Review by cursed10fold - Watership Down

cursed10fold 's review for:

Watership Down by Richard Adams

4.5

adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I think aspects of the book are dated (both socially and in terms of rabbit science) but I think the inner lives of animals are an interesting topic to explore especially for a fantasy novel.

I appreciate that the author didn't anthropomorphize the animals too much in terms of their behaviors or make the rabbits too cuddly/Disney-esque as I find that sometimes people have a tendency to sanitize nature when nature can be fairly brutal and unforgiving (especially when you're a member of a species that's on a low tier of a food web).

I thought that the novel provided a really interesting thought experiment in what it must be like to live such a life and how bizarre/terrifying they must think humans are.

All that being said, I think I enjoyed the graphic novel adaptation more as it streamlined the story and cut some of the most dated lines. I mainly enjoyed the novel for the extra El-ahrairah stories.

Content Warnings