Review: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This review will contain spoilers (as most other reviews of this book seem to). But before I do I'll just say this book is short (4 pages), good, and available for free on the internet. So stop reading reviews and just read the story. 

The only thing I knew about this story before reading it was that some people on Twitter considered it one of the greats, along the lines of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. And I should say it didn't really disappoint. For its short length, it packs a pretty good punch. I think this was accentuated by the fact that, right after finishing it, I saw this https://twitter.com/repubblica/status/1568876004399288320 and made the mistake of reading some of the comments. I couldn't help thinking that these racist commenters have convinced themselves that life is zero-sum, and someone else's suffering is justified if the outcome is that they aren't suffering. I'm probably projecting, but that's likely a sign of how this story affected my outlook. 

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