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2024 Review - 5 stars
I challenged myself in 2024 to re-read the books that impacted me most in my 20s. Orthodoxy ranked high on that list. But I realized that to really re-read Orthodoxy, I first needed to start at the beginning of the debate, with the shots fired in Heretics. (And truly, this book is shots fired! Chesterton has no problem tackling all the big thinkers of his day and explaining Why They Are Wrong.)
It is a curious books in many respects. Published in 1905, Heretics stands at a weird crossroads halfway through the Edwardian era. WW1 is still a murky 9 years or so off. Joseph Chamberlain is the British politician garnering Chesterton's wrath; his son will yet become Neville Chamberlain who infamously attempted to appease Hitler.
The thinkers of the day garnering Chesterton's critique will be familiar in our English lit courses but not necessarily to our philosophy classes. Chesterton kicks off by analyzing the public writing of Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, and Bernard Shaw.
The first half of this book, where Chesterton stays (mostly) on track by focusing on other thinkers, is the most digestible and most practical. He then veers off at random points to vent about cowardly journalists, the fallacy of "young" nations, and the problem with identifying certain attributes with race. (All particularly interesting in light of Europe's next few decades.)

As you might expect with Chesterton, no matter what his topic, he has the best one liners. A few favorites:
"Scotland continues to be educated and Calvinistic; England continues to be uneducated and happy."

"Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable."

But he also has a way of expressing big thoughts with few words, meaning it often takes a while to fully grasp what he is saying. But when you do, it sure packs a wallop!
"The rolling stone rolls from rock to rock; but the rolling stone is dead. The moss is silent because the moss is alive."

"There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique. The men of the clan live together because they all wear the same tartan or are all descended from the same sacred cow; but in their souls, by the divine luck of things, there will always be more colors than in any tartan. But the men of the clique live together because they have the same kind of soul, and their narrowness is a narrowness of spiritual coherence and contentment, like that which exists in hell."

2018 Review - 4 stars
Obviously, this is G.K. Chesterton so I am going to love it. However, probably my "least" favorite of the books I've read by him. It feels somewhat random and thrown together. I can see how it paved the way for Orthodoxy, though, one of his greatest works.
Contains many profound thoughts! I love the way he writes. I particularly appreciate his advocacy for "bad" novels.