Book Review: The Efteling: The Chronicle of a Fairy Tale by Henk vanden Diepstraten

  Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads De Efteling: Kroniek van een sprookje

Okay, so, poorly-kept Alex secret: I love theme parks. I've visited quite a few in my time and while I love most, my favorite always will remain one in my home-country of the Netherlands: The Efteling, a fantasy/folklore/fairy tale-based theme park. I've visited it quite a few times and still try to visit it at least once per year if I can. It's definitely a family park, but it also has some rides for thrill-seekers such as myself. But even discounting the thrills, it's just a beautifully themed park with a lot of nature in it, and I adore most rides. 

So when I saw that there was this huge book covering the park's entire history (well, up until the point the book got published, anyways), I had to grab it. Let's have a look.

This book delivers pretty much entirely what it promises. It covers the Efteling's entire history, from its foundation up until the early 2000s. It gives us a rundown of each year and what major events happened in that year. We also get interviews with a lot of the park's team members, as well as a lot of historical photographs, concept art for rides, etc. 

Yeah, this book is what I expected and more. I expected a history and some early photos/concept art, but this truly is the "bible" of Efteling history. It's super expansive and I especially appreciate that the author put in the time and effort to give a rundown of literally what happened per year. It's super expansive and really gives the reader a good look into what went down in each year and some behind-the-scenes things that happened around then. 

It's also visually super interesting with a lot of old concept art, historical photographs, etc. It really adds another layer to the book just seeing all the behind-the-scenes art for what would eventually become the famous Efteling rides. I'm especially a huge fan of Anton Pieck's and Ton van de Ven's artworks, may they both rest in peace (though Van de Ven was still alive when this book was written). And the many works of composer Ruud Bos also cannot go unmentioned.

This was just a fantastic dive into the park's history. It's expansive, written in a way which draws in the reader, gives the word to many of the influential figures in the park over the years, delves deep and has a lot of beautiful and fascinating visuals. Honestly, my only "complaint" would be that this book ends at the early 2000s point, while nowadays (about two decades later) I'd have loved it if it just went on a little longer to cover those years as well, because many old rides have gone and many new have come. Oh well, maybe they'll release an updated version of this book in a few years, who knows. I'd definitely be up for more of this.

Rating: 5/5