Julia

Never before had I read anything by author Sandra Newman. Actually, I've only heard about her because of "Julia", which I knew was going to be a story set in the same universe of Orwell's "1984", telling us what happens from the point of view of Winston Smith's love interest in the original story.

But Sandra Newman was so brilliant because she gives us much more than that. She ably describes Julia to us and how rich her own world is — her friends, her job, her problems, conflicts and decisions —, so much so that we can at the same time identify the key moments from the original story and the new ones, and thanks for that, because this new "1984" perspective is so entertaining and so deep in itself, so creative to the point of making "Julia" unputdownable to me. The book trespasses the original boundaries of Orwell and gets a very fine ending, a surprising one, to say the least.

I'm so very glad I've had the opportunity to read "Julia", and now can barely wait to read more from Sandra Newman. Totally recommend this if you like dystopias and "1984".