Monday, June 1, 2020

Book Review: Perri: The Youth of a Squirrel by Felix Salten (Die Jugend des Eichhörnchens Perri)


Perri (Bambi's Classic Animal Tales): Salten, Felix, Mussey ...

Perri follows the squirrel of the Bambi saga, particularly the one introduced in the second book. Is it as good as Bambi and it’s sequel, or does it have some flaws? Let’s explore! Spoilers ahead.

Perri is a young squirrel who lives with her mother and future mate Porro in the same woods as Bambi and his friends. She comes across a human child that can speak the language of the animals, which sparks the interest of her and her fellow forest critter. The rest of the story is once more very much structured like the Bambi novels, just a character growing up, no real central conflict other than survival.

Does that work? I feel like it works a little less here than in Bambi and especially Bambi’s Children. Perri has some of the same problems the first Bambi book has: Perri is simply not an interesting character. Bambi wasn’t very engaging, either, but you still cared a lot about him and wanted to see what was going to happen to him and his peers. With Perri, I felt nothing for the character. I didn’t care if she was going to live or die, or her mate did.

This story is also rather uneventful in comparison to the companion books. There’s a lot happening and constant danger in both Bambi books, yet here there’s rather little presence of Him and/or hunting animals. Perri’s mother dies, but because we got to see so little of her and the bond to her child (unlike Bambi and his mother) it doesn’t work like it did with Bambi.

Outside of this, there’s also a lack of explaining things. It’s never addressed why the child can talk to the animals, and once she stops being able to, it’s never stated why, either. I think what the story wants us to assume is that all young children can talk the animal’s tongue, but grow out of it, but that’s very between the lines. It really should’ve been a little more clear on this.

Also, if you want any references to the Bambi stories, you will get barely a thing. I think that Bambi’s mentioned once or twice and Faline may or may not have appeared (I don’t think they ever mentioned her by name, just a doe who referred to Bambi in a way that she might be Faline), but that’s it.

Perri is a far cry from the awesomeness that is the Bambi books. It feels far less mature and has rather uninteresting characters and low stakes. I do not recommend this one, just check out the original Bambi books again rather than this.

Rating: 2/5


No comments:

Post a Comment