Sara's Reviews > Taggerung

February 2020: It has been ten months since I last read this book and I am not ashamed. I listened to the audiobook this time. The first time I read Taggerung (back in 2006 - oh my!) it was the audiobook book. Listening to it again reminds me how entranced I became with the story and characters because of Jacques’ narration and the voice actors for the characters. Also, perhaps reading it twice in a year helped the story stick better so I was able to actually think about the characters and plot more than just taking the story at face value. This time after finishing the story I find that I appreciate the simple charm of the story for a lot of different reasons. What is the difference between the vermin killing and Tag and Nimbalo killing? Their intentions. And I think that while the morality of the Redwall stories can be taken as simple black and white there is a lot of complexity to it as well that I want to explore further.

Some of me still wonders if the reason Taggerung remains my favorite Jacques book is the memory of almost eleven year old Sara road tripping with her parents and brother to North Carolina listening to the cast bring this story to life. There are so many of the quintessential Redwall hallmark traits in this story that some could consider it quite basic or tame. But now, almost fifteen years have passed since I first read this story and I think that the charm of this story is only heightened by my memories.

April 2019: I haven’t read this in 7 years. And it’s just as endearing a story as I remembered. Although it is a bit darker and gorier than I remember since there is some head chopping and “human” sacrifice and all that.