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4.46 AVERAGE
4.46 AVERAGE
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You do not sit in judgement upon The Lord of the Rings, it sits in judgement upon you.
I cannot add an accolade to Professor Tolkein's work that has not already been written, for I have not yet (and perhaps never will) absorbed everything there is to absorb from it's magnificent world.
Read it, and re read it, as I will. Do not come at it with pre conceived notions or baser theories about politics or some such. Do not pit it against some other work. Just read it, as it is.
You will be better for it.
Perhaps try to read it a little quicker than I.
I cannot add an accolade to Professor Tolkein's work that has not already been written, for I have not yet (and perhaps never will) absorbed everything there is to absorb from it's magnificent world.
Read it, and re read it, as I will. Do not come at it with pre conceived notions or baser theories about politics or some such. Do not pit it against some other work. Just read it, as it is.
You will be better for it.
Perhaps try to read it a little quicker than I.
This will always be my all-time favourite story and world to get lost in. It's really difficult finding something that lives up to Tolkien's work.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
08/31/2025 - Spoilers ahead, possibly not all marked. Consider yourself warned from here on out and read at your own risk. -
You know the question, "If you were stranded on a deserted island, what's the one item you would bring with you?" My answer, (after sarcastically saying "a boat" and it being shot down), has always been the Lord of the Rings trilogy. To me, this series is comforting, grievious, and nostalgic. It would keep my spirits lifted on a deserted island, and if I were to die while reading it from malnourishment or weather, I would have been content.
That being said, it is quite late in the night where I am, and I am contemplating on if I will actually review this or give it a funny blurb of one. I reread the Fellowship of the Ring every year, at minimum, so I am more versed with it than any other book. However, this is the first time I have cracked open the mega book copy of the trilogy. My wrists are aching. It weighs three pounds. You don't have the gratification of marking a book complete when you are done, you must forge ahead. It's as it was intended to read, but dear god, 1000+ pages, and I still want to know more about the characters and their universe.
The story is bittersweet to me. It makes me want to visit my hometown. It makes me regret leaving. It reminds me I am constantly aging and constantly wishing I had started various goals years prior to avoid complications today. You can't start earlier, you can only deal with the consequences of starting too late. I want to scream into a void and frolick in a field of flowers, paint under a big tree and fall asleep mapping the constellations behind my eyelids. I want to watch the series with my mother and spend more time with those I love, I want to go off on an adventure and never return.
Are there issues with the book? Yeah, and I'm willing to overlook them. Would I had liked to see more women characters playing integrally important roles? Obviously. All in all, though, the charm of the book when I was a kid was that it was just some boys running around trying to save their world. It had a Lord of the Flies vibe to it.
Frodo, my dearest ringbearer, how I treasure you. The ring made him bipolar, paranoid, and very loyal. His character was written very well. Both kindhearted and just, with the corruption of the ring making him kind of snappy and cruel at times.The greed overtaking him at the top of Mount Doom, placing Sam at knife-point, and practically chewing Sam's ass out when he found out it was Sam who took the ring? Some of the best forms of whiplash and betrayal and corruption. It was nice to see these displays of negativity and then be rewarded by seeing his actual personality come out. It's that saying: Your first thoughts are your environmental/nurtured reactions. Your actions are your learned behaviors and morals. Frodo, the anti-hero, the foolish hobbit who set out on a fool's quest, the high spirited young man who had dreams of adventure and grandeur. I see myself in him, at times, throughout the story and also in my day to day life. Naive, determined, stubborn, and blundering through life hoping to be going towards the direction I need to be going in.
Samwise Gamgee, you are truly the book character I resonate with the most. The most supporting support character, the protector, the defender, the witty and sarcastic one-liner, the gardener. His unwavering loyalty and steadfast service to Mr. Frodo is admirable and, at times, seems misplaced and unimaginable. Out of the Fellowship, though, he is constantly talked down upon. Almost seen as a third wheel. "Who's that? Oh, the servant" but he turns out to be the best character. He didn't deserve all the jabs he received, all the imbalanced titles, nor did he deserve to be that torn.People often compare his ending to Frodo's, stating that at least Sam got a happy ending with the white picket fence, family, and grand rememberance. I don't believe this. Frodo and Sam were both changed people, and I think if Frodo had someone whom he loved waiting for his arrival, his ending could have been different. Oh wait, oh wait, his someone was Sam. Sam chose someone else. Sam makes one decision without Frodo being in the center of it and Frodo is mortally wounded? You can't convince me Frodo was chafed about the rejection. "But he was wounded, the stab wound" OKAY and? Idk, I guess we will never truly know, but my personal opinions remain that he was butthurt and had a cop out answer, okay? Let me be delusional with my gay hobbit sob story, please and thank you. I resonate with Sam a lot more than Frodo. I, too, am seen as lower than my friends in many degrees (jobs, educational degrees, childhood finances, and many more). Like Sam, I would bear many unpleasant journeys and circumstances to help out my friends, even if it killed me. I pushed my sister out of the way of a vehicle and got ran over, trapped, and deal with a lot of PTSD from that event. If I can spare someone I care for, even at great bodily harm to myself, I will. There's something in his character, never giving up or backing down, that makes me continue to strive to be like him. Sam could do no harm in my eyes.
I am a Gollum mediator. Some days, I'll be a Gollum apologist, and other days I am a Gollum hater. He truly was just a sad little creature, misguided, corrupted, and betrayed. He reminds me of the naked woman from Barbarians. They both were just mistreated, cast away, and seen as awfully evil people. But what about the murder? WHAT MURDAAAAA.
Gimli, Aragorn, Legolas, Merry, and Pippin (the fool of a Took!), are also characters I could, and probably should, go into more detail about the review. Unfortunately, the arms of Morpheus grip me.
"It seems almost like a dream that has slowly faded."
"Not to me. To me, it feels more like falling asleep again."
With that, Morpheus cradles my subconscious and I bid you all adieu.
You know the question, "If you were stranded on a deserted island, what's the one item you would bring with you?" My answer, (after sarcastically saying "a boat" and it being shot down), has always been the Lord of the Rings trilogy. To me, this series is comforting, grievious, and nostalgic. It would keep my spirits lifted on a deserted island, and if I were to die while reading it from malnourishment or weather, I would have been content.
That being said, it is quite late in the night where I am, and I am contemplating on if I will actually review this or give it a funny blurb of one. I reread the Fellowship of the Ring every year, at minimum, so I am more versed with it than any other book. However, this is the first time I have cracked open the mega book copy of the trilogy. My wrists are aching. It weighs three pounds. You don't have the gratification of marking a book complete when you are done, you must forge ahead. It's as it was intended to read, but dear god, 1000+ pages, and I still want to know more about the characters and their universe.
The story is bittersweet to me. It makes me want to visit my hometown. It makes me regret leaving. It reminds me I am constantly aging and constantly wishing I had started various goals years prior to avoid complications today. You can't start earlier, you can only deal with the consequences of starting too late. I want to scream into a void and frolick in a field of flowers, paint under a big tree and fall asleep mapping the constellations behind my eyelids. I want to watch the series with my mother and spend more time with those I love, I want to go off on an adventure and never return.
Are there issues with the book? Yeah, and I'm willing to overlook them. Would I had liked to see more women characters playing integrally important roles? Obviously. All in all, though, the charm of the book when I was a kid was that it was just some boys running around trying to save their world. It had a Lord of the Flies vibe to it.
Frodo, my dearest ringbearer, how I treasure you. The ring made him bipolar, paranoid, and very loyal. His character was written very well. Both kindhearted and just, with the corruption of the ring making him kind of snappy and cruel at times.
Samwise Gamgee, you are truly the book character I resonate with the most. The most supporting support character, the protector, the defender, the witty and sarcastic one-liner, the gardener. His unwavering loyalty and steadfast service to Mr. Frodo is admirable and, at times, seems misplaced and unimaginable. Out of the Fellowship, though, he is constantly talked down upon. Almost seen as a third wheel. "Who's that? Oh, the servant" but he turns out to be the best character. He didn't deserve all the jabs he received, all the imbalanced titles, nor did he deserve to be that torn.
I am a Gollum mediator. Some days, I'll be a Gollum apologist, and other days I am a Gollum hater. He truly was just a sad little creature, misguided, corrupted, and betrayed. He reminds me of the naked woman from Barbarians. They both were just mistreated, cast away, and seen as awfully evil people. But what about the murder? WHAT MURDAAAAA.
Gimli, Aragorn, Legolas, Merry, and Pippin (the fool of a Took!), are also characters I could, and probably should, go into more detail about the review. Unfortunately, the arms of Morpheus grip me.
"It seems almost like a dream that has slowly faded."
"Not to me. To me, it feels more like falling asleep again."
With that, Morpheus cradles my subconscious and I bid you all adieu.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Blood, War
Minor: Drug use
The drugs are smoked as a weed.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No