When used tactfully and in moderation anthropomorphism can be a very effective writing tool. Anna Sewell's Black Beauty is a classic example. In 19th century London, carriage horses suffered horribly cruel conditions. By giving Black Beauty a voice humans could relate to, she created a work so powerful it led to the enactment of several new laws, dramatically curtailing those abuses.
Unfortunately when writing The Labrador Pact, the author used neither tact nor moderation. I have a soft spot for Labs, but the anthropomorphism was so over the top, at times I felt like gagging. ( )

I love Matt Haig's writing, but what a horrible ending.

I enjoyed the book. It was a page turner. Interesting narrative perspective of the Labrador, and his quest to protect the family at all costs. Brutal ending, with Prince being put to sleep. ( )

I really had no idea what to expect from this book, it was simply sitting with the returns at the library and looked vaguely interesting. Plus I follow Haig on twitter despite having read only one of his books, The Radleys. So I picked this up.

It is such a good book. But there is something in it that may put off some readers, I’ve even seen a review on Goodreads where someone rated it 1 stars because of this event, yet they didn’t read the whole book. But it is a spoiler, so I don’t want to give it away..

I loved it, even though it is terribly sad. You can get a good feel for it by reading the first few pages.

It is a story about one dog and his family, and the things he will do to keep them safe. For that is a Labrador’s purpose you see, to protect the family and as long as he lives up to his obligations, everything is in a Labrador’s control. He simply needs to find the correct way to help them. He has that power. But it is also a heavy responsibility, and one that Prince, our narrator, feels lies heavy on him. Especially since the new neighbours moved in and Adam, his owner, is soon spending more and more time with Emily.

It is such an unusual book. All about modern life and relationships, as well as families and how they manage to survive, sometimes how they break apart. But it also has a whodunnit mystery in the middle of it, as well as asking questions about what we expect of our dogs.

I also recognised the name Falstaff as being a Shakespeare reference, and one of the children is called Hal, but I never read or studied those plays so I’m afraid I have no frame of reference ((I’m “like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie”)) for whatever allusions Haig was making there.

As I may have said earlier, I really enjoyed this one, and I’d urge you to give it a go. I’m certainly going to read more by Haig, and soon. ( )

I was looking for some philosophical humour but by the end things just seemed depressingly hopeless & pointless. Only the super short chapters kept me going, like eating chips. I chose it randomly because I usually like animal narrators, but I should have left this one on the library shelf. ( )