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A review by aneides
War Bunny by Christopher St. John
3.0
3.5 *
Thanks to the author & publisher for this ebook I received in a Goodreads giveaway!
I feel compelled to share this information: I read Watership Down as an adult. It is a polarizing book, but I neither violently loved nor hated it--I liked it but thought it overlong. So now you know my track record on talking rabbit stories.
So, War Bunny, huh? I was both hopeful and skeptical about the premise of a book about rabbits fighting back against their divinely appointed predators.
* The first 2/3 or so of the book was good. Engaging. I had hoped for some allegory or modern parallels, but c'est la vie. The last bit of the book became stuck in a rut with no significant plot or character development. The story ends without any real conclusion. Yes, I know a sequel is intended, but every episode should have a feeling of completion.
* I suspect the author wrote this book specifically so it could be developed into a movie. It has that feel to it.
* There were so many characters that it was difficult to keep track of who was who, especially amongst the bunnies and rodents. Might have been nice if the author had standardized the names a bit better, as he did for the coyotes (all with French names).
* I could have done without the use of so much modern vernacular. This story is supposed to take place centuries in the future, long after the end of humans, and it feels a little gross to have a squirrel talking like a contemporary YouTube personality. It is, of course, inherently funny for animals to speak with a non-standard patois or accent, but it disrupts my suspension of disbelief and feels a bit pandering to have it be the vernacular of right now. (If it had been some kind of roman à clef that told a modern story, that would be a different matter.)
* I also wish there weren't footnotes with translations from (mostly) French. The superscripts are annoying and it makes me feel a bit condescended-to. I mean--if I don't know a word, I am perfectly capable of looking things up on l'Internet in this day and age. I am not a child who needs a vocab list.
Thanks to the author & publisher for this ebook I received in a Goodreads giveaway!
I feel compelled to share this information: I read Watership Down as an adult. It is a polarizing book, but I neither violently loved nor hated it--I liked it but thought it overlong. So now you know my track record on talking rabbit stories.
So, War Bunny, huh? I was both hopeful and skeptical about the premise of a book about rabbits fighting back against their divinely appointed predators.
* The first 2/3 or so of the book was good. Engaging. I had hoped for some allegory or modern parallels, but c'est la vie. The last bit of the book became stuck in a rut with no significant plot or character development. The story ends without any real conclusion. Yes, I know a sequel is intended, but every episode should have a feeling of completion.
* I suspect the author wrote this book specifically so it could be developed into a movie. It has that feel to it.
* There were so many characters that it was difficult to keep track of who was who, especially amongst the bunnies and rodents. Might have been nice if the author had standardized the names a bit better, as he did for the coyotes (all with French names).
* I could have done without the use of so much modern vernacular. This story is supposed to take place centuries in the future, long after the end of humans, and it feels a little gross to have a squirrel talking like a contemporary YouTube personality. It is, of course, inherently funny for animals to speak with a non-standard patois or accent, but it disrupts my suspension of disbelief and feels a bit pandering to have it be the vernacular of right now. (If it had been some kind of roman à clef that told a modern story, that would be a different matter.)
* I also wish there weren't footnotes with translations from (mostly) French. The superscripts are annoying and it makes me feel a bit condescended-to. I mean--if I don't know a word, I am perfectly capable of looking things up on l'Internet in this day and age. I am not a child who needs a vocab list.