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You did it!!

What are your final thoughts?
Who were your favorite characters in this book? Is that different from the rest of the series?
What will you rate this one?
Any quotes or stand out moments from this final section?

I never would have gotten this series read if you had not had this Readalong. So, a big Thank You to you and Sarah. I thoroughly enjoyed all 4 books and will see The Return of the King movie soon.

2 stars

You know when you're watching a movie, or the last episode of a TV series, and it ends on cliffhanger and you know you have a really long wait to see the payoff? That's what this book felt like, and I bought it before I even finished The Two Towers.

The main storyline in The Lord of the Rings is the quest, it's where the story story started and it's certainly what made me invested in the story in the first place. But here it's almost like it's an afterthought.

Now I'm all for world building and giving secondary characters time in the spotlight, but the first "Book" in this "Part" seemed to be never ending and quite frankly I grew bored and found it a slog to get through.

But then we returned to Frodo and Sam and I thought, here we go, things will pick up now. And they did, but three chapters later and it was all over. What followed felt like a very extended epilogue that was put in to pad the word count.

It wasn't all bad. The aforementioned three chapters did a good job of highlighting the struggle and determination to finish the quest. Also I grew to like Merry and Pippen a lot more than I had previously and they certainly came into their own when returning to the Shire.

Even though this was the shortest of the three parts (I had zero interest in reading the appendix, family trees etc) it felt like the longest. I wasn't invested in what Tolkien had to say and for the most part I was bored, continuing on in hope that I would return to what had enthralled me in the beginning.

Forgot to add this in the initial post. Very recently I have three books that quite heavily features a Bard and they didn't break out into song nearly as often as everyone did throughout the course of these books. And it didn't seem to matter what situation they were in, a song always seemed to be just around the corner.

I have no plans on rereading this. I was thinking of buying all 6 movies and having a marathon but the way this has ended I'm doubting whether I want to put myself through that, even.

Throughout the first two books, "The Fellowship of the Rings" and "The Two Towers" there was often a feeling of foreboding and darkness and the enemy following close behind.

These books were written during WWII and a period of time after and I feel that these books reflect that time period and the sense of foreboding and darkness. Also without calling it Post Traumatic Stress, it seems that Bilboa, Sam and in particular Frodo suffered from it. To me these books were a re-telling of a dark period in world history, told in a fantastical, creative way.

I would rate this book 4 stars. The reading got deep and tedious at times, but overall it was beautifully and creatively written and so very unique.

I loved Sam in this book. Such selfless friendship and pure love for Frodo. His friendship really matured from the first book.

To quote Frodo "I am glad you are here with me Sam, here at the end of all things."

OH boy. I finished. Finally. Think I'll give it 3 stars because the end really did pick up and became interesting again. I did feel like getting the ring to Mordor was a bit anticlimactic since that is what we were building to over 3 books, but it happened. Good ole Gollum.

I loved how Merry and Pippin changed throughout, well starting with the Ents and especially in this book. Love how they became "captains" and took back the Shire.

Overall I'm glad I finally read this series, but I'll just stick to the movies from here on out. Probably won't ever read LOTR. The Hobbit is still a fave and I'll read that over and over, but the other three I can check it off and call them finished! Woohoo!!

Thanks for reading with us.