A review by dakotavander
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

4.0

👑 💍 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien 💍 👑 

After years of reading YA fantasy to my students and then watching Game of Thrones at home (and even listening to that audiobook a long time ago) I have FINALLY sat down to read probably the best known epic fantasy in the world. And I wasn’t disappointed!

I loved these movies growing up. But when I would go to read the books they always felt they were above my level. Hell, I thought that even now! Maybe it’s because I’ve had far more practice reading these past two years, but this time the words slid into my brain like butter. Tolkien’s writing is beautiful and there is no debating that he is a genius in world building. I still had trouble focusing a lot in this book. I won’t be continuing the series IMMEDIATELY because it was very dense and I need to relax a bit. But I am so pleased. I am guilty of skipping around at bits, which apparently is a very heated debate topic on Reddit about whether that’s ok, but I’m fine with missing some of the intricate details that he seems to love splicing in. 

I really started reading this finally for a couple reasons: 1) it was on Kindle Unlimited 2) I’m watching GoT again and it makes me want to watch the LoTR movies and new show and 3) I was already thinking of revisiting my fantasy WIP and wanted to read a proper fantasy to get me back in that headspace.

Overall, this was a challenging read but so worth flexing that muscle. Now I’m excited to watch the movie knowing what I know now!