Review Detail

A tale of adventure, treasure, a talking dragon with a funny name, dwarven companions and discovering courage during trying circumstances, The Hobbit is a story that kids, teens and adults have been enjoying for
going on a century. It's the story of a small, fussy little hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who loves his cozy home in the Shire, where no one goes on any adventures or does anything very daring or dangerous. However, they all know what's going on in the town and who's who and who's related to so-and-so and what they ate for breakfast that morning. It's rather like a small Southern American town, actually. Bilbo's a homebody but there's a small spark in him that is still adventurous, thanks to his Took side (shout out to Peregrin Took, Tookishness rule!), and it is this little bit of boldness and a good shove from Gandalf that leads him to join the company of Thorin Oakenshield. This group of dwarves is heading off to the Lonely Mountain (aka Erebor) on a quest to reclaim their treasure from the dragon, Smaug, who took over their kingdom quite a few years back. Dwarves are a proud folk, but eventually Bilbo wins their approval and they actually start looking to him for answers and plans and the like. Their adventures include battling goblins, trekking through a creepy forest, being imprisoned by an Elven king, sneaking back into their own kingdom and then a massive battle. It's easy to sort of lose track of which dwarves are along for the journey (there are 13, so it's a lot of names and many rhyme), but if you do decide to watch The Hobbit movie, they're given rather distinct character traits and appearances. A few stand out in the book, like Thorin, Dori, Balin, Fili, Kili and Bombur; many of the others, poor fellows, sort of fade into the background. Overall, I love this book to pieces, and I would recommend it to basically anyone with a healthy love of fantasy.