Review V for Vendetta by Alan Moore & David Lloyd

Genre: science fiction, dystopian
Pages: 296
Rating: 4/5 stars
Goodreads

Summary from Goodreads
A frightening and powerful tale of the loss of freedom and identity in a chillingly believable totalitarian world, V for Vendetta stands as one of the highest achievements of the comics medium and a defining work for creators Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

Set in an imagined future England that has given itself over to fascism, this groundbreaking story captures both the suffocating nature of life in an authoritarian police state and the redemptive power of the human spirit which rebels against it. Crafted with sterling clarity and intelligence, V for Vendetta brings an unequaled depth of characterization and verisimilitude to its unflinching account of oppression and resistance.

My thoughts
I watched the movie based on this novel with my sociology class in high school. It really stayed with me and I hoped to one day read the graphic novel as well. Now that I've read it I think the movie is even stronger, but it is definitely a great story. It really deals with some heavy themes such as oppression and the cruelties of war. The movie made me feel more for the characters, I thought Natalie Portman portrait Evey splendidly. In the book she seems somewhat too naive and innocent at 16 and have grown up in such a harsh world without her parents. I personally need at least one character in the book that I really connect with or feel for in order for the book to be amazing and I felt that that was the most important things that was lacking in the book. I loved how the character V represents an idea and that it is emphasized that it is not important who the person behind the mask is. Watching the movie I was a little annoyed that we never really got to see the face behind the mask, but the novel handled this better. I had a bit of trouble keeping apart all the bad guys, but apart from that the book was great. At some point you really start to feel like you are going crazy because you can't really make sense of what is going on in the book. This is not a bad thing, since it is obviously intended and I thought it was excecuted really well. It is really a novel that doesn't have just good guys and bad guys. Pretty much all the characters (except one or two) are in the gray area.