The hard-edged dystopia of Orwell’s 1984 tends to be invoked more often nowadays than Huxley’s vision of a contentedly numbed populace, but in some respects, Brave New World seems closer to our lived reality. Social media as the modern Soma, anyone?

This is a good, highly engaging adaptation of the famous novel for English students, but could also prompt some interesting discussions around safety and privacy in other contexts.

Fordham utilises the graphic novel format to the full, with exciting, near-cinematic renderings of the action (complete with imagined aerial shots, dramatic close-ups and the like) that bring the narrative to life, giving Huxley’s seminal work a sense of urgency and visual appeal that makes it more readily accessible for a whole new audience, while for the most part staying faithful to the original text.

This review first appeared in Teach Secondary magazine. To see my original version (the one I submitted to the editor), please see Two reviews for the price of one!.