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A review by versmonesprit
Rare Beasts by Charles Ogden
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Rediscovering and trying to reconnect with your childhood’s precious moments can sometimes be a bad idea.
Edgar and Ellen hovered somewhere in my mind through all these years, ever linked to the image of my elementary school’s cosy library where I felt the most at home. I remember flying through Rare Beasts which I fully credit with awakening in me the first embers of the macabre. At a time I was growing increasingly apart from my early childhood’s more saccharine stories and interests, and as such from my classmates, Rare Beasts was a connection, an acceptance, a proof that my changing taste in books (as well as music and aesthetics) was not “weird,” but surely a part of something, something valid in the wider world. Over the years, it has become clear to me that nothing can ever be more important for a child.
So at a time I found myself getting a bit disillusioned with reading, losing my every day joy, feeling somber overall, I thought I’d once again find shelter in Rare Beasts, which I had finally managed to recall and find a few months ago. With its inextricable synonymity to my elementary school’s library, my childhood fortress, an unending source of warm memories, I was sure I would be in for a great time.
What I found couldn’t be farther from what had remained of it in my mind. Of course I, now an adult nearing my 30s, was not expecting anything beyond a children’s book, but that’s exactly why I was as disappointed! I think back then I was so desperate for something to feed the seeds of my ‘emo phase’ which was rising in the horizon, I held onto the imagery of the “evil” twins without caring much for an engrossing reading experience. Children’s books should always provide some sort of entertainment, even if a bittersweet one! Rare Beasts was exhausting to drag through. It was neither fun nor particularly entertaining, and instead relied on the adult characters being unbelievably dumb, such as a zoologist who’s incapable of recognising tinsel and paint on household animals. I do not like it when any book treats its reader as an idiot, and I think it’s even worse when a children’s book hinges on children being gullible. We can treat children as capable of basic intelligence, and give them stories that have a more complex plot or premise that can be supported by logic, and even in a fantasy world setting, I don’t think as many adults would be incapable of recognising Christmas lights when they see said lights on an animal! Everyone would be able to tell inorganic material from organic matter, so maybe go the extra length of making your characters work harder to craft something that could be actually convincing?
Maybe I took it all the harder because this current disappointment retroactively diminished a key moment of my childhood, but expecting something devilish and finding something as low effort as this really ruined October all the more. I will still likely read the other books I can find, and I was happy to at least see that I still love Pet, by far the most fun aspect of the book!
Edgar and Ellen hovered somewhere in my mind through all these years, ever linked to the image of my elementary school’s cosy library where I felt the most at home. I remember flying through Rare Beasts which I fully credit with awakening in me the first embers of the macabre. At a time I was growing increasingly apart from my early childhood’s more saccharine stories and interests, and as such from my classmates, Rare Beasts was a connection, an acceptance, a proof that my changing taste in books (as well as music and aesthetics) was not “weird,” but surely a part of something, something valid in the wider world. Over the years, it has become clear to me that nothing can ever be more important for a child.
So at a time I found myself getting a bit disillusioned with reading, losing my every day joy, feeling somber overall, I thought I’d once again find shelter in Rare Beasts, which I had finally managed to recall and find a few months ago. With its inextricable synonymity to my elementary school’s library, my childhood fortress, an unending source of warm memories, I was sure I would be in for a great time.
What I found couldn’t be farther from what had remained of it in my mind. Of course I, now an adult nearing my 30s, was not expecting anything beyond a children’s book, but that’s exactly why I was as disappointed! I think back then I was so desperate for something to feed the seeds of my ‘emo phase’ which was rising in the horizon, I held onto the imagery of the “evil” twins without caring much for an engrossing reading experience. Children’s books should always provide some sort of entertainment, even if a bittersweet one! Rare Beasts was exhausting to drag through. It was neither fun nor particularly entertaining, and instead relied on the adult characters being unbelievably dumb, such as a zoologist who’s incapable of recognising tinsel and paint on household animals. I do not like it when any book treats its reader as an idiot, and I think it’s even worse when a children’s book hinges on children being gullible. We can treat children as capable of basic intelligence, and give them stories that have a more complex plot or premise that can be supported by logic, and even in a fantasy world setting, I don’t think as many adults would be incapable of recognising Christmas lights when they see said lights on an animal! Everyone would be able to tell inorganic material from organic matter, so maybe go the extra length of making your characters work harder to craft something that could be actually convincing?
Maybe I took it all the harder because this current disappointment retroactively diminished a key moment of my childhood, but expecting something devilish and finding something as low effort as this really ruined October all the more. I will still likely read the other books I can find, and I was happy to at least see that I still love Pet, by far the most fun aspect of the book!