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itsreadintime 's review for:
Watership Down
by Richard Adams
adventurous
challenging
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Definitely an interesting read, although I think it could have stood to be one or two hundred pages shorter. I really liked the folk tale-y El-ahrairah sections, and learning about the (somewhat limited) rabbit culture was entertaining. But I thought the character development really left something to be desired; in the beginning, each rabbit in Hazel's warren is shown to have a particular skill they excel at, but this development is not really capitalized upon. In my opinion Bigwig's character is handled especially poorly, as he starts off as the stereotypical "all muscle, no brains or tact" character, and by the end he's defeating rabbits twice his size and also leading a wildly successful espionage mission. (This evolution didn't feel realistic to me; I felt like it was just serving the plot.) Despite this, he is never in the running to be Chief Rabbit, although he arguably acts like a better leader than Hazel by the end of the story. The rest of the rabbits mostly fade into the background and become hard to tell apart.
The treatment of women (does) in the book is also pretty horrible. They're essentially described as only being good for breeding and digging burrows (although the bucks quickly realize they can just dig their own burrows).Of all the dangerous situations the main warren is put in, all the male rabbits survive. Two of the does die almost immediately upon joining the warren. One is seemingly killed just to give teeth to the ever-present threat of predators which is otherwise never paid off. The other dies by being too stupid to duck under a bridge as the warren passes underneath it on a boat. Other than a small handful of named does throughout the book, they all blend together.
Beautiful ending though, almost made me cry.
The treatment of women (does) in the book is also pretty horrible. They're essentially described as only being good for breeding and digging burrows (although the bucks quickly realize they can just dig their own burrows).
Beautiful ending though, almost made me cry.