Abandoned by Booklikes

Seriously! How is no one on Booklikes or Goodreads going to give a girl a warning about making sure she had some tissues! I was a mess. Over rabbits!

I have been meaning to read this book in 2017 so am glad I finally got it completed. It was a pain though since my Overdrive borrow only allows me to read it via my Kindle or cell phone. It doesn't work on Amazon's Cloud Reader (via computer) so keep that in mind when you are borrowing this book.

"Watership Down" starts off with Fiver who has a terrifying vision. He is scared almost to death that the warren he currently lives in is not long for this world. He goes off to tell his brother Hazel (yes the names did mess with me) who then decides to go and tell the chief rabbit they need to evacuate. They of course like many men/women playing Cassandra are ignored. 

Eventually Fiver and Hazel convince some other rabbits (Bigwig, Dandelion, Silver, and others).

I really liked the dark fairy tale aspect of this story. A story about rabbits should not mess with you as much as this did with me. Honestly it reminded me a little of The Secret of NIMH. And that damn movie scarred me for life. 

I really enjoyed all of the characters and they felt like living and breathing people. I wanted our gang of rabbits to be okay and was scared to death that they were about to be ripped from me in some brutal way. Also why are kids reading this book? I would have been a mess at 7 or 8 reading this. 

The writing was top notch. There is a language that Adams makes up called lapine that is rabbit speak. So a few times I had to stop and say wait what is this word. But other than that, no big issues. I did think that the flow was off here and there, but I ignored it. I think the tales of the mystical El-ahrairah just got a bit much and that's the parts of the book I did skim towards the end.

The setting of something that in my eyes equals peace and tranquility (the woods, a meadow, etc.) becomes something dark and sinister in this book. I kind of loved it.

A great ending that had me sniffling and reaching for my tissues.