Rating: 
Summary: Not the Best novel
Review: Well I have read this in 7th grade. I really don't think of it as a great novel. I have read better. It depends on what your taste in novels are I suppose. I know that this isn't a good review on this novel and I am sorry if this misleads you. Well, I suggest to read it before you decide whether or not you like it.
Rating: 
Summary: Unsettling
Review: This is probably the most disturbing book I have ever read. I enjoyed reading it, but I'm not sure I can say I liked it. It's one of those books that I just have a love/hate relationship with. But for that reason I guess it is worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Although it is a social commentary, similar to "Heart of Darkness," containing a pessimisstic view of human nature, "Lord of the Flies" is also an adventure novel. A scatter of British schoolboys are stranded on an island paradise, and they form a little ordered assembly, which, according to the rules of Murphy's Law, goes to pi. It is a stark, beautiful book, which near perfect writing. What do I mean by this? It's not just well-written, but it is perfectly focused, perfectly edited. Think of the Western "High Noon." Every line of dialogue was key in revealing the plot. There was no one standing around and just explaining things, like in "The Great Gatsby." Things are expounded through actions, through thought, so that every word has meaning, and every meaning, entertainment value. I'm surprised at those who found it boring. I can't offer any persuasion -- you have to be willing to read it, and it won't appeal to everyone. But the reason this book is so terribly disturbing is that it is so >realistic<. Not to give away any major plot happenings, but recent (within the last year or so) news events only make some of the more grisly things in the book seem closer to home, and therefore more unsettling, which is maybe why a lot of readers found it too shocking to appreciate. Just try not to think about the symbols when you first read it, and think of it as an adventure book. It can be enjoyed either way.
Rating: 
Summary: Good as a literature piece, but too hard, too cruel
Review: You will not feel good reading this book. You would find many symbols (the way the society works, the interactions between humans, and so on) through the story and their meanings, and may be interested in them, but no joy from the story itself. Too cruel, it will shock you, for sure. ...
Rating:
Summary: a frightening masterpiece
Review: The Lord of the flies is one of the finest ezamples of a frightening world created without a lot of razzmatazz and jargon but only a singular and savage imagery . It speakes about a group of boys who are stranded on an Island after a plane crash. Ralph the leader,Jack the fanatic, Piggy the moderator and simon the simpleton are the principal characters. The author delves deep into human psyche through the means of an adolescent mind.Ralph and Jack are caught in a battle of supremacy while all around them there is the shadow of a certain beast.Ralph builds shelters and keeps a fire going to attract ships ,while Jack hunts pigs for food. Jack slowly gains control of group and he is tranformed from a choir boy to a hunter. He and his gang slaughter a pig and offer its head to the beast. the The beast turns out to be nothing but a rotting corpse. Simon figures this out and runs to inform the others . He gets killed in a stampede of animal frenzy by the boys. Meanwhile Jack steals piggys glasses and Ralph can no longer keep the fire going. In the ensuing battle piggy gets killed and Jack starts hunting Ralph like a pig. The killing of Simon and the hunting of Ralph is spoken in a powerful and poignant way. The story ends on a note of irony with a sailor finding Ralph and assuming that he must be playing with his friends.
Rating:
Summary: Great imagery and insight
Review: Wow. This book awed me with it's power. It makes you think... is our essense really so savage and bloodthirsty? The speed of their decline into savagery shocked me... surely they had been trained well by then. How could they discard their taught social characteristics so easily? What also left an impression on me was Ralph... at the first of the book he was pliant to the whims of the mob, pleasure-seeking and immature. By the end he is a leader who laments the loss of innocence and reason. I guess, though I don't usually like books with so much description of the foliage, the reason it is such a worthy book is that I will remember it... I will remember Ralph being manhunted, his fear almost palpable.
Rating:
Summary: "I'm frightened. Of us."
Review: A group of young schoolchildren (all male) are evacuated from Britain in the wake of a nuclear war. As it turns out, their airplane has crashed onto an uninhabited island, with the result that there are no adult survivors to be found. In the opening scenes, children begin to slowly emerge from the forest and converge on the beach at the summons of the book's main character Ralph. As they are now thrust together in this new environment, it becomes apparent that a new sort of social order is going to be necessary. What follows for the length of the book is an elaborate working out of this (attempted) democratic style of social order. After an initial confrontation of two groups on the beach (one led by Ralph, the other led by Jack), Ralph is elected as leader. Early on, we see that Ralph's interests tend to be "group" oriented. His concern is with rescue, and with keeping the others focused on this objective through the maintenance of a signal fire. We see shadows in Jack however, that are more temporal, concerned with the hungry rumble in his stomach. And here we sense the beginnings of conflict, and the age-old fact looming to remind us that, even in democracy we need to recognize submission to elected leadership. In a pivotal chapter (ch.5) one of the children declares "We're drifting and things are going rotten. At home there was always a grown-up." The significance here is that, by filling his island with castaway children (rather than adults) Golding allows us to consider more aspects of innate or instinctual human nature than if it had been otherwise. Children are raw. If this island were inhabited by castaway "grown-ups" the results and conclusions they came to would be conditioned by all of the ingenuity, resourcefulness, and maturity with which they'd have dealt with previous struggles and needs. Socially, they would have been able to draw upon the results (good or bad) of past decisions made in the clash and clang of more mature inclinations and inhibitions. But children are not afforded this perspective of experience. Golding populates his island with children because he wants to emphasize the full range of possibilities that are INNATE in the human condition, typified in this case by Ralph's tears on the very last page. Tears, we are told, which he wept "for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart." With the frenzied killing of Simon in ch.9 comes the real disintegration; a rapid descent into moral anarchy. Ralph is the only one who dares to say it... "That was murder." He has the keenest sense of the mob mentality that will inevitably run roughshod over the individual conscience. Earlier than any of the others he understands their own capacity for evil when he says to Piggy, "I'm frightened. Of us." I had the heartrate of a chased fox in the last chapter... you will too. And when the question was flung out at the end "Who's boss here?"... Ralph's loud cry of "I am" rang through my very soul. Those two words signify the triumph of perception over ignorance. The lasting value of the book is its ability to pose the question "What if I were thrust into a similar situation?" Which character would I most resemble... with whom do I most identify? How is it then, that we in fact, do behave? What if?... This story speaks to any overly optimistic answer to that question when we remember that the entire reason these children found themselves on this island in the first place, was that they were fleeing a nuclear war that "grown-ups" had started.
Rating:
Summary: The Beast Within
Review: How long will it take for the mores and constraints of civilization to be eroded in a surreal, isolated jungle setting? A group of English schoolboys survive a plane crash in a post- nuclear world, to find themselves on a lush, tropical island, with no apparent dangers and even better-no adults! Sounds idyllic: no rules, no punishment, no judgment for bizarre behavior. Nor anyone to take responsibility for the "littleuns." But social dynamics quickly emerge, as human nature is released from 12 years of training. Thoughtful Ralph is voted Chief, with bespectacled Piggy his second in command. The right to speak in council is formalized by the possession of "the Conch" shell. Is it human nature to require rules and ritual? Their critical need, of course, is to maintain a signal fire (especially the smoke) to attract a passing ship. For if there is no Hope of rescue, what will happen to this mini outbost of Britian; will they "go native?" Rivalry increases as Jack--leader of the choir boys turned hunters--challenges Ralph's authority, gradually luring many boys to his tribe which offers disguises and promotes violence. Will Ralph realize that he needs to rely on both Piggy's logic and Simon's insight? Could a boy's game disintegrate so quickly into murder? Can Fear evolve into a hideous primitive religion? Is it necessary to create a god of sorts? A gripping tale of the immortal struggle between man's baser instincts and centuries of socialization. A grim must-read for all thinking adults, Lord of the Flies offers great adventure for kids. This is Not a CHILDREN's Classic.
Rating:
Summary: A pithy account of society
Review: Within Lord of the Flies 208 pages is a harrowing tale of the intrinsic evil present in humans. Before reading the novel I was a staunch believer that humans are intrinsically good; however, Lord of the Flies questioned my stubborn belief, and although I still believe that humans are inherently good, I am now aware of the opposing arguements and their validity . Lord of the Flies accomplishes such a potent message because we can all relate to the derelicted school boys. We can all relate to Piggy, the one ostracized boy because at times we too are ostracized. By using such familiar themes Golding accomplishes what so few authors have done before: He affected my life... He actually changed a view that I have. I took something away from Lord of the Flies... I learned something. Even though Lord of the Flies can be read as entertainment, it is also a book that one can take something away from. You can share Golding's insight. That is the mark of a good book. Goldings 208 pages have done what Hobbes' entire corpus has failed to do: change my stance.
Rating: 
Summary: BORING!!
Review: This book can be summed up in one word: BORING. Don't buy it unless you have to for school, even then I wouldn't open it. Read the cliff notes- it's less painful.
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