War Horse by Michael Morpurgo REVIEW

Four Hearts...

Goodreads Synopsis:

Michael Morpurgo's War Horse

A powerful tale of war, redemption, and a hero's journey.In 1914, Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the horror of the battles in France. But even in the desolation of the trenches, Joey's courage touches the soldiers around him and he is able to find warmth and hope. But his heart aches for Albert, the farmer's son he left behind. Will he ever see his true master again?

This is a bit of a tricky one for me to review, because my experience with it was really mixed. I decided to read it originally for a couple of reasons, firstly when I was younger I was a massive fan of anything Michael Morpurgo (so I don't know how I managed to avoid reading this until now!) plus, the film adaptation was released earlier this year meaning that I was desperate to read this before I watched that! But, I knew that I would most likely enjoy it, as I am a massive lover of anything related to the time period of both WW1 and WW2, I just find them to be emotionally charged and consuming, so that being said...

Being a childrens book it's considerably short, so didn't take me very long, maybe a couple of hours over two days. In the beginning I found it slow to get into, I didn't really feel connected with the main character - Joey - for at least the first few chapters; I don't really know why, it just didn't really immediately hit me like some books do! All that changed however when I got about a quarter to a half of the way through, at that point it really hit me hard. The characters that Joey was paired with when he left for France - particularly Topthorn - really touched me and I became very attatched to them in the end.

In terms of form, I thought the fact that the book was written from the perspective of Joey an incredibly wise decision for Morpurgo to have made, mainly because in some of the more emotionally charged situations you just find yourself desperately wishing Joey had the ability to shout or scream out, but you know that he can't and that for me was part of the magic of the story.

I would definately recommend this book to absolutely anyone, of any age! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and it really did touch me bringing me to tears at some points, it's incredibly well written, and you really do get to become embroiled in the characters and the devastating locations and events.

In short, it doesn't take long to read, if you can do it in one sitting it'd probably take a couple of hours and no more.. so if you get the chance, I think you should all seek this book out! Another incredible one from Morpurgo.

Number 16 off my 2012 TBR Pile Challenge

Abi.. x