The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia #7) by C.S. Lewis
A false Aslan is roaming Narnia, commanding everyone to work for the cruel Calormenes. Can Eustace and Jill find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land? The last battle is the greatest of all and the final struggle between good and evil
The final book in the Narnia series. Join the characters from all of the previous books as they face the greatest evil in Narnia yet.
Wow this book was CRAZY. It was my favorite of the whole series. But wow, this one was dark. The plot in this one moved quickly. While I still had a lot of the same issues in this book that I did with the others, I think by this point in the series, I have looked past those shortcomings a bit more for this book. The plot in this one was a bit confusing but in the end when they explained it all- it's a really fun "woah!" moment. I also felt like this book moved along quickly compared to some of the previous ones (I'm looking at you The Horse and His Boy!). One of my favorite parts about this whole book was the discussion I was able to have with my friends who participated in this series long buddy read with me. There is a CRAZY (and I mean "WHAT?! CLIVE! WHAT DID YOU DO?! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WROTE THAT!) plot point that happens in this book. I mean, theologically (if you're reading these books as an allegory) it was great to discuss! I know this is confusing if you haven't read the book- but I don't want to spoil anything for you. If you've read it and you know what I'm talking about- comment and talk to me about this crazy ending!
This book was DARK. I am imagining that, similar to the Harry Potter series, you're supposed to start reading these at a certain age and read them as you're growing up. Because this last book is really dark if you think of it as specifically a kids book. There is a strong palpable sense of hopelessness when you read it. You actually encounter a demon, or a (note the lowercase) god in this one- named Tash. It is violent and has some graphic scenes. These aren't huge negatives for me- but I noted this under the negative column in case you were thinking about quickly reading through the whole series with young kids.Honestly, the biggest negative in this book (because, really this one was quite good) is the way it's written. The older english just simply didn't agree with me.Can you believe I finally read and reviewed the entire Narnia series?! I'm glad to have finally done it because I feel like these are wildly treasured books, especially in the Christian circle. They weren't beloved for me and some books were completely hit or miss. Overall, for my personal reading style, I would love to read an updated (abridged?) version of these because very regularly I would read a whole monologue and then Google the book+chapter to find a good breakdown of what that portion was trying to say. I don't think all readers will have this issue, but I will say that two out of the three people involved in the buddy read had this conclusion.