We
Yevgeny Zamyatin
1924 · 112 pages · Science fiction
How it reads
We is science fiction (dystopian science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in a big city setting, in the future, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are power and politics and identity. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 112 pages it's a single-sitting book. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something dark
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy, heartwarming or funny
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- early career
- Setting: place
- big city
- Setting: time
- future
- Mood / feeling
- dark
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- classic
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- power and politics, identity
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Lost Ark DreamingSuyi Davies OkungbowaShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, dystopian science fiction
1984George OrwellShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
The Handmaid’s TaleMargaret AtwoodShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
Fahrenheit 451Ray BradburyShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, dystopian science fiction- The Dream HotelLaila LalamiShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, dystopian science fiction, moderate pace
Future Home of the Living GodLouise ErdrichShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
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