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A review by jilianh
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
adventurous
medium-paced
2.0
I read this for my Read the World challenge for my German author as I wanted something unrelated to the holocaust.
I am a 27 year old with no kids and I have no nostalgic attachment to this book or movie as I had no previous exposure. The Neverending Story most certainly felt never-ending. It was a tedious read for me. I am evidently not the target audience!
There are certainly fantastical creatures and situations to which I applaud the author's creativity, but none of the stakes or conflict held any gravity, and every new problem gets resolved quickly. This means a new problem must be created, then instantly fixed, and then repeat. I didn't feel attachment towards any characters, and while it addresses some difficult themes for middle-graders (death, depression, following true wishes, etc.) They are all such short segments that it feels jarring and superficial. The book reads almost like fables do,
which is just not my personal taste.
I did like that whenever we parted with a character we got the little missing piece of their story and " but that's another story and shall be told another time". It makes the side character stories feel more important and also helped make plot threads feel wrapped up.
I am a 27 year old with no kids and I have no nostalgic attachment to this book or movie as I had no previous exposure. The Neverending Story most certainly felt never-ending. It was a tedious read for me. I am evidently not the target audience!
There are certainly fantastical creatures and situations to which I applaud the author's creativity, but none of the stakes or conflict held any gravity, and every new problem gets resolved quickly. This means a new problem must be created, then instantly fixed, and then repeat. I didn't feel attachment towards any characters, and while it addresses some difficult themes for middle-graders (death, depression, following true wishes, etc.) They are all such short segments that it feels jarring and superficial. The book reads almost like fables do,
which is just not my personal taste.
I did like that whenever we parted with a character we got the little missing piece of their story and " but that's another story and shall be told another time". It makes the side character stories feel more important and also helped make plot threads feel wrapped up.