The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest is a 1928 novel by Felix Salten that tells the story of Bambi, a young deer trying to survive and find his way in the world of the forest. The book was later turned into a 1941 Disney animated movie of the same name. The book is much more mature and violent than the movie, with several key characters getting killed in brutal ways. At the start of the book, Bambi is born to his mother, who teaches him about other life in the forest and to always stay away from human hunters, who they refer to as “He” or “Him.” As Bambi gets older he meets other deer related to them and starts a relationship with one of the deer, named Faline. Bambi has an encounter with one of the hunters and he barely escapes alive. The second encounter with the hunters doesn’t go as planned, with Bambi’s mother getting killed and one of his close friends disappearing and is presumed dead. At some point Bambi is wandering around and he meets a stag, who is referred to as the “old prince” and this stag takes Bambi under his wing and shows him how to evade the hunters and to spot their traps. Later on Gobo, Bambi’s friend who was presumed dead returns to the group and tells them all how he was taken in by a human and nurtured back to health. Gobo tries to explain to the other animals that he doesn’t need to hide anymore because the humans trust him. This obviously doesn’t go well, a few chapters later Gobo sees a hunter and thinks that it’s the one that rescued him but instead he gets shot and dies. There isn’t a really climactic ending to Bambi, it just kind of ends and I was a little disappointed about that. There’s like a brief fight between a fox and dog, but other than that not much happens. Overall, I thought this book was pretty solid with some good characters and an interesting story as well.