Reviews

The Borribles by Michael de Larrabeiti

sally_ann_t's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

jonmhansen's review

4.0

It’s a cracking good read, as the kids never said, and is remarkably grim and bloody for a story aimed at the schoolboy set. And the ending is quite cynical. No wonder the kids back in the day liked it.

wildwoila's review

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

Kid-like hoodlums run rampant through London's nooks & crannies, launching a gang war with their arch enemies. Apparently a kids book, but dripping in casual violence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

ruth_rb's review

adventurous dark emotional lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This re-read was a blast from the past, though I didn't enjoy it as much as I did when I was twelve, and it didn't feel quite as daring as I remembered it to be.

For me, the stand-outs of this book are its real and grimy setting, fast pace, and extensive and inventive world building. The anti-greed and anti-establishment made a big impact on me as a child, and still feels effective today.

With its large group of adventurers, plot, magical England and themes, I think this would be a good read for anyone who enjoys Tolkien, especially if the Hobbit and The Fellowship of the ring are favourite books of yours. I can see a lot of parallels and cannot help but assume that Tolkien was an inspiration to de Larrabeiti.

But, for those who enjoy more contemporary fantasy, this might feel lacking. Though diversity isn't completely lacking—one of the main borribles is black and two of them are female—it cannot compare to more recent books. Though I feel these three characters are handled pretty respectively, the book is extremely white and male to the point it was distracting, felt hard to believe as well as untrue to 20th century England. Also, the only disabled character is shown to be evil and is murdered, which was pretty upsetting. If these are dealbreakers for you, maybe give the book a miss.

As I rated this 4 stars, this clearly didn't ruin the story for me and I still think it is great

capellan's review

4.0

I first read "The Borribles" when I was 11, and fell in love with the anarchic tale of scruffy street kids launching a commando-style assassination strike on a race of subterranean rat-creatures. I'm still a fan as an adult, even if I do now tend to notice some of the probability-stretching conveniences of the plot, and the rather inconsistent characterisation of the antagonists (though at least, as an adult, I realise who they are a pastiche of).

Don't get caught!

emvsmith's review

3.0

A fun, yet violent romp. Street urchins, who are a mix of Peter Pan's lost boys and the pick pockets from Oliver Twist, plan revenge on the nasty Rumbles. Plodding around London with their trust catapults they fight to perserve their way of life and to earn their names.

janetlun's review

I loved China Mi�ville's 'The City and the City', which lead me to read about him on Wikipedia. There I learned that he loved 'The Borribles', and despised the sentimental bucolic world as venerated by Tolkien. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Pooh. So the universe was going in for some fun coincidences when I picked up a copy of this book just as the library reservation process delivered up Elizabeth Goudge's 'The Little White Horse'. I read them back to back. I can't say that either is flawless.[return]My copy of 'The Borribles' is labeled 'A Tor Teen Book. Ages 13 and up'. It is the most disturbingly violent young adult novel I've ever read. The body count is lower than Tolkien (I know, he wasn't writing YA, but that's when I read LOTR), but Tolkien's violence is the bloodless sort of old time Westerns or Star Wars: the good guys mow down vast quantities of faceless bad guys, and occasionally get wounded in the shoulder. The Borribles team is dispatched on an assassination mission. Their victims have faces. They capture a guy from the other side and tie him up, and you suspect that they're going to kill him in cold blood. They don't, but only because an animal finds him and eats him while he's unable to defend himself. The mission isn't high minded like throwing the ring in the volcano, either. It's sold as defending the Borribles from attack, but actually turns out to be purely a political power grab. I don't necessarily consider this a bad thing. Pulling the veil off of the platitudes about war and violence strikes me as a good thing, on the whole. It was quite startling, however.[return]I didn't particularly enjoy it as a book, but I often don't like YA all that much. I'm not much for an assassination team plot, regards of the age it's written for. I kept reading out of fascination with how much it violated all the usual rules.[return]I did think the book was uneven. On the one hand, the Borrible creed is all about every Borrible for themself. There's no society less likely to put the team before the individual. At the same time, this team wobbles between tough individualism and taking one for the Gipper. That felt off.

sunsoar25's review

4.0

I love Larrabeiti's voice and tone in The Borribles. I was so pleased that it wasn't as childish as it could have been (what I was half expecting) but was instead very dark and gritty. There's plenty of action, adventure, triumph, and tragedy to draw in a wide variety of readers. I'm looking forward to reading the second and third books in the series. What a pleasant surprise!

dearbhla's review

5.0

Borribles are small, looking like children apart from the fact that they have pointed ears, but they may be hundreds of years old, for they can live forever, unless they are caught and get their ears clipped. If that happens they will turn into regular children and will be doomed into growing up into boring, adventureless adults.

The trilogy begins with the story of the great Rumble Hunt, where nine Borribles go on a mission to stop the Rumbles invading their manors. Eight are nameless adventurerers out to earn a name, while the ninth, Knocker goes as their historian, but has another aim as well. He wants to get a second name, for all Borribles must earn their names, and no Borrible can go adventuring once he has a name. This may be his chance.

De Larrabeiti uses the streets of London as his setting, and they really do come alive in these three stories, as do the characters. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the SBG (Special Borrible Group) officers; The DAC, for example has shoes that

"shone so brilliantly that it was impossible to tell what colour they were."

while inspecter Sussworth's

"face was like a three-fingered signpost, turned by mischievous hands so that everything pointed down the wrong road…He kicked the ground when he was annoyed, he did a little three-step dance when he was pleased. He was stubborn and he was proud; his blood bubbled with a lunatic zeal, he was an evangelist for rectitude and decorum, an enforcer of law and order."

But it is the Borribles who are the heroes and they who more than entertain with their adventures and attempts to evade the SBG, as well as rescue the horse Sam who saved them on the Great Rumble Hunt.

This may be part of children's literature but it is very far from the world of Harry Potter and Hogwarts. The London of the Borribles is described in wonderfully grimy detail while the open spaces of the parks and fields are regarded with trepidation by the Borribles, after all there is nothing to steal there, nowhere to kip and nowhere to hide.

These stories have been out of print for years, but I for one am glad that they have been reissued. I didn't read them when I was young, but I would recommend them, especially for non-fans of the Wombles. For they, although altered, are the basis of the Rumbles of Rumbledon. Although the Rumbles are far more violent, using their sticks as weapons rathar than for picking up litter.

Darkly entertaining stories

tomasthanes's review

3.0

This is one of the more unique (and I mean that in the *best* possible way) fantasy books I've read. The Borribles are child-sized and live by their thieving and cunning in and around London. Their enemy, the Rumbles, have made an incursion into the Battersea area initiating a grand adventure. It is a well told story with a large number of characters but its always clear who is doing/saying what. It is the first in a YA trilogy which explains why all questions in this book weren't answered right away.