Fast facts:

Book title: “Lord of the Flies”

Author: William Golding

Genre/Audience: Fiction, psychological fiction; young adult/adult

Rating: 8/10

Worth the read?: If you can push through the less-than-thrilling beginning, yes!

Book 20: Lord of the flies

I decided to read Lord of the Flies because it was part of the curriculum I missed in high school. At least, I think it was. After I finished the book, while standing in the library talking to a friend, it occurred to me that the book I thought I had remembered was actually George Orwell’s Animal Farm (which I also haven’t read). Either way, Lord of the Flies is a novel well-known in culture and I certainly have become better as a reader having partaken in the book.

In all honesty, I didn’t really enjoy the story at first. Actually, I didn’t enjoy the book until well after the halfway point. I spent days with it sitting next to me, begging to be read, while I chose to binge Boy Meets World on Hulu instead. I thought it was merely the allure of one of my all-time favorite television shows distracting me, but I realized at about page 140 that it wasn’t BMW distracting me at all. Rather, it was that the book bored me. But when things really started moving (at page 140), I was enthralled until the end.

fast-track to the end

Once I was drawn in, I finished the book in one sitting. Was it worth the previous pages of boredom? Yes, actually, I think it was.

There are two notable thoughts that I have following reading Lord of the Flies.

thought one

First, and this might be a spoiler in a roundabout way, the end of the book was eerily reminiscent of my favorite short story, “The Most Dangerous Game.” It was eerie mostly because just a day or two before finishing the book, I had discussed with a friend how “The Most Dangerous Game” had scarred me when I read it in middle school. I hadn’t thought of or discussed that story for years until that conversation, and little did I know that in a day or two I’d be reminded of the story again. There are some creepy parallels between the stories. I would be interested to see how the two could work together in teaching.

thought two

The second thought I have, and I’m sure I’m neither the first nor the last to wonder this: why is there no room for girls on this island? Why only boys: why, why, why?

My guess? Well, I daresay that none of the turmoil would have happened if a girl had been around to hold down the fort. This book surely enforces the thoughts of my childhood: girls rule, boys drool!

Happy reading! 🙂