Name: The Last Unicorn
Rating: 4.139130434782609 (115 reviews)
ISBN: 0783803958

Peter S. Beagle

The Last Unicorn

Peter B. Gillis

The Last Unicorn #1

It is a shame that I was a little too familiar with the story and its tropes so it failed to wow me a little bit. I may also be a little too late into my life to be reading it to truly appreciate it.

Still, wonderful wriiting and excellent narration of the audiobook. A sweet and comforting book.

It is a shame that I was a little too familiar with the story and its tropes so it failed to wow me a little bit. I may also be a little too late into my life to be reading it to truly appreciate it.

Still, wonderful wriiting and excellent narration of the audiobook. A sweet and comforting book.

Beagle's prose enchanted me from the start; I wouldn't have been as moved by the story without it. It's so hard to craft a proper fairytale with all the strangeness and melancholy and delight that it deserves, but Beagle pulled it off somehow in the late 60s. All the musings on mortality and change and regret made me weepy by the end—I loved how The Last Unicorn nailed nothing being the same even when you get what you wanted. One thing I was particularly wowed by was the use of perspective and how it mirrored the journey: we begin with the unicorn but grow more and more distant from her mind by the end. Never have I been more attached to nor more saddened by a unicorn.

alice

The 30th anniversary of a fantasy classic from Peter S. Beagle!

Very much Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Hobbit, Narnia-core. Would’ve devoured this book as a child.

Jillian Roberts

Very much Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Hobbit, Narnia-core. Would’ve devoured this book as a child.

Slay. 3.5 stars

Gillian Rose

I'm so mad I didn't read this at a younger age! It's absolutely adorable!

Kirsten Simkiss

I thought this book was very lovely. I grew up having seen the movie version, so reading through this I remembered bits and pieces of the movie and the nostalgia of my friends and I watching this helped my enjoyment to an extent. I can fairly say I'd give this one 4 stars, if not 4.5.

The first thing that I have to say is that, if you're reading this and you watched the movie but aren't sure if you want to read the book, I have to say that the cartoon film sticks really close to the book as far as my memory. However, the book is more poetic. I remarked to a friend while reading it that it was like reading poetry in prose form.

Obviously, this book takes place in a European medieval sort of world with all the typical rules of the lore, but with a few unusual additions. Naturally, it expands a lot on unicorn lore, but you also get a little on harpies, dragons, and magic. Parts of the lore match the typical lore (like appearances, for instance), but much of it is it's own beast, pardoning the pun. Also canon are stories of Robin Hood, though only in fiction.

The characters are good and consistent, but all show growth as the story progresses. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd definitely say it was Molly. I think the weirdest thing about this book was how often they refer to themselves as being in a story. That breaking of the fourth wall is a little odd, but not out of place.

I would definitely recommend reading this to others, especially if they enjoyed the movie version.

"Peter S. Beagle first imagined his beloved heroine when he was twenty-three, half a decade before she sprang into the world. Now the Last Unicorn's fantastical origins are recaptured in this beautifully illustrated, commemorative hardcover edition, which includes Beagle's revisited, wry musings upon his early writing career. In this appealingly familiar yet wonderfully strange adventure, a brave unicorn leaves her solitary life behind, determined to discover if she is the last of her kind. She is forewarned by a forlorn dragon and befuddled by a chatty butterfly; her traveling companion is an exiled demon with a split personality and a penchant for philosophy. Somewhere between mythology, modernity, and magic, the last unicorn is finding her world irrevocably transformed."--

The Lost Journey

The best of The Hobbit and Princess Bride told in truly poetic prose.

Brianna

Erin Russell

I think it's safe to say that this is my favorite book I've ever read (at this point in time). Though I admit I was biased going in to this book because I love the Rankin-Bass movie adaption, so I may have read it through rose tinted glasses. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a quick read, I had managed to finish it in one sitting in the span of 3-4 hours. Peter Beagle has a simple yet beautiful way of writing that I find refreshing and I plan on returning to in the future when I read some of his other books that have caught my interest. In the mean time, I will recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, adventure, or romance.

Anyaconda

The audiobook was absolutely magical! And I also now know about the plotholes in the movie 😅

The Last Unicorn

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