I started this book because I had book hangover from Crooked Kingdom. I didn't want to start something great and forget the awesomeness that was Kaz "Dirtyhands" Brekker. Well this book was a terrible choice for a chaser. "It's short." I said. "I'll get that other book out of my head with this book that I may or may not like and move on." I said. O Ford but did I take a swing into the wrong extreme. It took me 2/3 days to finish this one. I can read an 800 plus page King tome in a weekend. I only finished Brave New World that quickly because I hated it so much I knew if I didn't just sit down and plug through it I never would. This is actually worse than 50 Shades (never thought I'd say that) in that it was actually trying to be something other than smut for people who like to pretend they like to read. 
 There are no words for how much I hated this. I read this as part of a reading challenge list under the category of "Banned or challenged book". I know why it was banned or challenged. It had nothing to do with the gratuitous casual sex. Nothing to do with the happy drugs. 
 Everything to do with the illogical nonsensical writing. I don't know if Huxley was going for omniscient PoV here. It didn't feel like omniscience. It felt like multiple 3rd person and it was really badly done. One minute he's discussing a tour of a baby factory given to young boys. The next he jumps into bizarre dialogue between Fanny and Lenina that is completely lacking in any prose. There was some mention of Feelys about this point and I honestly thought this was the director/controller (it doesn't matter anyway who it was) reading a sort of play to the boys. Nope- that was apparently the beginning of the story. No other passages were written in this style. It was odd. It was out of place. It did nothing for the story. 
 The writing gets slightly better after that but not by much. One minute we are in the head of Bernard, then The Savage, then Lenina. It was fucking ridiculous. Maybe this book was too smart for me. I don't know. I know there was a message in here. Whatever it was was lost in the inane writing. I guess he was a college professor for George Orwell at one point? Now I know why I also hate Orwell. 
 This book falls under the category of dystopian fiction. Huxley at least nailed the dystopian part. It was a pretty awful place 500 years AF (After Ford- don't ask). Basically one big hive mind. People being fed propaganda in their sleep, knowing it's being fed to them, and too young to realize why they should care. The adults have been too ingrained to stop it. The word mother is an obscenity because birthing children is repulsive and disgusting. No one has a family because that's also repulsive and disgusting. There is something called sex hormone chewing gum, whatever the fuck that is. If you're feeling a little blue you just chew up a half gram tablet of happy medicine and turn that frown upside down. Women are pneumatic. The word pneumatic is abused and beaten like a red headed step child. Also the world seems overly perfumed. This is literally my worst fucking nightmare. 
 The MC is Bernard Marx. Poor Bernard. Sympathetic at times and a complete fucking idiot at others. His friend seemed to have some redeeming qualities. Why couldn't it have been told from his PoV? Bernard just wants to be alone. Bernard just wants to watch the sea and the sky and the stars in peace. Poor little Bernard had too much alcohol added to his blood surrogate. Everyone says so. 
 Finally the ending. You'd think after all this suffering, and this miserable world Huxley has set up, we'd get some kind of awesome conclusion at least. Maybe we did, and maybe, I'm not smart enough for it. I don't know. The ending was terribly depressing. I saw a glimmer of hope for The Savage. He was finally getting what he wanted. And then he goes and ruins it by being a complete fucking psycho. I just fucking can't. Was this the point? Everything in moderation? God, drugs, sex- better if done only in moderation? Or was it about the evils of consumerism? The dangers of science? Was it all of them?? 
 I don't know what the fuck I just read! I know this is a bad review and more of a rant so I'll apologize on that front. I think there might have been a halfway decent story buried under bad writing. I'm disappointed that that isn't what I got. I'll need to dive head first into The Flame Bearer tomorrow to wash the taste of this out of my brain. (Thank God for fucking Uhtred.)