Storyline: 5 Stars
I have not read the Lord of the Rings since I was in middle school, which was about 12-13 years ago. It was definitely different reading it from an adult perspective! Tolkien is an expert at storytelling. The characters, story, worldbuilding, are all wonderful. I really enjoy the worldbuilding because Tolkien inserts lore and history throughout the novel without dropping too much on the reader at one time.
Tolkien’s books are unique compared to others. Each chapter is a new adventure within the whole adventure. It is unlike a lot of other books with many chapters dedicated to one plot point and cliffhangers at the end of the chapters. I like the way that Tolkein is able to wrap up a plot point within the confines of one chapter.
Tolkein’s writing is more detailed and rich than a lot of other books that I read. When I first read it in middle school, it was a challenging read, but after reading it again as an adult, I caught onto a lot more of the details, partly because my reading and comprehension has grown. Tolkien’s books are good reread books. I could probably read the Lord of the Rings in ten years again and still pick up on new things!
Parental Guidance: 85% Recommend
As most of Tolkien’s works, they are clean and mostly appropriate for children as long as it is at their reading level. There were two instances in the entire series of the swear word *ss being used, but outside of that there was no other swearing. The language was clean.
There is violence in Tolkein’s books, although it not too graphic. The scenes of violence are usually short, and more details are given to the characters and scene around than towards the violent scenes. There are some dark themes, including some magic and evil powers, but even that was not as prominent as many other books. For all these reasons I would recommend the Lord of the Rings 85% of the time. I would say that middle school or later would be the appropriate age for the Lord of the Rings.
Real Book Chat
*Spoilers Ahead*
The Lord of the Rings is a classic. I love Tolkien’s world and history and lore and characters. My husband adores Tolkien and I had to stop him from talking too much about it while I was reading because I did not want to be reminded of what happens too early. Tolkien is one of those writers that have avid followers, and I think that it is well-deserved.
The one part of the Lord of the Rings that can be difficult for me is all the details that Tolkien includes. I am not much for details, especially when it comes to scenery, but I can read it when it is Tolkien. An unpopular opinion, I probably enjoyed the Silmarillion more than the Lord of the Rings just because there were less descriptive details about the story.
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