The Last Unicorn Review

I am on a roll today!

I was going through my Kindle, trying to decide what I should read next, when I came across a very good book that I read, and I hadn't written a review on. That book is The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (his website is currently down). Now, I read this book a few months ago, but I have to say that it has a style that had influenced at least one of my stories. I didn't realize that I was being influenced until just now when I read the title, and put two and two together.

The Last Unicorn is the story about a unicorn who believes that believes she is the last of her kind, and goes on a quest to seek her others. That is the basic gist of the story, and I'm giving it generally, because I don't want to give anything away. This is a fantasy book/ children's chapter book. It is beautifully written, and so tragically sad. I'm cynical and I have a rather icy heart, but the opening page made me "aww" for the character. There are four main characters in the book, and the adventure they go on is one whose path I couldn't predict: something I always enjoy. I'm so tempted to give a summary, but I'm not going to... I refuse to go down that path!

This particular story is good for someone who has a middle school or higher reading level. It's not difficult at all, and even someone that doesn't necessarily like reading, as long as they like a good fantasy story, would enjoy this. I don't remember finding any of the vocabulary challenging, and I do remember seeing everything the characters did clearly in my mind. Beagle is very good at getting an image and idea across. It's the kind of book that you watch, not read. When I read it, I felt the story was complete, and I didn't really wonder what had happened to the characters afterwards; I knew they all had their lives to lead. I just found out there's a sequel to the book, and that the movie was screened in NYC a few weeks ago.  This is exciting news, he is also getting ready to publish six short stories about the characters. I can't wait to get my grubby little paws on it.

My copy of the book is a PDF. I'm not sure where I found it, or if I just googled "The Last Unicorn PDF" (it comes up in the google search suggestions). It's rather small, because I think it was actually taken from the book, and scanned, so you either have to not mind fine print, tilt your e-reader to the side, or blow up each page and let it move around a bit (which annoys me to no end). But other than it being kind of finely written, I don't have any complaints about my copy-- no typos or anything like that. It was good money.

I'm so happy that I was going through my Kindle and I saw that I hadn't done a review for this, because this book really deserves it. It is beautiful, and endearing, and the characters are ones taht your heart goes out to, especially the unicorn. I suggest this book to anyone that really enjoys fantasy literature.