Redwall by Brian Jacques | Book Review

★★★★★

5 Stars | Young Adult |Fiction | Fantasy | Adventure

An amazing adventure for anyone!

I picked up this book several years ago and read it with my son. I loved it so much my husband bought me the rest of the series and I have listened to the audiobook 3 additional times.

You are immediately introduced to most of the animal characters living at Redwall Abbey, the mice, squirrels, moles, and the like. It is a self-supporting community that enjoys the fruits of their labor and living peaceful, abundant lives with friends and loved ones. A picturesque place that must learn how to defend itself and that fighting has its place when it comes to defending what you hold most dear. Cluny is the malicious, power-hungry leader of a rat army that gives no quarter to anyone, will take whatever he wants by force, and he has his eye set on taking Redwall.    

There are a lot of different characters presented throughout this book, but they are easily distinguishable from one another with their own personalities and characteristics. My son, 7 years old at the time, had a harder time tracking all the characters, but he would still get excited when listening to certain parts or worried at others. When I was reading aloud, I couldn’t help attempting the accents and I do mean ‘attempt.’ Foremole being the hardest to understand and mimic.

The author takes readers into the world of Mossflower Woods and the lives of the animals living there. It was very easy for me to see everything the author described. Adventure abounds in this story without it being pointless, questioning how they got to that point in the book and without being rushed or choppy. I really enjoyed that not every chapter had a major event happening in it to keep the children's interest every second, but had some slower chapters as well, as a real story should. The story moves along at a nice pace, even the slower parts, and doesn’t leave you wanting, except to read the next book in the series.

The author doesn’t hold back displaying the characteristics of the bad guys and the good ones. The bad guys show varying degrees of dastardly behavior and the good guys are certainly not perfect by any means but do their best to behave in a moral manner which makes them more realistic, even as animals.

I cannot wait to see what new adventure awaits me in the other books Brian Jacques wrote in the Redwall Series, but I’ll be honest, I am worried that it may get old or start lacking in story or the way characters are presented since there are so many books in the series and so many different characters. I hope not, but I will let you know.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading it with my daughter for the 5th time. This book I’ll keep in my library for years to come.

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