Jacques displays riddles, mysteries, and secrets in this fantastical story where animals can talk and danger forks every corner. Showing friendship, loyalty, and love, Jacques will compel you to enter the book, make real life stand still, and give magic its freedom. -Elena, age 8

Finished this November 2017. I started it one summer in middle school (I had read quite a few in this series before) and never finished it, but always wanted to. Last fall, I finally mustered up enough discipline to do it. It was a fun ride... I think the best part of these books is reading the descriptions of the food and all the chillaxin' (and eatin') going on at Redwall Abbey, lol. Still, I loved the young female protagonist, Tansy and her little friend Arven. And Clecky was HILARIOUS... I love cheeky, brave, stubborn, and a little bit clumsy characters... I feel like only British authors can get that type of humor right. Anyway, these stories usually follow a predictable pattern and this book is no exception. Still, it was nice to relive this universe that my elementary and middle school self loved back before the internet/social media was super popular, lol.

This one was a bit different than the other Redwalls I've read so far. It's a cursed treasure hunt, along with the usual plot lines. It made for a much more interesting read in that aspect, though I loved the whole thing as much as any other Redwall book. The difference was refreshing in a way. As usual, these books feel like home, and I'm looking forward to reading more soon.

It was very adventurous! I liked the riddles that they had to solve!

If you get to this point in the Redwall books, you know the formula. There will be feasts! Riddles! Evil pirate rats! Plucky woodland heroes! Strange undertones of race theory and absolutely no attention to actual mustelid behavior! Did anyone ever bother to tell Brian Jacques that otters and badgers are also mustelids like ferrets and prey on mice? Apparently not!

Ahem. For a later Redwall book, only half-trying with the formula, this one works well. There's a fun heist with the pearls and a connection to the original Redwall book through Matthias's grandson Martin. After the original three, Mariel, Salamandastron, and this one are the only ones I remember with real fondness.

All they do is eat

Finally finished. Too many characters, too many plot lines, to many settings, too many deus ex machinas... just overall too convoluted AND predictable at the same time. In the end I didn't care about anyone or anything anymore.

I’m reading the Redwall books to my daughter at bedtime and I’d say this isn’t anywhere near the strongest in the series so far but I’m sure it will satisfy anyone who enjoyed those that came before. It’s about pirates and has some of the fun riddles that you see a lot of in earlier books.

It's become clear to me: the searats, ferrets, foxes, stoats, weasels, and other villainous rodents are the cops. The mice, otters, badgers, voles, moles, and shrews are the people. Up with the people.

Not quite halfway done, but the series is increasingly buoyed by both consistency and the growing depths of the lore. That's where my appreciation has grown the most for these books - there is clearly a plan and a (mostly) faithful building on existing bones, like the small renovations around the abbey - during this re-read saga that will inevitably stretch at least another year. 13 books to go, get busy living or get busy dying.

Finds book while cleaning that I forgot I had started forever ago. Finished it about 2 hours. Final thoughts, another great Redwall book. Why didn't I read it when I first got it?!?

Redwall #9

I mostly kept reading for the descriptions of food.