Book Review: The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Faith

Feb 15

This is a book series that I think a lot of people hold close to their hearts but also have a lot of opinions on. I first came across this series a few years after I watched the movies and I'll be honest, I found the books a little bit boring (I was in high school when I first read these books). Either way, I loved the movies (including Anna Popplewell and Ben Barnes) so I pushed through this series and here's my review.

Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Aslan

Rating: 2 out of 5.

The Magician's Nephew is where Narnia is created. Digory's Uncle Andrew, who is possibly a magician, sends Digory and his friend Polly to Narnia. They watched Narnia be formed by a Lion singing but they also meet an evil ice witch Jadis and accidentally set her free before returning back home.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Narnia is the mystical place hidden in the wardrobe. This is the part of the story a lot of you may be familiar with. While escaping the war in London, Lucy and her siblings move to their family member's old house. Lucy finds the wardrobe and discovers Narnia and befriends the locals. At first, her brothers and sister didn't believe her, but after a game of hide and seek, they all find themselves in the wardrobe and are transported to Narnia. Narnia is buried in winter by the White Witch and Aslan the Lion is gathering an army for Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy to lead to defeat the Witch that was introduced to us in the first novel.

The next novel in the series is The Horse and His Boy, where a boy, Shasta, runs away from his hometown with his talking horse, Bree. While on the run they discover a group/army trying to conquer Narnia. Now, Shasta and Bree are in a race against time to warn the Narnians about the invasion as soon as possible.

Then we get the fan-favourite of Prince Caspian. Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund return back to Narnia and find that centuries have gone by since they were last there. When they get there they find Prince Caspian, who needs help to claim his rightful place on the throne from his uncle.

In Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lucy and Edmund are back in Narnia with Prince Caspian on the ship, Dawn Treader. Caspian is on a voyage to find seven lords who were banished when his uncle was ruling over the land and then eventually, to sail towards Aslan's country. But this time, their annoying cousin Eustace is joining them. Facing dragons, magic spells and jealousy, Lucy and Edmund make their last trip to Narnia.

In The Silver Chair, Eustace visits Narnia, along with Jill. They were running away from school bullies when they ended up in Narnia sort of by accident, through a door in the wall. In Narnia, Aslan asks the children to face an evil Witch and save Prince Rillian, Caspian's son.

Finally, in the last novel, The Last Battle, Narnia is disappearing. This time, lies and betrayals are destroying Narnia and only a small group of people can prevent the destruction of Narnia. We also get insight into the future of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

First, I love the world-building. I think Narnia is one of the most unique universes I've read about and I absolutely love this aspect of the novel. The universe is vast and the characters are interesting (I love Prince Caspian although I will admit I love the movie version of his character not so the novel version).

However, I think I have more critiques than praises for this series. My biggest critique of this series is the racism and sexism that are included throughout the series. I think that since this is a children's series a lot of these issues are ignored and overlooked but they still need to be talked about.

I first noticed the sexism and the bad treatment of the female characters. Susan was one of my favourite characters and her character is destroyed in this series. She's portrayed as a bad character purely because she has stereotypically feminine/girly interests like fashion and makeup and has crushes on boys. I remember being furious at how she was not allowed back into Narnia because of this as well.

I noticed a lot of racism too. Many characters and certain groups of people are clearly racist and stereotypical depictions of Asians, Middle Easterners and brown people. Obviously, I will never recommend a series which has racist and sexist depictions.

Overall, it was fun while it lasted. This series gets points for the creative world-building but ultimately, I recommend skipping this series or at the very least have a conversation with your children before giving them a copy. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely day.

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