The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis

Book Synopsis:

The Horse and his Boy is a stirring and dramatic fantasy story that finds a young boy named Shasta on the run from his homeland with the talking horse, Bree. When the pair discover a deadly plot by the Calormen people to conquer the land of Narnia, the race is on to warn the inhabitants of the impending danger and to rescue them all from certain death.

My Review:

4.25/5 stars. I enjoyed a lot of things about this book, and I don't really have anything negative to say about it, but it just didn't click as much as my favorites in the series. It was a bit slower to get through, and the ending fell a little flat. I liked the expanded worldbuilding, though, and the characters were great.

One of my complaints for TLTWTW was that the ending just summarized everything the Pevensies did while ruling Narnia and never showed any of it. This book filled in some of those gaps, showing a big event that happened during that time. That was nice to see. Similarly, the world was also expanded, as we learned about new cultures and lands to the south of Narnia.

The characters were my favorite part of this story. Controversial take, but I like them more than any other characters (besides Aslan, of course), even the Pevensies. Shasta was great, Bree was hilarious, and their dynamic together was fun. Aravis and her horse were nice, too, but not as compelling as the titular horse and boy. Even the side characters had so much personality.

Similar to Silver Chair, I appreciated that this book had a clear plot and goal, rather than just meandering through the world. There was less immediate tension in this one, though.

Finally, the allegory in this story was, again, subtle but lovely. The main theme was Aslan working throughout the story in small ways the characters didn't realize until the end. He was pushing the characters forward or keeping them safe in the background, unbeknownst to them. That's how God often works—we don't realize until after it's happened.

Content:

Language: *ss

Sexual Content: Discussion of forced marriage

Violence/Gore: Child abuse, slavery, wounds from an animal attack, blood, death

Drugs/Alcohol: None