Reviews

Watership Down by Richard Adams

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scarahs's review against another edition

5.0

Peter Capaldi's narration is outstanding. Watership Down remains one of my all-time favorite books since childhood. I read my own copy until it fell apart and I was obsessed with the 1978 movie. It was such a delight to re-read (listen) to the book again after all these years.

debmo79's review

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5.0

Like many people, I loved/was traumatised by the movie adaptation in the seventies, but I had never read the book until now. Perhaps this is recency bias, but I don't think I have ever read a book that I have loved as much as this one. The characters are timeless, the story is epic, the themes are universal. I cried multiple times. One of those books where you experience a palpable sense of loss when you finish it - I'm going to miss this world so much.

godforsakencatboy's review

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Me when a book about rabbits spans across multiple genres (adventure, horror… okay maybe that’s it)

helena_marie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

3.75

Bigwig is my hero

deathmetalheron's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful informative tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This is classic I've wanted to read for a while, as I love rabbits and I found the concept of them very fun. The worldbuilding, between the warren dynamics, the Lapine language, and descriptions of the human world from rabbit point of view are all phenomenal. There are a lot of characters here but and many of the aspects would contrast against common assumptions about "good" writing, but I do appreciate the asides where Adams takes the time to explain the distinction as to why rabbits approach things the way they do. The rabbits may be talking and they may have a lot of human tendencies but there is a careful tendency to not completely anthropomorphize them.
I was definitely led to believe this was much grittier than it is, I wouldn't say it's lighthearted but it's not a downer ending by any means. I do find it interesting that is often characterized as "children's" literature because the writing is shockingly dense. There's quite a bit to process and it feels like the kind of book a parent should read with children. It definitely feels like a hallmark of an older era of children's books.
My own personal complaint with the books is the El-ahrairah stories--there are four of them, one in each arc, they are all quite long, and I don't feel like they add much to the narrative bar the one with the Black Rabbit. I do feel a cutaway would've been fair at this point.

Content Warnings