“While studying hundreds of pages and hours of movies, Cristina Casagrande is able to show us the huge importance of friendship, a feeling that motivates us, conducts us, and, often, leads us to success... Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Tolkien saw human beings and their emotions clearly. In this work, she evidences their view for our own understanding.” Ronald Kyrmse

"Casagrande makes her point well and she spends a lot of time on the journeys of Gollum and Sam on their way to Mount Doom. How each of the character's relationships with Frodo change during the trip are examples of Aristotle's concept of utility friendship and virtue friendship. The book is very well written with an interesting viewpoint on Tolkien's writings." Kristina Velis for "Beyond Bree", July 2022

"The work that new and emerging voices in Tolkien scholarship like Casagrande are doing is not a mere identical repetition of older projects, but a confection, a ripening and sweetening of the work they build from; a repetition that exceeds what has come before. In particular her work demands that we attend to that important thing that lies at the heart of The Lord of the Rings, which we have ignored precisely because of how obvious and unobtrusive it is: friendship. How very much like hobbits friendship is: there the whole time and yet constantly overlooked until at last it is brought to our attention by those who esteem it rightly—like Gandalf, or Cristina Casagrande." Mark A. Brians II, Mythlore 41.1, Fall/Winter 2022 - 263

The Journal of Inklings Studies Review, April 2025: <https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/ink.2025.0257>