Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - a book review by Brandon

The author begins by describing Guy Montag’s job. He goes on saying that Guy has no regret and is happy. Then he bumps into seventeen year old girl named Clarisse McClellan. She goes on to say abstract things that Guy never thought about. She then asks him if he was happy. Montag then realizes that he is not. He walks with her each day until seven days later when she stops showing up. Then, one day he had a call when on duty. It was an old lady who fought for her books. She did not want to leave the books, which got Guy upset. He pleaded with her to leave but she refused and was burned with the house. This got Guy thinking and secretly took one of the old lady’s books with the thought of what made books so powerful as to make it so that someone would die for them.  Mildred, his wife, thinks that he is crazy and tells him that Clarisse died by being hit by a car. This makes Guy not want to go to work and to read the books that he stole. Guy’s actions makes Beatty suspicious and secretly sends the mechanical hound to inspect Guy’s house. When Guy goes back to work, the firemen gets a call and drive up to his house. Guy is shocked that he is finally caught and Beatty makes him burn down Guy’s house with a flamethrower. This was a big mistake for Beatty because Guy just kills him. He then flees the house and goes to his friend Faber’s house. He gives him some of his clothes so that the hound cant smell him and flees to the train tracks where the other fugitives have gone to. He then hears on one of their radios that a war has started and bombs are dropped on the city moments later.
The book was overall a great book. It is interesting how similar the book is to 1984 and equilibrium, so that there is something to compare it to. The thing that was best about the book is that it was comparable to real life and it had many metaphors. The scenes that were most interesting was when the old lady stayed with her books in the burning house with the conversation afterword, and when Guy burns the captain and flees. Clarisse was a very interesting to me because she was relatable. However, the author should not have  killed her off. This just seemed to be unnecessary drama when the reader actually gets connected with the character. Though it is understandable that the author did it so that it would push Guy over the edge, she was an interesting character. This book would most likely be rated a five out of five and deserves to be read by many people.