A review by angie_dutton
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

3.0

Really finding it difficult to rate this one, as not sure if I enjoyed it as much as I'd like to but the meta-intent behind it is so different and refreshing, actually brings a new perspective to the films too, which I loved as a kid (even the sequels I have a funny sort of affection towards, though I've not seen either of them since, so not planning to watch them again in case they get ruined, like the Ewok films, which I remember as being amazing but on more recent rewatching was very disappointed), anyway in terms of this actual book, the first half is weird to read as I hate reading massive sections in italics, and actually felt that it was unneccessary and a little pandering and patronising that the writer thought I wouldn't be able to figure out which bits were in modern day earth and which bits were inside The Neverending Story, though it makes a lot more sense to have taken that approach as the two narratives begin to blend together, the 2nd half gets a lot more interesting, and a lot more dark than anything Hollywood would have likely produced, with the reader (of the story) becoming an active player in the realm of Fantasia, in quite unexpected ways too. Something about the flow and readability of it though, like weirdly despite the subject matter the whole thing is much more boring that it should be, maybe that's no fault of the writer themselves because about 50 percent of it is scene-by-scene things I've already seen. Anyway I'm glad I've read it, almost just as a curiousity piece it's nice to know the background of the strange bits of cinema (and straight to TV movie) material that I loved so much growing up... though for whatever reason it took me so long to get through this.