My husband and I like to watch all the Oscar nominated films each year, and the adaptation of this book was by far my favourite and since I usually enjoy the book more than the film, of course I wanted to read this.
(I guess this review is kind of SPOILER-Y, so don’t read on if you don’t want SPOILERS!!)
For me, this was one of those rare occasions where I liked the book less than the film. While the story was basically the same, the film had a really lovely magical quality – from the staging and the sets to the slight tweaks in the plot. The film was like a beautiful coming of age fairy tale with really good good guys and really bad bad guys and everyone getting their comeuppance, and while I know that life is not really like that, and in many cases I got annoyed by Hollywood making stories too nice, I loved the film, and then I read the book and it was a bit like bursting my bubble.
I guess if I hadn’t seen the film then I wouldn’t have come to the book with any expectations, but I did, and so I can’t give a objective response. The book was just a bit grubbier, for instance, the Scientist, Godwin Baxter, in the book was creating Bella to be his wife, although to be fair, when she didn’t see him that way he didn’t push it. The good guys were not so altruistic and the ending especially upset me. It was a bit like the ending of Life of Pi, where the magical story, that the whole book led you to believe is explained away in a very prosaic and depressing way and you’re left to make the choice of which one you believe. Waah! Didn’t like that.
Sarah Wray Writer 