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A review by manatad
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
After recently rereading Watership Down (easily one of my favorite books of all time) I became interested in reading Richard Adams' other novels. I'll try not to draw too many comparisons between the two books because they are so different, but I will first say that The Plague Dogs is far more dark and contains pretty graphic descriptions of animals being tortured "in the name of science." Sensitive animal-lovers, beware.
This book was pretty slow at the start and for awhile I wasn't sure how to feel about it; however, I was very much enamored with the two main characters, Rowf and Snitter, from the beginning. I had not expected there to be such a large cast of human characters, and I wish I had paid more attention as they were each introduced. I did not, and as a result it was at times hard to distinguish one from the other. The humans' direct and indirect involvement with the dogs turns out to make up a large bulk of the novel, and unfortunately I did not find all of these sections of the book to be very interesting or fun to read.
That being said, about a quarter of the way through the book when the action really starts to pick up, I felt like I didn't want to put it down. The highlight is once again Adams' way of writing from the perspective of the animals. They are anthropomorphized just enough to be deeply sympathetic characters, but never to the point that you can forget that they really are just dogs. The book is exciting, emotional, and deeply reverant of animals and nature much in the same way that Watership Down is.
I think if I had found this book and read it as a child, I would have really loved it. It has some very dark and mature content, but is still simple to understand, straightforward in its plot, adventurous, and moving.
This book was pretty slow at the start and for awhile I wasn't sure how to feel about it; however, I was very much enamored with the two main characters, Rowf and Snitter, from the beginning. I had not expected there to be such a large cast of human characters, and I wish I had paid more attention as they were each introduced. I did not, and as a result it was at times hard to distinguish one from the other. The humans' direct and indirect involvement with the dogs turns out to make up a large bulk of the novel, and unfortunately I did not find all of these sections of the book to be very interesting or fun to read.
That being said, about a quarter of the way through the book when the action really starts to pick up, I felt like I didn't want to put it down. The highlight is once again Adams' way of writing from the perspective of the animals. They are anthropomorphized just enough to be deeply sympathetic characters, but never to the point that you can forget that they really are just dogs. The book is exciting, emotional, and deeply reverant of animals and nature much in the same way that Watership Down is.
I think if I had found this book and read it as a child, I would have really loved it. It has some very dark and mature content, but is still simple to understand, straightforward in its plot, adventurous, and moving.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Moderate: Gore and Car accident
Minor: Animal death, Blood, and Excrement