Review: Desperaux the Book

I finished The Tale of Desperaux the other day by Kate DiCamillo, in preparation for the movie coming out this Christmas season.

Let me preface this review by saying that this book currently is rated at 4.5 stars on Amazon.com.  It won a Newberry award (2004).  There are a lot of people that simply love this book.  I am not one of them.

I found this book to be only OK.  If the movie is follows the book (the previews show added material, by the way), it will be a much darker movie than you are expecting.  In fact, I was surprised at just how dark this book is.  For example, there is a kidnapping, a death, torture, threats of killing, murder, etc.  Plus, a tail dismemberment.

The full title, of the book, in case you didn’t know is this:  “The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread.”

It’s about a mouse who after learning to read and interacting with human’s is banished to the dungeon.  It’s also about a kingdom where after the death of the Queen, the King reacts by banning soup.  It’s also about a servant girl who is abused by her adopted “father” until she is deaf, stupid, and lazy.  It’s about a Rat who has sworn revenge upon the royal family.  To find out how these story lines come together, you’re going to have to read the book.

If you are looking for a happy book, this isn’t the one.  Yes, it was good,  but I don’t think it is worth all the hype.

Rating:

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