
Rating: High Four
Who I'd Recommend to: fans of the Hatchet, and books like the Swiss Family Robinson.
Fav Quote: (coming soon)
Summary (from Amazon):
William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. As ordinary standards of behaviour collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them—the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories—and another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible.Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic.
The characters, though, also bugged me. There were way too many of them - Simon, Samneric, the ten or something "liluns," Roger, Ralph, Piggy, Jack... probably thirty of them. My brother and I were both wondering how all these kids came to be in this plane crash together, and why, by little chance, no adults were left surviving. Were there really so many more kids that not a single adult survived?
Overall, this book barely earned two stars at the end for the last four chapters, and though I complained a lot in this review, I'd suggest just skipping to the last four, worthwhile chapters, and then if you're still curious, reading every, excruciating, first eight chapters.