The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Book Synopsis:

They open a door and enter a world NARNIA...the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy...the place where the adventure begins. Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first, no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund and then Peter and Susan discover the Magic and meet Aslan, the Great Lion, for themselves. In the blink of an eye, their lives are changed forever.

My Review:

4/5 stars. This is such a classic series, especially in the Christian world, that I had never gotten around to until now. I tried to read both this one and The Magician's Nephew at separate times in elementary school but never finished. Now, my college book club is reading the series, so it's my opportunity to finally do it.

Because it's such a beloved Christian series, it feels wrong to admit that I kind of expected more. It's probably because this is very much "children's literature" and not even middle grade, but it felt like everything just happened very fast. The upside of that was that I flew through the book and could've read it in just a couple days if I didn't have to wait for my book club to meet before moving on.

As an apologetics nerd, one small thing I loved was Lewis' inclusion of his "liar, lunatic, or Lord" argument. While in this case it was used about Lucy and not the Jesus figure, the logic still applied. The other siblings knew Lucy wasn't prone to lying, and there were no other signs that she had gone mad, so they should take her at her word until proven otherwise. That scene between the older siblings and the professor was great.

Another tiny but cute detail that stood out to me was how the kids immediately had a reaction to just hearing Aslan's name, and then to seeing him for the first time. It stirred something in them. Jesus is like that, so that was nice to see, adding to the allegory.

I liked all the descriptions of the setting. That's one of this book's biggest strengths. Lewis gave lots of details about the atmosphere of Narnia. I loved the scene of everything wintry thawing and turning into spring.

The grammar was kind of weird throughout. There were em-dashes used incorrectly, comma errors, and a couple other things I noticed. I don't know if it's because it's British (the lack of Oxford comma is due to that) or because it's an older book. It didn't take me out of the narrative much, but I did notice it.

Although I thought the book was somewhat anticlimactic, I am curious about how the kids will return to Narnia. Since the ending skipped the many years they lived in Narnia, I'm also wondering if the rest of the series will show what took place during those years. So I am left with good questions.

Content:

Language: None

Sexual Content: None

Violence/Gore: Some blood, wounds, and violent elements, but nothing detailed

Drugs/Alcohol: A character drinks beer and smokes tobacco