Reviews - The Horse and His Boy

4.57k reviews for:

Love the adventure story: a young, poor boy escapes from slavery with a talking horse. They are joined by a wealthy, but determined young girl and her talking horse. There is disguise, intrigue, racing against time, battles, courage, storytelling, and the building of friendship, all of which are richly told with a good amount of complexity and layering in the characters.

And then there's the description of the culture these two intrepid youngsters are running from. It seems to be a very generalized idea of "Arab" that includes descriptions of dark skin, worship of tyrannical rulers, barbarous treatment of animals and slaves, and a lavish display of greed and materialism. *sigh

As a kid, I loved this story, as I did the entire series. As an adult, the adventure is still thrilling and Aravis remains an admirable feminine heroine without diminishing Shasta from also being heroic. But the descriptions of the Calormene people are a little harder to swallow now.

basbleu_dans_labiblioteque's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This is absolutely my favorite of the Narnia books.

maddyjo's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging funny hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

marsusdm's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

daveddorsey's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

shanaqui's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This used to be my favourite, I think, perhaps because of Aravis. It's fallen out of my favour a bit more as an adult, perhaps because Shasta and Aravis are so very young.