Title: Watership Down
Series: Watership Down #1
Author(s): Richard Adams
No. of pages: 447
Genre: Classic, Fantasy
Publication date: November 1972
Date read: April 14th 2019
5+/5 ★

Watership Down is a classic tale about a group of rabbits that’s in search of a new home after their old one gets destroyed by human actions.

This one had been on my TBR for quite some time before I finally picked it up. As a kid I’d seen (parts of) the animation tv series (1999-2001) and all I really remembered was this image of a bloody, mad rabbit. It was quite a traumatic view, because rabbits are supposed to be fluffy and cute right?

I was afraid that it would be a kind of non-fictional-ish report on rabbits trying to find a new home, but I didn’t expect to build such a great bond with every single one of the colony. I really rooted for them and they deserved all the best in the world! These rabbits were so smart, courageous and somehow also very “real”. The whole story just made sense: the rabbits have their own language and folklore, which made it feel like Adams really put thought into this story. Recently though, I read that he wrote it as “just a children’s story”? It’s really so much more than that!

Also, can we talk about Adam’s great way of telling a story? Where I’m normally not into many descriptions of surroundings in a story, I loved it in this one. I could almost smell the flowers; feel the sun on my skin and hear the rumble of the thunder during one of the final fights. Although I went through this story very slowly, which bothered me a bit, I cherished every page and after I finished it (THAT ENDING 😭 It still gives me goosebumps) I immediately wanted to reread it. Finishing this book felt like losing some of my closest friends. I definitely know that I won’t forget about this group of rabbits any time soon!