A review by maebemerissa
The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

adventurous hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

You ever reread a book from you childhood and go "well that's a lot darker than I remembered." That was me reading The Horse and His Boy. This kid (Shasta) starts out as a slave pretty much, but has a pretty good hunch he's not from the area because he's ya know...white and everyone else is definitely not white (I get the vibe the they're supposed to be Southeast Asian). By the end of the book, Shasta has been chased down by a lion like 5 times, crossed a desert WITH NO SHOES, and gets thrown into a battle by a kid who looks a lot like him. Honestly, all things considered, Shasta takes them like a champ. There's definitely an ongoing theme of EARNING your thrown as a king and not just being born into it. I  have some follow-up questions about Narnia now: why is magic only a thing in Narnia and not really in the other countries? It isn't some sort of geographic limit, because Aslan seems pretty active in every country of the book. Why aren't there magical creatures in the other countries? Bre, who is a talking horse, keeps the fact that he can talk on the DL because he doesn't want to be used by humans. However, if there is a magical country nearby, what's to keep other magical creatures from going to other countries? Or people just kidnapping them? To be fair, I did not finish the whole series when I was younger, so maybe I'll get some answers in later books. 
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