Redwall review

(Cute little mouse in an Abbey)

Redwall (Book 1 of the Redwall series) by Brian Jacques

Rating : five stars

To be honest I am probably not objective at all for this review. Redwall was one of my favorite series as a child and I remember watching every episode of the animated series I even had the DVDs. Although the book series are darker and denser, it still brings back my childhood memories.

The first book of the Rewall series follows the story of a young mouse Matthias who lives in the Abbey of Redwall. The Abbey and the forest of Mossflower have to face the terrible threat of Cluny the Scrooge a war rat who destroys everything. But the Abbey is hiding a great weapon, the soul of Martin the Great a warrior mouse who had spent his last days in the Abbey. Matthias sets on a journey to reclaims Martin’s sword and save the Abbey.

Honestly the book was a lot darker than I remembered. In the animated series there were no graphic deaths whereas in the book it is a bit gorier. I seriously don’t remember reading theses passages as a child…. Perhaps a child doesn’t realise how horrible it is? Anyways, even the plot was as I remembered it and I still really loved it!

For those who have seen the animated series the plot is very similar, there are a few changes but overall there is no plot change not like A Song of Ice and Fire (Am I the only one frustrated with the changes in the TV shows?).

What I love about this series is that the characters are anthropomorphic, yeah you have talking mice, rats, sparrows, etc.,  but it’s not weird. In some books the whole talking animal feels not natural, but here they are behaving like humans and their animal characteristic are defining their personalities. In my opinion, the fact that they were animals were not very important except for explaining conflicts or personalities.

The book is very quick to read even for 300 something pages, chapters are very short and the story is very fast paced. There are no moments where nothing happens or like there is in some novels “filling moments” basically when a character goes from place A to place B or wants to gather information.

It is considered a Middle grade book but it can still be enjoyed by adults. It’s a good fantasy book and lighter than any epic fantasy book, it’s a good way to get back into reading to be honest. I will definitely reread the other books in the series but maybe not all of them xD