Where Mattimeo Has to Grow Up

Mattimeo by Brian Jacques
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am aware that this novel was not aimed at my demographic. Nevertheless, I often read, and usually enjoy, YA and MG books. And I really enjoyed Redwall, back in the day. Years later I read the second book in the series and didn't love it. I liked this a little better, but thought it lagged. A lot. That's why only 3 stars.

These books are largely about vibes. You have righteous and quirky woodland creatures trying to survive in a tough world, and they have carved out for themselves a safe haven in Redwall Abbey, in Mossflower. All the food (and there's a lot of food in these books) baked by loving hands behind the scenes, and the long summer days, and the hijinks in the trees, and the sense of harmless fun, all combine to create a feeling like the safe place many of us recall from our childhoods when we were not responsible for much at all. Young readers might already be old enough to be nostalgic for that, and the rest of us surely are. That hazy, warm security is disturbed by bad guys (slavers, here) and the gentle creatures have to go out into the wider world to defeat them before they can return to a state of comfort and calm.

It really works. It reminds me of Tolkien's Shire, which had to go through tough times before returning to its quiet, tranquil state. The Boskydells in Dennis McKiernan's Mithgar stories (based on Middle Earth, with warrows instead of hobbits) has an even more pronounced sense of security and separation, of being a place apart, so that when it is endangered you feel it even more strongly. And all of these various incarnations of an idyllic England that never existed are like childhood, at least the kind experienced by those lucky enough to have a happy childhood. Returning to it, with carefree feasting and games and untroubled relations with all the good creatures, is like finding your happy childhood once again.

Making the characters mice and squirrels and otters and badgers instead of humans makes it cuter and more fantastic, perfectly suited to young readers. It isn't too syrupy, IMO; the bad guys are pretty bad. Characters die. Kids lose their families. There's actual brutality. So young readers are put through it a bit, and I think it works well overall.

I just thought this got real boring in the middle. There is some action, but nothing good happens. Very little to cheer for, I mean, because most of the action is disheartening. This must have been okay for lots of readers, because there are a bunch more sequels after this one, but I found it kind of exhausting, and I have a soft spot for kids books.

I wonder if kids reading this on their own identify more strongly with one of the characters than I did. Probably so. If you're team Mattimeo or team Constance, you might be psyched every time they do something to approve of. I dunno. I'm spitballing here.

Young readers generally like this more than I did, so listen to them, I suppose.

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