Member-only story
Reading “The Last Jedi”: A Look at a Novelization
I hate novelizations. There, I said it. Books based on movies never work; they lack the detail, the depth of the story, and often times are just word for word retellings of what you already saw on screen.
Sometimes- like the novelization of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie- they lack the humorous dialogue that made the movie worth watching. Other times, they exist for no more a reason than to make a few extra dollars, like the novelization of the movie Inkheart, which itself was based on a beautifully written book by Cornelia Funke (yes, they really released a book that was based on a movie that was based on a book- which wouldn’t have been so gosh darn bizarre if the book the movie was based on hadn’t been the love letter to books and read that it was).
I’ve read a few novelizations in my time; I used to pick them up for movies that I really loved in theaters- you know, the ones that weren’t based on books that were already written- and wanted to experience again before the time came that I could get them on DVD and watch them repeatedly. I almost always never finished the books, and they only did one thing: made me want to see the movie again.
But last year I got a copy of Jason Fry’s novelization for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And let me tell you…
