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

TBR Pile Challenge 2012!

Like every other book blogger and reading fanatic I have come across I have a pretty hefty To Be Read list, both hard copies sitting unread on my bookshelf, and EBooks on my lovely little Kindle. So, I thought it might be fun if I joined in on the 2012 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Bookish and nine other bloggers. Hopefully, having the list physically written in front of me, and crossing off and reviewing books everytime I read them will help me get through them all! Or at least most of them ;)

The different levels from which you can choose in this challenge are...

1-10 - A Firm Handshake
11-20 - A Friendly Hug
21-30 - A Sweet Kiss
31-40 - Love At First Sight
41-50 - Married With Children

Now, I have a lot of reading and secondary reading to do for my English Literature course at university, so to allow myself a bit of leaway I'm going with the "11-20 - A Friendly Hug" simply because I'm pretty much 100% sure I can cope with that amount, in fact I reckon I'll swap it up to "A Sweet Kiss" within the next couple of months, but since you can't switch down a level I'm playing it safe for now ;)

Here is my list of books - including the two that I'm reading at the moment!... (click on any of the titles to view the Goodreads synopsis)

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

2. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

3. Room - Emma Donoghue

4. Night Road - Kristin Hannah

5. Dark Matter - Michelle Paver

6. The Help - Kathryn Stockett

7. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender

8. I Am Number Four - Pittacus Lore

9. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

10. Random Acts of Heroic Love - Danny Scheinmann

11. The Fault in our Stars - John Green

12. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

13. Before I Die - Jenny Downham

14. Across the Universe - Beth Revis

15. When God was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman

16. War Horse - Michael Morpurgo

17. The Book of Fires - Jane Borodale

18. The Host - Stephanie Meyer

19. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

20. The Blasphemer - Nigel Farndale

So there is my list so far... I'm not going to lie, there were quite a few left over I didn't include ;) so I am pretty convinced that it will increase! Not necessarily a bad thing!

I am going to make a designated page on my blog for my TBR Pile challenge, where I will steadily cross the titles off my list and link my reviews as I go through them, I can't promise to read them in this order though! :D

Here is a list of the ten hosts of this challenge and their links...

Evie from Bookish - http://www.evie-bookish.blogspot.com

Nicole from All I Ever Read - http://www.nicoleabouttown.com/

Bonnie from Hands and Home - http://www.handsandhome.ca/

Donna from Book Passion For Life - http://bookpassionforlife.blogspot.com/

Caitlin from WatchYA Reading - http://whatchyareading.net

Rie from Mission To Read - http://missiontoread.com/

Vicky from Books, Biscuits & Tea -http://booksbiscuitsandtea.blogspot.com/

Christa from Hooked On Books - http://christashookedonbooks.blogspot.com

Jenna from Fans Of Fiction - http://fansoffiction.blogspot.com/

Angel from Mermaids Vision - http://mermaidvision.wordpress.com

If you are also a book blogger and want to join in on this challenge, then visit Bookish for the ORIGINAL POST about the challenge and the full set of guidelines, post your linky there and get stuck in! :D

Happy Reading everyone! :D

Abi.. x