I tried to read this one before rather recently (I think 2018-2019-ish) and it was honestly one of the hardest books I've ever had to get through. And this wasn't because I went in thinking I'd dislike it; far from it. I was excited to read Mowgli's story (and some others). But let's re-visit it today to properly review it. Spoilers ahead.
The Jungle Book contains a few short stories, all surrounding animals and most of them taking place in India. The most famous of these stories are the ones that are dedicated to Mowgli, a human boy raised by wolves who must stand up to a villainous tiger trying to kill him. Others deal with (among others) a white seal looking for a home and a mongoose protecting his human family.
I really tried, once more, to get into this book. I really tried. But it's just...not clicking for me. I've come to that conclusion by now. So what is it about this book that makes me so disconnected from it?
Simple: the writing voice of the author. I for the life of me cannot get into his way of narrating things and writing dialog. It makes me feel disconnected from everything: the world, the characters, and the events going on. I have to do my very best just to keep paying attention to the story because the way everything was written is so distracting.
And it's not like it's just the typical writing voice of the time. I've read books of around this era (late 1800s/early 1900s) before (e.g. The Call of the Wild) and had no problem staying invested in those. But just everything about how things was handled here made me feel disconnected from the story, and breaking a reader's immersion is one of the worst things an author's writing voice can do.
As for the stories themselves, the only ones I was interested in were the ones about Mowgli and the Rikki Tikki Tavi-story. The others were honestly quite boring (especially the last).
So no, I don't recommend you pick this one up. It's free and public domain, but it's still not just fun or immersing at all to read. I think I'll stick to my movie adaptations instead.
Rating: 1/5
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