Katelyn's Reviews > The Last Battle

3.5 This one and Prince Caspian are probably my least favorite in the series. Also there will be spoilers in this review, this book has been around for how many years?

Before I get into my review I would like to go in defense of C.S. Lewis who gets a lot of unnecessary and unfair crap for this book.

Susan: Alright guys, Susan stops believing in Narnia. Now let's look at this from the BOOK'S perspective, not a Christians perspective. Alright so we cover in the LWW and HB that Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy reign Narnia in its Golden Age for 30 years. THIRTY YEARS PEOPLE. She's not considered a "child of Narnia" anymore, because she chose to forget 30 years of her life in Narnia. She put shallow things above things like faith, loyalty, and bravery. Now Susan is not the only person to put temporal things above those three virtues in the series. Edmund puts power above loyalty, Eustace puts knowledge before bravery (or really just being a decent person), Jill puts laziness above faith, and the list goes on, Peter puts reason before faith, and the list goes on. There are multiple characters who at some point or another have put a temporal thing before the 3 virtues of faith, loyalty, and bravery. SUSAN IS NOT THE ONLY ONE. Susan, is not considered a "child of narnia" because she literally denies Aslan exists even though she was a queen over his kingdom for 30 years. Now, if Edmund can betray his family and still be redeemed, I am sure Susan can be redeemed too. Another plight people have about Susan is that when everyone dies they don't mention her once. Lucy literally says "even if I tried to be afraid I couldn't" THEY AREN'T ABLE TO THINK OR WORRY PEOPLE! In fact this is a good sign! If they aren't feeling worried about Susan, it probably means that Susan eventually will remember and she too will become a child of narnia again. Point is, Lewis didn't banish Susan because she likes lipstick and nylons, he banished her because she forgot. But Aslan has always proved to be merciful in the series, and I am CERTAIN that one day she will return to Narnia too.

Racism: Ummm...what racism....? "All the good people are white!" Let's go through the series. The villain of the MN, LWW, and SC (I'm not sure about that actually), is the white witch. The symbol for evil in this series is the WHITE witch. "But all the Calormenes are bad! and they're colored!" Literally Caspian ruled over Narnia and was considered a great king, he is also a Calormene. "But the colored people are always called darkies!" Yes. By the selfish and rude dwarves, not exactly your model citizen. It's not a super racist book people, calm down.

The problem of Tash: "this book isn't very christian because they look down on the Calormenes religion" Ok, in NARNIA, who created Narnia? Aslan! ASLAN CREATED NARNIA. Of course he's going to want his people to worship him! And he's pretty lenient too, because tbh he doesn't care who you worship as long as you do good deeds. Also Tash, is bad and evil. The "god" Tash supports and represents everything bad in Narnia, like no crap if you worship Tash you're probably not the best person. That's like saying that people who genuinely worship the devil and carry out his work are good people, sorry they aren't.

Actual Review:
Ok, now I got the three basic problems out of the way I can start the review. Honestly I have mixed feelings about this book. I guess I'll split it up into pros and cons.

Pros:
Eustace: Eustace is a joy like always. He still maintains his Eustace like qualities, but is more mature in this book. Anyway, I've always liked his character, because he always felt more alive to me, I feel like he has a more unique voice compared to the other characters, and I like that.
Jill: I like Jill she's brave and compassionate, and is an all around good character.
Rilian: He makes a mistake (a grave mistake) and does everything in his power to fix it. He puts everything on the line for his people and is truly a great and honorable king.
Puzzle: Puzzle, is annoying character himself, but stands as a great reminder. Puzzle falls into the trap of believing he is stupid, and because he doesn't believe in himself and doesn't trust his judgment terrible things happens.
The good dwarf: the name is slipping right now, but I really liked him! He stood up against all of his friends and chose to be good, even though it would cost him a lot. He was awesome :)
Lessons: as always there's some good lessons in this book. The lesson to believe in oneself, have faith, to have courage, etc.

Cons:
the sound was akin to cats making love on the rooftop....i don't know why you thought that was a good description Lewis, but you really should've cut it out lol.
ending: i dunno...I understand why he did it, and I gotta admit I respect a man whose got the nerve to create and destroy his own world....but it's a pretty depressing ending tbh. The "children of narnia" are so obsessed with narnia, that aslan feels the need to KILL all of them, to bring them to narnia heaven. And susan is left behind in her own world with no family. Sometimes I think Susan was the only one Aslan trusted to "find me in your own world". I feel like Susan felt the least attached to Narnia and would eventually be able to connect her own world and narnia's seamlessly. But really, I just don't like the ending. Despite it's cheerful facade, I feel like no one really wins, and in the end everyone sorta failed...but that's my interpretation.
Peter closes the door: Ok...I thought that diggory or polly should've closed the door, they saw the world begin and now they would see it end. Or lucy, the one who clearly cared for narnia the most. I just didn't like that he closed it...he was 4th on my list of people who have the right to close it tbh.


Overall, it's a good book. I would read it as an adult, compared to a child because I couldn't stand this book as a child. While it's my least favorite narnia book and I don't adore the ending (I don't hate it either btw), it's still a solid book and I'm glad I read it.