"The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle

There’s a profound melancholy that undercuts this story from start to finish; it was emotionally raw in a way I wasn’t ready for. It lacks immediate rigid world-building and clearly defined rules, and instead paints the silhouette of a world that is worse off for the fantastical elements which it has lost. The fantastic replaced with petty illusions, parlor tricks, or simply rendered unseeable by the eroding passage of time.

Loss is a prevalent theme: the fear and obsessive avoidance of loss is a destructive force as dangerous as curses themselves. There is a lot that could be read into, especially as much is shown with fleeting, incomplete, or impossible descriptions.

I’d like to say more about it but I cannot find the words. This is a story that will stick with me for a very long time. I pray that the movie does it justice when I go and watch that.