Animals of Farthing Wood - Book 7
Having just reread the seventh and last book in the Animals of Farthing Wood series, I feel now is as good a time as any to write about it. It's difficult, though; it's just too depressing.
This book is about war. If you like stories about war, you'll probably like this one. If you ask me, it's not really reading material for children, at least not where I come from. If I'd read something like when I were a kid, I'd have probably been a little traumatized. The deaths of so many characters were heart-wrenching, but there were also happy moments and even a bit of humour. I think this is the book that differs the most from the cartoon. And despite what happened to my favourite characters, I must say I prefer the book a thousand times over.
The story begins very innocently and slow-paced, focusing on Plucky (Fox's great-grandson) and Dash (Hare's granddaughter), who are best friends, and the first problem is the disappearance of certain animals, including Plucky and Weasel. As it turns out, the Warden was preparing another reserve because White Deer Park was getting too crowded. There's a quick mention of rats.
Suddenly, the rats are everywhere. The rats advance, the FW kill them, the rats retreat, the FW animals think about the second reserve, the rats advance again, the FW kill them, and so on and so forth. That went on for a while, until chapter 10, whose title was "Toad the Brave". I skipped the title the first time around and realised a bit too late what was going to happen in the chapter. I already knew about it, so I wasn't really surprised, but it was still a shock. They killed my second favourite character! And - and - Toad could only say goodbye to Whistler, no one else. I - I have no words.
'How do you feel?' Whistler croaked wretchedly. 'I do hope I haven't made things worse?'
There was no reply.
'Toad! Toad! Can't you speak?' the heron cried in desperation.
'Thank you,' Toad whispered, 'for rescuing me.' He gave a long sigh. Whistler's relief was enormous. Toad fell silent again. Then, with a final effort, he croaked: 'Tell the others I'm proud to have...' His strength ebbed away. Whistler watched in abject misery as the brave animal gave up the fight. Toad, the discoverer of White Deer Park and the animals' guide during their long journey there, was dead.
Ngn... The funeral was touching, too.
Soon afterwards there's the ambush on Adder and Sinuous. I'm having mixed feeling about their relationship in this book. I think Adder cares about Sinuous a lot more than the other way round, and even then, it's nothing too romantic. Sinuous in particular seemed to be rather indifferent to Adder's fate when he was caught by the rats. On the other hand, that's a more realistic take on snakes' relationships; by all means, they should have parted completely after mating. But anyway, the rats decide to ambush Adder and end up mistaking Sinuous for him. In the cartoon, Sinuous was strangled; in the book, it was... more messy than that.
All along her body, from her neck to her tail, Sinuous felt the sharp biting teeth of eight rats. (...) The rats gnawed horribly at her body, and this time they made no mistake. (...) Gradually their strong teeth bit through the snake's body. Even in her agony Sinuous was unable to squirm, she was clamped so fast in the rats' jaws. The life ebbed out of her. Not until the rats were quite sure she was dead did they release their grip. The snake's mutilated body was motionless.
Ouch, I can almost feel the teeth on my own skin. And - argh! Another favorite of mine, gone! And poor Adder lost both his best friend and his mate!
Moving on, there's a big battle scene when Bully, who sounds a lot more intelligent in the book, gathers all the rats for an attack on the FW community. Now I have to admit I liked this scene very much. It was exciting and breath-taking, and when it was over, I felt as relieved and satisfied as the characters when they came out victorious. Vixen was very impressive when she disposed of Bully. Really, really good. However, I don't really like the way Mossy's death was handled. No one even knew about it, and his body got lost among the dead rats. I don't really care for his as a character, but the way he died is just so... so very awful, even by this series' standards. At least Toad and Sinuous were mourned.
Nevertheless, the book - and the series - has a more or less happy ending that gives the reader that hopeful feeling that things can only get better from now on, because it simply can't get any worse, and isn't it about time the curse on FW is lifted already? There was even a sweet scene of reconciliation between the ever-bickering Owl and Weasel.
I don't know what else to say. I really liked the book, but it was just too depressing. I had planned on writing a post-series fanfic, but I don't think I can, now that two of my favourite characters are gone.
This book is about war. If you like stories about war, you'll probably like this one. If you ask me, it's not really reading material for children, at least not where I come from. If I'd read something like when I were a kid, I'd have probably been a little traumatized. The deaths of so many characters were heart-wrenching, but there were also happy moments and even a bit of humour. I think this is the book that differs the most from the cartoon. And despite what happened to my favourite characters, I must say I prefer the book a thousand times over.
The story begins very innocently and slow-paced, focusing on Plucky (Fox's great-grandson) and Dash (Hare's granddaughter), who are best friends, and the first problem is the disappearance of certain animals, including Plucky and Weasel. As it turns out, the Warden was preparing another reserve because White Deer Park was getting too crowded. There's a quick mention of rats.
Suddenly, the rats are everywhere. The rats advance, the FW kill them, the rats retreat, the FW animals think about the second reserve, the rats advance again, the FW kill them, and so on and so forth. That went on for a while, until chapter 10, whose title was "Toad the Brave". I skipped the title the first time around and realised a bit too late what was going to happen in the chapter. I already knew about it, so I wasn't really surprised, but it was still a shock. They killed my second favourite character! And - and - Toad could only say goodbye to Whistler, no one else. I - I have no words.
'How do you feel?' Whistler croaked wretchedly. 'I do hope I haven't made things worse?'
There was no reply.
'Toad! Toad! Can't you speak?' the heron cried in desperation.
'Thank you,' Toad whispered, 'for rescuing me.' He gave a long sigh. Whistler's relief was enormous. Toad fell silent again. Then, with a final effort, he croaked: 'Tell the others I'm proud to have...' His strength ebbed away. Whistler watched in abject misery as the brave animal gave up the fight. Toad, the discoverer of White Deer Park and the animals' guide during their long journey there, was dead.
Ngn... The funeral was touching, too.
Soon afterwards there's the ambush on Adder and Sinuous. I'm having mixed feeling about their relationship in this book. I think Adder cares about Sinuous a lot more than the other way round, and even then, it's nothing too romantic. Sinuous in particular seemed to be rather indifferent to Adder's fate when he was caught by the rats. On the other hand, that's a more realistic take on snakes' relationships; by all means, they should have parted completely after mating. But anyway, the rats decide to ambush Adder and end up mistaking Sinuous for him. In the cartoon, Sinuous was strangled; in the book, it was... more messy than that.
All along her body, from her neck to her tail, Sinuous felt the sharp biting teeth of eight rats. (...) The rats gnawed horribly at her body, and this time they made no mistake. (...) Gradually their strong teeth bit through the snake's body. Even in her agony Sinuous was unable to squirm, she was clamped so fast in the rats' jaws. The life ebbed out of her. Not until the rats were quite sure she was dead did they release their grip. The snake's mutilated body was motionless.
Ouch, I can almost feel the teeth on my own skin. And - argh! Another favorite of mine, gone! And poor Adder lost both his best friend and his mate!
Moving on, there's a big battle scene when Bully, who sounds a lot more intelligent in the book, gathers all the rats for an attack on the FW community. Now I have to admit I liked this scene very much. It was exciting and breath-taking, and when it was over, I felt as relieved and satisfied as the characters when they came out victorious. Vixen was very impressive when she disposed of Bully. Really, really good. However, I don't really like the way Mossy's death was handled. No one even knew about it, and his body got lost among the dead rats. I don't really care for his as a character, but the way he died is just so... so very awful, even by this series' standards. At least Toad and Sinuous were mourned.
Nevertheless, the book - and the series - has a more or less happy ending that gives the reader that hopeful feeling that things can only get better from now on, because it simply can't get any worse, and isn't it about time the curse on FW is lifted already? There was even a sweet scene of reconciliation between the ever-bickering Owl and Weasel.
I don't know what else to say. I really liked the book, but it was just too depressing. I had planned on writing a post-series fanfic, but I don't think I can, now that two of my favourite characters are gone.