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michaelrcalkins's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Halloween is a really fascinating movie novelization. There is alot that is familiar here, but a surprising amount of original content, particularly in the early chapters where Curtis digs into the festival of Samhain and it’s effect on Michael Myers becoming The Shape. It actually echoes a bit of what would later come in Halloween II and especially Curse of Michael Myers. I found a lot of those digressions fascinating! I’m stunned they let him take this many liberties!
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Stalking
Moderate: Cursing and Drug use
Minor: Alcohol
herelieshenry's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
I have a lot of thoughts about this novelization that I’ll probably later make into a full-fledged review, but for now, I just want to say I hate a majority of the choices made around Michael’s character and background for this novelization, and the inconsistency in the assigned motive is bizarre: it feels as if the author wants Michael’s motive to have been that he was literally possessed by a cursed Celtic spirit, compelled by psychosis, and sexually repressed all at once, and fails both to capture the ambiguity of the film or compensate that with a compelling character study. On top of seeming to instead participate in the sort of hysteria around “times changing” and the preservation of the sanitized, false suburban American dream/nightmare that the film commentated on, the prose itself feels sort of juvenile (in a way I would have forgiven if it had provided literally anything substantial to outweigh that negative), and overall, I’d hesitate to recommend this to even to other people who love Halloween (1978) as much as I do.
Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Incest, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Car accident
Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Rape, and Medical content
ladiicatherine's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I mean, it definitely wasn’t the movie which is very near to perfection in my opinion.
The events were there but extended upon in parts and some of the events were out of sequence.
Hearing the character’s thoughts was very strange and, in a way, pulled me away from things.
I also don’t know if I got the full story given it was a Kindle edition. It seemed to cut off very abruptly at the end. However, getting your hands on a physical copy that is reasonably priced is difficult so I might never know if there was supposed to be more at the end!
It just could have been better overall.
The events were there but extended upon in parts and some of the events were out of sequence.
Hearing the character’s thoughts was very strange and, in a way, pulled me away from things.
I also don’t know if I got the full story given it was a Kindle edition. It seemed to cut off very abruptly at the end. However, getting your hands on a physical copy that is reasonably priced is difficult so I might never know if there was supposed to be more at the end!
It just could have been better overall.
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Stalking
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