Oh, you have to. It's definitely one of the best books I've ever read. I highly recommend it, providing you can get through some violence and the generally depressing atmosphere. But even in the darker parts, there's always a sense of adventure and hope that makes you want to keep reading, so it's not unpleasant to read at all.
I don't want to play down anything though, it sure is pretty gruesome at times. This "couldn't get out" scene is probably the most disturbing and upsetting part of it. It you thought the movie version was horrifying... well, I'm not kidding, the scene in the movie is actually pretty tamed in comparison. Here, it's just about 30 seconds... in the book, we get sentences like "And then the runs began to be blocked lower down with dead rabbits and the live rabbits tore them to pieces." and "After a long time the men finished. They took the bramble things out of the holes and the boy put the bodies on a stick."
*shivers*... well, like I said, pretty gruesome sometimes, but I still consider it to be one of my favourite books. If you liked the movie, you'll love it.
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