I actually attempted to read the Hobbit when I was probably 12 because my mum is the worlds biggest LoTR fan and wanted to introduce the series to me with what should be a light prequel. I failed miserably. In fact I don’t even think I reached the part when they leave the Shire... This time around I listened to it as an audiobook. The narrator Rob Inglis did a fantastic job of bringing the story and characters to life, but sadly it couldn’t save it from me only giving it 3 stars.

Now disclaimer, I watched The Hobbit trilogy before this and wasn’t really a fan of it. (Splitting it into 3 movies was clearly a cash grab, and none of the films managed to reach the levels of the original trilogy) So maybe while going through this I had that in the back of my mind.

However my biggest qualm was not of the story, which was actually a great adventure, but of the writing itself. I have always heard so much praise for Tolkien, arguably being the pioneer of the fantasy genre, but it seems his style of writing has not aged well. Especially compared to what the fantasy genre has become today with the likes of Game of Thrones etc...

I really struggled to get through certain parts and often found his wit landed a bit flat. I could just see Tolkien sitting there giggling to himself as he wrote, thinking he’s really done something here... The constant breaking into songs/poems that more often than not didn’t add anything to the story and the fact that he always has to name all 13? dwarves in the gang... (many of which I couldn’t tell apart, so we were better off just having 4 detailed ones) It must have been a nightmare for the poor narrator, because it was a nightmare for me hearing it!

Also as many other reviews on here have noted, Tolkien often seems to get distracted and puts too much detail into parts that do not matter and leaves other areas quite underdeveloped. For example, I found it frustrating that we spent so much time during moments such as Bilbo and Gollum doing riddle after riddle, yet there was hardly any description of the final battle, and the character deaths just felt shrugged off with no meaningful description of anyones thoughts and emotions at that time.

Even though there was some great memorable parts along the way, as a whole it felt a bit of a chore to get through and sadly I didn’t feel rewarded by finishing it.