The Last Unicorn (The Last Unicorn, #1) in Into the Forest

Feb 18, 2012 mark monday rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy-60s-70s-80s

so i set the mood for rereading The Last Unicorn by putting together a nifty mix of woodstock era classics, heavily featuring the likes of jethro tull & canned heat & richie havens & a lot of early pink floyd. i put on my comfy clothes. i brewed some tea. i picked my sunniest room and my cat - sensing my mood - snuggled in close. however, i did not smoke any weed. perhaps this was my mistake? nonetheless, the mood was definitely set and the enjoyment swiftly commenced.

this is a nice little book. so i set the mood for rereading The Last Unicorn by putting together a nifty mix of woodstock era classics, heavily featuring the likes of jethro tull & canned heat & richie havens & a lot of early pink floyd. i put on my comfy clothes. i brewed some tea. i picked my sunniest room and my cat - sensing my mood - snuggled in close. however, i did not smoke any weed. perhaps this was my mistake? nonetheless, the mood was definitely set and the enjoyment swiftly commenced.

this is a nice little book. it's sweet and cheeky and full of a kind of idealistic purity. it is very counter-culture in its quiet way. i was reminded constantly of things like Harold & Maude and King of Hearts and the Yellow Submarine and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. and of laying out on the grass with my friends during college in the 90s, happily on drugs and talking about life. it made me think of flowers and sunshine and animals that i like. this is certainly not a trippy book, but it is a pleasantly mellow one in tone and outlook. the writing is similarly warm and fuzzy. characterization is relaxed; living metaphors for freedom & authority & purity & greed & experience are mixed and matched in a loose, breathable fashion. the entire endeavor is what one would call a warm and human experience. i can see why this book has so many admirers and why it has apparently never been out of print. reading it is like reading a modern fable - it feels instantly classic, automatically timeless. and hopefully its beautiful messages about life and how to live it will never go out of style.

my favorite parts came early and then at the very end. the final standoff between our heroes and the Red Bull was very well done and genuinely gripping. even better was the time spent in Mommy Fortuna's horrible caravan. that was awesome! the descriptions of the different ensorcelled beasts, the dreaming spider, Schmendrick's introduction, Mommy Fortuna herself (such a poisonous yet rather sad & pathetic character), Mommy Fortuna as Old Age, and of course the terrifying, brilliantly rendered harpy... all quite delectable.

it's interesting to me to think about my two different reactions to the book: now and then. "then" was back in junior high, i think. i LOVED Schmendrick and found Molly Grue to be an annoying, tedious character. despite her, i loved the book from beginning to end. the beauty of its ultimate meaning (whatever that may have been to my 14-year old self) had me thinking about life and how to live it. many, many years later - yesterday! - i found Schmendrick to be distinctly annoying and Molly Grue to be the secret hero of the novel. this grouchy, critical, often overbearing middle-aged lady is also brave, honest, decent, completely down to earth - and such an unusual character to find as a lead in a fantasy novel. go, Molly, go! unfortunately, i also found myself to be positively un-charmed by all the anachronisms and whimsy. all that stuff just felt dated, goofy, sorta cheap. like that fookin butterfly for chrissakes. so unfunny. and judo. and "last of the red-hot swamis". and much more. ugh!

still, a lovely book with a timeless message. although i found those whimsical anachronisms to be obnoxiously precious & cutesypoo, overall they didn't end up being too dire and my experience was not remotely ruined. hell, i roll my eyes at my closest friends and i still enjoy their company. this may only be a 3-star book for me, but i did like it a lot. it remains sweetly appealing and genuinely charming. maybe if i was stoned now, i would give it 4 stars. but nowadays i only get stoned to reality tv. ...more

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Jul 19, 2025 Danielle The Book Huntress rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library-checkout, fantasy, audiobook, to-buy-wish-list, favorites, quest, desert-island-books, unicorn, animal-centered-fiction, magician

Reading The Last Unicorn was a surreal experience. I have seen and I adore the animated movie from the 80s, and count it as one of my all-time favorites. I can’t tell you how much I am obsessed with unicorns. This book definitely adds to it. It has that sad, melancholy feel that I also have about the original The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen (which I read a million times even though the ending kind of breaks my heart). Honestly, this is more hopeful, but it is also very reflective a Reading The Last Unicorn was a surreal experience. I have seen and I adore the animated movie from the 80s, and count it as one of my all-time favorites. I can’t tell you how much I am obsessed with unicorns. This book definitely adds to it. It has that sad, melancholy feel that I also have about the original The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen (which I read a million times even though the ending kind of breaks my heart). Honestly, this is more hopeful, but it is also very reflective and serious in its exploration of the darkness of the heart and the passage of time. For me, I think a strong theme is living long enough to become jaded and losing the joy of life. This is seen in different ways through the various characters, or course. And some are more destructive about it than others.

I listened to this on audiobook, which I do recommend. The narrator was very dramatic and did a great job with the different voices. It also connected me strongly to the movie. Yes, you are probably asking what the point of reading the book is if you like the movie so much. In this case, there is a deeper level to the story and the descriptions that are more detailed than what can be shown visually. Also going into the minds of the characters has such a stronger level of connection for me as a person who fell in love with books before she fell in love with movies. I want to rewatch the movie and make some comparisons, which I may add to this review at a later date.

Is the book a bit dated, yes, but in a nostalgic way for me. I’m not one of the people who just give up on old media because it’s irrelevant. I think you can miss out on a lot by doing that. We can connect across time and space by reading the thoughts of others who lived in a time before ours, or maybe we were too young to explore their thoughts even if we did live at the same time. Anyway, it was easy to get past the dated feel and dive deep into this story. After all, this is about old beings and people who are seeing the passage of time, and trying to figure out how they fit into the picture.
This book is so full of emotions, the sadness, the joy, and yes, it is downright creepy and scary in parts. I thought the part at the carnival scared me in the movie. Phew! The way that Beagle conveys the encounter with evil is powerful. I empathized deeply with the characters of Molly, Schmendrick, the Unicorn. Anyone who has been in such a situation where it seems like giving up is the best option, can definitely feel what the Unicorn was feeling as she saw the existential crisis she was facing. I thought the prince was a bit silly (and I wasn’t a fan of how she was trying to show his love for Lady Amalthea), but he matures in such a beautiful way. The bull is so scary in the book, just as it was in the movie. King Haggard is just terrible. He's the type that just hates everything and wants the world to burn just because.

The story takes twists and turns, and takes the reader along for the journey. It’s not predictable at all, and by the end, I was so satisfied. I thought I knew how it ended, but it’s deeper and more impactful in the book.

I have always loved fantasy and immersing myself into the worlds where magical creatures exist, the land itself has magic, and humans have just a small role into the entire ecosystem. Peter S. Beagle captures all the wonder of a fantasy tale in this book. I believe this is a must read. I’m sad that it took me so long.
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Dec 04, 2008 Christine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, unicorns

I recently re-read this book as part of a group read. I've always loved it, but this is one of those books that you only realized how much you love it when you read again.

Beagle's writing is prose-poetry. This book is also one of the few books that was adapted to film very well.

In case you don't know, The Last Unicorn is about a unicorn who goes on quest to discover what happened to the rest of her kind. She meets a wizard and a woman who add her. On the way, she learns some un-unicorn like tra ...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Mir rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

I read this when I was 7 or 8, after being taken to see the film. I enjoyed it although it was too advanced for me. I remember being confused in places and should really reread it.

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Aug 02, 2007 Sienna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, 2013

I think I first saw the movie when I was four or five — Beagle's book is one of the few I initially encountered in screen adaptation. (Michael Ende's The Neverending Story is another example that I'll return to happily, hopefully, one of these days.) This was a tale I wanted to see, to hear, again and again; this was a tale I loved deeply and fully.

(Also, holy cow. I just looked on IMDB and learned the cast that lent their voices to the animated film was crazily star-studded. Mia Farrow I rememb ...more

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Feb 19, 2011 Lacey Louwagie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, classics, 100-book-challenge-2014, re-reading, faves

As part of my Year in Reading Suggestions, I'm supposed to re-read a book this month. Originally, I was just going to read the graphic novel version of "The Last Unicorn" and count that as my re-read -- but reading it just left my hungry for more, so I pulled out the original again. It has been half my lifetime (17 years) since I first read it, and I was a little afraid it wouldn't hold up.

I should have known not to worry -- that my taste at 16 was as good as it is now, and that this book is a c ...more

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