Book six! We’re nearly at the end. I brought this, along with the rest of the series, with me on a week-long road trip to Edmonton for my cousin’s wedding. Decided to finish the series while I was at it.

Read: June 28, 2024

Genre: Classic, Fairy Tale
Audience: Children
Book contains: mind control, good vs evil, mentioned death, planned invasion, nearly eaten alive

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

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Not My Favourite of the Set

Eustace is at school after his adventure in Narnia, and he’s changed for the better. People have noticed. He, along with a girl he’d never previously spoke to before named Jill Pole, stumble into Narnia while on the run from bullies, and the adventure that follows is a favour to an old friend.

It seems that with each consecutive book, the readers get to grow up along with the characters. First, Peter and Susan were “too old” to return to Narnia. Then, Edmund and Lucy “grew out of it.” Now it is Eustace’s turn for another adventure, and he has a new companion to join him. I much prefer this Eustace to the one from the beginning of the previous book.

C.S. Lewis takes up the pen once again in this second-to-last adventure, speaking as if he’s just a scribe being told this adventure by the characters. He speaks directly to the reader at times, and acts as an excellent narrator using third person omniscient perspective.

I mostly read this book (and the next) in my hotel room in Edmonton while we were there for the wedding. I listened along to an audiobook reading I found on Spotify, which was pretty good.

Eustace, while having undergone and immense change in character, still has a few tendencies that come back, which gets him into many fights with Jill. Not everything is smooth sailing for them, even when they’re joined by another companion in the form of a new creature we’ve never heard of before: Puddleglum the Marshwiggle. Puddleglum is an incredibly maudlin character, whose pessimistic attitude is at times amusing and hair-tearing. But all Marshwiggles are apparently like that.

The cohesiveness of this group isn’t as good as other groups in these tales, but it’s decent and entertaining. Each character seems to bring out each others’ short-comings, but they also make up for each others’ weaknesses at the same time. This delicate balance hinders their progress but also helps them come out victorious at the end. It makes for a wild roller-coaster.

Lewis keeps his stories simple, but this one had a bit more going on than usual. There were some red herrings swimming through this story, and the multiple storylines made for some interesting reveals.

I felt that the pacing of this book as a bit slower than the others, though maybe that was because I didn’t really connect with the characters of this tale as I did with the other books. I wasn’t as invested even though it was still an enjoyable book to read. In that sense, it felt like it dragged on—until the end, which was wonderfully paced.

This wasn’t my favourite book of the series, but I certainly recommend it to fans of the other books.

Related Reviews:

The Chronicles of Narnia Book 1: The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia Book 2: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia Book 3: The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia Book 4: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia Book 5: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia Book 6: The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia Book 7: The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 1: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Alice in Wonderland Book 1: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
*The Wicket by Carlee Coton*
Coraline by Neil Gaiman