Reviews with content warning for Blood - Watership Down

I. Loved. This. Book. I'd heard that it was about rabbits banding together and having to fight for their survival, and being a long-time lover of the Warrior Cats books, I knew that I would like it.

On the surface, it's about a group of rabbits who build a new forever-home for the fear that their current home will be destroyed. I feel like the joy of freedom is an important theme (if you would call it that) as the rabbits quite literally put their lives on the line for it in multiple instances.

Adams does a great job of shrinking us down and forcing us to look at the hardships of a rabbit-- a wade through a small river is not a problem for a human that's at least 5ft tall, but for a small little rabbit it's really a huge obstacle. Most characters have their own strengths and weaknesses and are interesting in their own ways, even the antagonist. The ending feels nice and conclusive, I teared up a little and felt incredibly proud of the characters.

The only thing I didn't really enjoy was the initial (albeit minor) struggle to understand what I was reading, as Adams' style of writing is not what I usually read, and he introduced a lot of rabbit lingo that I didn't understand, but it didn't take long to get used to it. I also wasn't a fan of how long and frequent the stories of rabbit folklore were because it just kinda seemed like each tale was giving the same message of rabbits being clever?

All in all, it's a good read, and genuinely gripping at some parts. The violence isn't all too descriptive but there are definitely some rabbit deaths, fighting, and bloodshed.

Content Warnings

mikki_9's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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vera_the_waffle's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging inspiring medium-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? No

5.0

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katie0528's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

A classic I never got around to as a kid. I've heard about how traumatizing it is, and perhaps 20 years ago it would be absolutely devestating to me. I was surpised at the length of the book, but it's quite the adventure.

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koplomps's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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lou_pooh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I loved how descriptive the book was and how you get to know all the charecters in the story. New adventures challenging, dark but inspiring around each cornor. It also had great additions in there about there beliefs and story tellings.

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