If you read 1984 and thought, “wow, Orwell did Julia dirty,” this book is for you. If you read 1984 and thought, “wow, I wish this was more of a story and less of a treatise,” then this book is also for you.

I reread 1984 just a few months ago not even knowing this book was coming out. I definitely think it adds to the experience to have the original fresh in your mind.

I knew that Orwell wanted me think of Julia as shallow and dumb in 1984, but I liked her anyway. When she fell asleep while Orwell read Goldstein’s book, I was like yep, girl, same. I feel like Newman kept some of that air-headed feel to Julia but basically didn’t fault her for it.

There are a few memorable icky bits of dialogue with Winston from 1984 replayed here from Julia’s perspective. Newman creates motivation for Julia to say what she says, which is mainly that she wants to placate Winston so they can get to the sex. Can he PLEASE shut up? Hahaha.

Newman explores the lives of women in this system, including pregnancy, birth control, and queerness. She also gives Julia a much more complicated role.

I enjoyed the last bit of the book a lot. It felt like it had the same spirit as the ending of 1984, which is one of the best parts of the original to me.

I’m baffled as to how this got published with Orwell’s estate’s approval, but I’ll take it!