Session 9: The Official Novelization

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This is the first time I read a novelization of a movie so I don't know if it is always like this but I was a little disapointed by the lack of content? The book promised to delve deeper into the mind of the characters yet I felt like it was basically a retelling of the movie save for the last 10 or so pages, where they did add a bit of new content (both thoughts of a character and a bit of extra scenes)

I also feel like despite being a novelization the book tried too hard to be like the movie/like a movie in the sense that they would describe jump scares randomly? I get that in horror movies you see shadows and hear noises at random since the beggining and that's fine! Because that helps create atmosphere and build up tension. But books don't work the same way, it just doesn't translate the same to describe a place or a conversation and then throw something like “a shadow walked fast behind them without anyone noticing”. It's honestly comical and it feels like they didn't managed to properly translate the story to a different medium.

With that said, I think the last chapters of the book were VERY good! The way the author jumped from scene to scene between paragraphs describing the situations all at the same time, while all of the characters were experiencing a tense moment was amazing and it rised my tension lol.

I also enjoyed that they built up the ending a bit more than in the movie, because I was honestly confused after watching it, but even with just those little extra scenes I think it rounded the story nicely.