The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle | book review

【 THE LAST UNICORN 】

Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult
Author: Peter S. Beagle
Published: March 1968
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 292 (paperback)

This was thoroughly delightful to read. I knew going into this, that it’s a 1960s classic and a well-loved piece of fantasy, so I had reasonably high expectations. I’m very pleased to say that they were met, and the one takeaway I had from this book, was how beautifully written it was.

So I want to start on that point of commenting on how captivating the language is. The way that Beagle writes is so evocative of the image he is trying to paint. You will find yourself again and again going, oh wow that’s a good way to describe that. You’ll know exactly what he means and it’s hard to explain how different this is to other good writing; this is almost poetic (but in a good) and is unparalleled in my opinion.

This is, of course, about the supposed last unicorn trying to find out where all the other unicorns have gone. It explores some classic fantasy tropes – tricksy witches, useless sorcerers, maidens in distress, cursed towns – you name it. And there was something so refreshing about reading a book that wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but instead embraced all the simple yet golden parts of a fairytale.

Having recently read Terry Brooks’ Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold, the character of Schmendrick the Magician held a special place in my heart, as he so strongly reminded me of the wizard in that book. Schmendrick is such a wholesome character who is equal parts patient and exasperated at all times. His character’s journey is hilarious, the way he goes from the highest of hopes to an absolute low of no self-belief. But at all times, he’s surrounded by friends who support him.

Accompanying him is Molly Grue, who is another golden star for this book. I was expecting to fall in love with both of these characters because of Patrick Rothfuss’s foreword. His foreword really set the tone of my reading experience, with his exuberant joy and enthusiasm for the story. And Molly Grue is introduced to the reader a little later than Schmendrick, but her ferocious attitude and soft-heartedness (that’s guarded very closely) has its own kind of charm that works itself upon the reader. Special shout-out to her having to listen to all the Prince’s problems when he would vent to her in the kitchen while she’s trying to cook – I found that so funny, the way she put up with him.

And of course, the character of the unicorn is wonderful, too. The POV of the book rotates between all three of them so you get a really well-rounded story and perspective on all the issues at hand.

This is very much so a character-led story, where you become heavily invested in the welfare of each of these characters. Of course, there is the exciting overarching plot of this rag-tag group of characters trying to find out where the unicorns have gone, but, to me, this was about the characters more so than the plot.

That’s not to say that the plot isn’t exciting – it really is! But I don’t want to discuss it too much in this review, because the joy and beauty of this book is exploring it all for yourself for the first time. All I can promise you, is that there will be magic and friendship, there will be dashing princes and devilish overlords, and there will be a journey and an ultimate face-off with a powerful being.

You probably don’t need me to say that this should be on your TBR. If you are a fantasy reader, this should be your comforting bread-and-butter that you go back for a good, simple and innocent time.