Who doesn’t love the Narnia book series so when i saw this i wanted to read it without knowing what to expect from it. Im not sure what i imagined when i picked it up but it was definitely not what i got, which was so much better than i had imagined.

The author share’s her experience reading the series as a kid and as an adult. Shares info about essays that talk about the good and the bad while also shares her frustration with the author over some parts of the series. All in all it made me want to read this and the series side by side so as to read the Narnian series in a new light.

I got this book, "From Spare Oom to War Drobe" because I'd LOVED "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and I thought that this book would be like a "behind the scenes" exploration with interesting (and unknown!) trivia, tidbits & other "Easter Eggs" about the characters and story. At the very least, I thought that this book would be a memoir about how "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and the other books in the Narnia series affected/impacted/influenced the author.

However, NONE of that was the case, as far as I know. I say as far as I know, because this book was SO incredibly dry and boring that I could not get more than a few pages into it, before throwing in the towel and calling it quits.

Personally, I think ANYONE other than maybe the most academic of Narnia fans would find this book more monotonous than the dullest textbook in existence!

⭐️ 1 STAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not quite a memoir about the author's experience reading Narnia, not quite a scholarly analysis of the Narnia series, but somewhere in between and both sections are fascinating and entertaining. Also quite interesting because it's willing to critique and disagree with Lewis in a constructive way, which is something you perhaps don't see enough of in American writers (at least within the Christian evangelical world).

At first when I saw "From Spare Oom to War Drobe" while browsing the Netgalley website, I wasn't sure whether I should get this book or not.

Because although I'd read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", growing up, and absolutely LOVED it, I had only read a chapter or two (maybe three!), of "Prince Caspian", the 2nd book in the Narnia series and hadn't really liked it  — at least from what I remember of reading it as a kid/teen in the late 80s to early-to-mid 90s (although I probably should try reading it again as an adult and seeing if my opinion about it has changed!) and as such, I never read any further in that novel NOR read ANY of C.S. Lewis's remaining Narnia books. So aside from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", and the beginning of "Prince Caspian", I have VERY LITTLE to NO knowledge about ANYTHING Narnia-related, including any details/specifics about the other novels in the series. Which is one of  the reasons why I was vacillating about whether to get this book or not. I was concerned that it would not be as much about "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" as rather the other Narnia novels which I've never read. Nevertheless, I ultimately DID get this book, and it was the title itself, "From Spare Oom to War Drobe" that reassured me. Especially since as far as I can recall hearing from those who HAD read ALL of the novels in the Narnia series, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" was the ONLY book in which the characters got to Narnia through a spare room wardrobe. So I thought the reference to the spare room and wardrobe meant that this book would be primarily & predominantly (if not solely!) focused on "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" rather than the other novels, in the series (which as I said, I have not read)

Unfortunately after downloading this book,  and starting to read it, I immediately realized that my initial instincts were right, and I definitely should NOT have gotten this book. Not only as its FULL of references from the Narnia books that I've never read, like Voyage of the Dawn Treader and others, but also since its MASSIVELY DRY & BORING!

Like another Netgalley reviewer, "Rebecca C.",  said, "Based on the charming title and publisher's description, I was expecting a book along the lines of The Wilder Life or other memoirs of that nature.". As I myself have read "The Wilder Life" a memoir by a fan of the "Little House on the Prairie" series,  I know what book "Rebecca C." is referring to — and I TOTALLY agree with her, that is pretty much EXACTLY what I also thought that THIS BOOK would be. For example, in "The Wilder Life", a fan of the "Little House on the Prairie" series not only discusses her feelings & opinions of the books and how its evolved, and the impact its had on her life, but also how her fascination with the novels led to her making "Little House on the Prairie" pilgrimages, journeying to the various famous homestead sites, museums and landmarks in various states like "Rocky Ridge Farm" in Mansfield Missouri where Laura Ingalls Wilder & her husband lived the majority of their adult years, or the final home of the Ingalls family in DeSmet, North Dakota or the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder in Pepin, Wisconsin. Now obviously, with the exception of the English countryside (where the Pevensie children were sent, at the beginning of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" in order to escape the Nazi German bombings of London & other cities in the UK, during World War II, known as the "blitzkrieg" or just "The Blitz") its not possible for Katherine Langrish, the author of "From Spare Oom to War Drobe" to make a similar trek to the locales in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", given that Narnia is mythical and NOT a real place. So she can't just hop in the car for a road trip or jump on a plane for a flight to Narnia to sightsee at Cair Paravel or the White Witch's Castle or the Stone Table or to visit Beaversdam or the home of Mr. Tumnus, the Faun.

Nevertheless, it was really disappointing that, as "Rebecca C." said, "Langrish takes us down a rabbit hole of references, connecting every Lewis character and creation to something that came before I don't doubt that these references are accurate, but in some places it becomes list-like and dry, instead of engaging my curiosity. She also spends a great deal of time (too much in my opinion) responding to Philip Pullman's critic of the series. For me, there wasn't enough about the author's own relationship to the text or how it has developed over time. The book is scattered and did not hold my attention"..............and I am in 100% agreement with those sentiments. Given that I never read any of the Chronicles of Narnia books in its entirety beyond "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", let alone the work of people like Philip Pullman, rather than droning on & on about obscure references and other boring stuff that I just skimmed past (before throwing in the towel entirely!) I wish that the author had spent that time & energy discussing, or expanding upon what the Chronicles of Narnia books meant to her both as a child as well as now when she has grown up.

Basically, when I downloaded this book, I thought/was under the impression that, just like "The Wilder Life", that "From Spare Oom to War Drobe" would be a memoir about the author rediscovering "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and the other Narnia books, as an adult, and figuring out whether she still loves them as much as she did as a 9 year old, and what place they have in her present life

However, that does NOT seem to be the case. Instead, this book was incredibly dry & boring, and I literally could NOT get through more than 5% or 6% of it before giving up entirely. The only reason that I gave "From Spare Oom to War Drobe" 2 stars is because die-hard Narnia fans *might*, I repeat, MIGHT, like this book. But I did NOT!

⭐️⭐️ 2 STARS!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought this would be an interesting read as I loved the Narnia books as a child but I found the style dull and not sufficiently analytical. I didn't finish it.