Watership down - not as "scary" as percieved! (Watership Down - Richard Adams)

Member Name: Docbrother

Product:	Watership Down - Richard Adams
Date:	03/10/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great charactors, exciting plot line

Disadvantages: is shunned by some because they think it will be sad or "scary"

If you aked me "What do you think is the greatest childrens story of all time?" or most yes even if the greatest book of all time for any age, i would imediatly answer Watership Down! I Read this book three or four years ago and since page one i was completely hooked. Everthing about this book is brilliant, the setting, the charactors , the relationships between them and of course the incredible plot line, that in my opinion is unrivaled by any other book except maybe "Firebringer" or "the sight" by David Clement Davies.
I have been an animal lover for many years and so have read a number of animal related books, however i had never read any stories with the main charactors as rabbits. I had always asked myself the questions "Do animals comunicate?"and if so how?" And "what would society be like for animals?" and how do animals see the world of humans?".
Watership down answers all of these questions completely in a way that seems so realistic you almost believe it to be true. The use of plants as names for the rabbits such as Hazel, Dandelion, Blackberry,Acorn and Speedwell seems realistic to me, as well as the creation of "lapine" the rabits own language. When i first read this i was young and foolish, i learnt lapine off by heart and sad as it might make me i still remember most of it now! I love the fact that Richard Adams created a civilisation with the rabbits, using the chief rabbit and the owsla to make it sound much like human society. The best thing for me has to be the discription of things that humans do seen from the rabbits point of view. the way that Richard Adams explains things makes you really think about how animals must see everyday things that humans do.
This story is often shunned by people who are "too scared" to read this story because they think it is full of death and gore. This may be due to what they have heard from other people or also because of the film that was made of the book which is rather different, with several bloody scenes. In actuall fact the book is not so bad. Although there are some parts that contain death and violence for the most part the story is beautiful, a tale of strength between friends and the intuition of rabbits especially "the seer" Fiver.
Although through the story the friends go through some bad times and many narrow escapes they everntually reach their goal. I cried at the end of this book not just because of what happened at the end but also because i never wanted to stop reading about Hazel,Fiver, Bigwig, Keehar and the others!
I think that this book should not be shunned just make sure you read the book before you watch the film because the film differes in many ways! I like the film version too but i think that it could be better!
All in all i believe that this is a brilliant book for young teens onwards because of its brilliant storyline, captivating charactors and brilliant settings. This was a book that i have read so many times i nearly know it off by heart and is my favourite book of all time!

Summary: A brilliant book that some people underestimate.