The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Is a rare man who is taken for what he truly is.

Why I read this book

Let me tell you a story. Is the story of a girl that watched SO many times the movie The Last Unicorn that just mentioning it now a days, 20 or so years later, makes all of her family to roll their eyes. Is also the story of a girl who did not know the movie was based on a book! If you haven’t guessed by now, the girl is me. And yes I have to live with the fact that for years I leaved in complete ignorance. But, not to worry, here I am compensating, reading the book…and going to the screening of the movie to meet the author!!!

What the book is about

You would think the title is pretty self-explanatory but just in case. The book is told as an observer would tell you the story of a magnificent creature that is not aware of the fact that she might be the last one of her kind on Earth. Having a hard time to accept it, the Unicorn leaves her forest and crosses the land to find her peers. In the way she will encounter other mythological creatures, learn about humans and even about herself.

First impressions

While the movie is imprinted in my brain in Spanish, reading this book was like re watching it all over again, since I recognize every dialogue and every scene. I felt like I was a kid again, curled up under the blankets and childhood felt so much closer. When I was a kid I would watch white horses and repeat in my head that I did believe, in hopes that I would see the magic happen. Reading the book I had the realization that the magic has always been in the way this story makes me feel.

Final thoughts

I cried a bit while reading this book. Not only because there are a few sad moments during the story itself, but because, as I mentioned, I felt as a little kid again, and that made me so happy!.

This book has so many things on its favor if you like fantasy; it has the magic, not only from the Unicorn, but from Schmendrick, Mommy Fortuna and off course the Red Bull; it has love, pure love from Molly to the Unicorn and what she represents; it has a quest, it has a hero…and it’s all built so beautifully.

Is a very short book, under 300 pages in my edition in any case, and it is full of sentiment and the end is very lovely. To see how all of the characters have suffer and changed through this suffering makes you (me) reconsider every harsh moment as something to actually be grateful for.

The Red Bull never fights. He conquers, but he never fights