.

Anyway, a group of schoolboys find themselves stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere when their plane crashes. Immediately one of the oldest boys, Ralph, is established as the leader of the group and he wisely has everyone gathering food, constructing shelters, and building fires.

Soon many of the boys become bored and restless with this 'work', and decide they would rather play and hunt for wild boar than try to catch fish and keep the fires going. Despite Ralph's attempts to get everyone to work together, another of the older boys, Jack, convinces most of the boys to rebel against Ralph and eventually they split, forming two groups.

Jack's group become wild and obsessed with hunting while Ralph's group is tranquil and logical. Eventually though, Ralph's group dwindles to only a couple of boys and Jack's group get more and more out of control. The friction between the two boys Jack and Ralph escalates, resulting in horrendous (and shocking) consequences.

Rather than using typical monsters and villains as the catalyst for the story, the author uses the animosity of the boys themselves. The idea of ordinary people - young boys, no less - being capable of becoming so ferocious really is a frightful concept.

You can't start reading this book and NOT want to know what happens to the boys in the end. Despite the ending, this book deserves nothing less than a rating of five.

Reader reviewed by Diana

I was forced to read Lord of the Flies for the dreaded summer assignment this year for 10th grade english. I opend the book expecting it to be a snore fest and at first my expectations were met but once I got about half way through the book I was starting to enjoy myself.
In Lord of the Flies a group of boys are stranded on a deserted island with no adults. They decided to elect a leader and attempt to live civally. At first everyone is doing ok, but then some boys decide to go hunting. After their first kill things start to go downhill, the boys have relized the thrill of the kill and have reached into their inner animal. Soon things go from bad to worse and everyone is in fear of their lives.
This book is all about the inner evil that resides in everyone. It gets kinda deep, but its really pretty good by the end.

Reader reviewed by Calamander

Marilyn McDoanald says 'do we want to teach are children that killing is our natural desire?' Obviously she isn't thinking very hard. Do you get mad at wolves for killing animals? No. If we can get over that natural desire to do bad things when there is no punishment (example is the boys on the island with no rules and parents. they could do bad things without getting in trouble), we can have a much better world if we have a conscience and, work together. This book is about these boys who must find a way to survive being stranded on a deserted island. Read it, don't listen to those people who aren't thinking about it very much. Think about YOUR opinion, that's the one who really matters in the end.

Reader reviewed by Emily

ALERT: This is a great novel and very much worth your time to read. However, it has a definite age limit in terms of theme comprehension. That's not to say that Lord of the Flies is inappropriate in any way, it simply has complex underlying themes that wouldn't be understood without a basic knowledge of government and authority. This is a high school level book, and should not be taught in junior high.

That said, the story of Lord of the Flies begins with a group of boys that get stranded on an uninhabited island with no adults and no means of communicating for help. Their decisions ring bells of democracy, anarchy, and dictatorship, showing the raw nature of human kind in the race for survival. Effective if read in conjunction with a government class or unit. The movie is also worth watching.

Reader reviewed by verathraghna

The Lord of the Rings warrants a 4 only because the central message it teaches is one that the author didn't intend. Golding wrote the book as an exposition on how bad humans are. Despite its negative message, it has become a classic, and luckily so. His choice of children makes it difficult for people to dismiss the happenings with "they are evil." Rather we are forced to admit that this is simply a look at raw human nature. And it's at this point that we come to a juncture; either raw human nature is evil or good. If it is evil then we really have no choice but to accept what Christianity says -- that we should try to spend our lives repenting for what we are. If you believe, like I do, that we are good, then you are forced to consider the realities of human nature and deal with them. The chaos and violence are natural to humans until a social structure which they can believe in arises. In the case of these schoolboys the history of the world was being replayed; they lost their belief in the validity of being an English schoolboy and defaulted to choosing a King and reconstructing rituals and a religion around their fear of the beast. They were not evil; that's just the way we humans are. If you love humans, you will forgive them this and use the knowledge to your advantage by for example trying to stay out of harm's way when society is looking for scapegoats.

Reader reviewed by Marilyn MacDonald

The Lord of the Flies is one of the most negative depictions of humans I have ever read. My mother & other parents tried to get it of the school curricullum when it first appeared. Here we are nearly 40yrs later still teaching it to our youth. The book is depressing and violent. It doesn't represent any ideals that our society values, but rather presents a terrorist view of society. It presents killing people as a recreational activity. Is it the terrosists heart or the serial killer heart or just plain hatred for our fellow man that we are trying to instill in our youth? My son got a poor mark on a term paper on this book. His paper began with the sentence,
" Only psychopaths kill their friends." The teacher disagreed. Not only are our youth being forced to read this garbage, but they are told their opinions are wrong when they say the arthur gave a wrong depiction of humanity. Do we want to teach our children that killing each other is a natural desire?

Reader reviewed by Kelly

I have tried numerous times to read this book and enjoy it, but it never happens. I read this in school and hated it. Everyone would talk about how great it was, but I never felt the same way. I disliked the abuse and hatred that the island boys experienced. They were savages. Granted, the book does have some good messages and I have grown to appreciate a little more over the years, I still dislike it.

Reader reviewed by jojo

This was one of the worst books I have ever read. I was forced to read it in ninth grade english. People act like it's some great sybolic work of art representing man kind, but truly it's bad writing. I had to suffer through it and I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through it.