Two stars because that’s legitimately how this book made me feel. One of those books I’ve meant to pick up a decade ago when I was reading a lot of dystopian fiction that was influenced/inspired by it. And one I should have perhaps culled from my TBR as my interest in those dystopians faded. While the internal monologue of our main character is heavily influenced by the extremely toxic culture that he finds himself in (that we are not supposed to be a fan of) it did make reading the book like being continually pricked by needles. Although, I guess I can see where people are coming from when they say that Zamyatin treats at least one of his female characters better then Orwell ended up doing. For all his general distaste for this novel. I seem to recall that one thing I did appreciate about 1984 that overlaps here is that we are centring a nobody who only gets ground down in the process. A more realistic perspective then some more popular dystopian where the main character is special and able to break down the system with their specialness. Of course at this point I see many more dangers in hyper individuality over having a more communal society. Not to mention that I think the black white binary between so called civilized/industrialized and everything that is held up as not those things should get chucked out the window.