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misspalah 's review for:

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
3.0

Our friend stood still for a moment, and throwing his head a little back, said, “Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?” “No,” said the other. “Then I’ll tell you. It is because people think only about their own business, and won’t trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doer to light. I never see a wicked thing like this without doing what I can.
- Anna Sewell, Black Beauty
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A childhood classics which i never got a chance to read it - i can’t remember whether i read it but i am 80% sure i have never read this book. Welp, better late than never. Upon finishing the book, i genuinely felt this was not written for kids - because it’s heavily insinuating animal abuse and cruelty through the black beauty’s point of view. However, since it applied anthropomorphism in it, i guess it softened the blow or the impact on how much Black Beauty were treated poorly by his countless masters. He was being sold and bought oftentimes and was expected to adapt with different way of life in a short period of time. He was being beaten, yanked and rode at the whim of his masters whenever they felt like it. Sure, there are good masters and nice caretakers but the bad one stood out the most. Either back then and now, i felt animal were not treated with respect so reading this book just demonstrated different times didn’t really change anything for animal. Overall, what a bleak reading. It was sadly a reality for many animals. The reason i gave 3 stars was despite so many lessons to be learned from the book , i find it draggy and got bored after i passed 150 pages. I just cant wait to finish it ASAP.