Crimson Peak: The Official Movie Novelization

The paper quality is good, perfect size to keep it with yourself and rear it through the day.

Crimson Peak captures the turn of the century world, and is an impressive adaptation of the film. This well written Gothic tale would have high appeal to young adult readers, but is also a great read for fans of traditional Gothic. Crimson Peak takes a page from the Twilight series with its fatal attraction and the classic lover triangle minus the vampires. This is a more sophisticated read that harks back to traditional Gothic. Both the film and novel have the quality of the ghost story.

The film’s dialogue is largely transcribed onto the page. Although the novel sometimes lacks the dramatic embellishments that the film treats viewers to, the novel engages with more subdued and restrained scares, and is a well-crafted tale. True fans of Gothic horror and the tortured romance will appreciate this story with its ominous foreshadowing and the way Nancy Holder creates mystery and menace around Thomas and Lucille Sharpe. As shadows lurk and Edith becomes more isolated she falls helplessly into the clutches of the freakish siblings escalating reader anxiety. The theme of doomed love is played out in more than one way.

Staple Gothic features are clearly recognisable, such as the haunted house on the hill, the Ghosts’ ambivalence. Clichés and the sometimes twee touches jar, but it’s easy to read past these as Crimson Peak doesn’t disappoint.

I *so* wanted to love this. I love the movie. Love it. Saw it three times in the theater and can't wait for it to be released on DVD. Tweeted Guillermo that it should be novelized, with all the backstory. So excited weeks later when I found out it was already a thing. Even more excited to see that an awarded author was at the helm.
Unfortunately, my passion quickly cooled. This is mediocre writing, if I am extremely generous. The story is not engaging, and lacks any and every vestige of the beauty and tragic grace that so marked the movie. The book departs from the movie in places, and weakens the character of Edith.
The editors should have noticed the obnoxious number of sentence fragments masquerading as full sentences that should have been part of the preceding sentence through use of a comma. It happened so very many times that the poor and awkward sentence structure interrupted my suspension of disbelief, a hallmark of lesser writing and very weak editing.
At this point, I'm only halfway through the book (although I've peeked a bit at the end), but felt moved to warn that this tale is not remotely comparable to the movie, adds nothing to the story, and actually detracts quite a bit in places. It would have been different if this was "based" on the movie, but as the "official movie novelization", it could have, indeed, should have, been done far better. I've read fan fiction that eclipses this one hundred fold, and I'm sure many of those writers would have leapt at the chance to novelize this story. Someone else should redo it.

This is the first novelization that I've ever wanted to read because I adore the movie so much. Yes, this book doesn't add anything to further the plot. It's almost exactly like the movie. That's exactly why I like it! It has beautifully worded gothic descriptions and all the internal dialogue you need.

To say I was disappointed in this novel would be an understatement, all of the other reviews are five stars, so when I actually read that I was a bit appalled.

The writing is incredibly amateur, the perspectives are dull and although I understand it’s a novel adaption of a film, I was incredibly bored that all of the spoken dialogue in this novel was like by line for the film.

The funniest and worst part of this book is when the author used the metaphor of a child looking into a window of toys during Christmas time for a little dog staring at a ball out of reach, when in itself was a perfectly fine description.

The demonization of the character Lucille was terrible, I understand she’s the antagonist and quite vile, but she was written as though she were a characterless, pointless, wicked witch in this novel, taking from the most interesting and charming character of this story.

To each their own, but my review suggests that if you love this film, you’ll do yourself a favor by ignoring the novel adaption.

The most important thing to know about this novelization is that although it is written well enough, the ending of the book is in complete contradiction with what the writer/director Guillermo Del Toro intended for the story. The book does not end the way the movie ends, and more importantly, in the special feature commentary to the film, Guillermo Del Toro very specifically explains why he did not end the film in that way and that his not ending it in that way was very important in relation to the characters. The female characters that are created here are the hero and the villain - not the male characters. Guillermo wanted to give his female characters that power. What does not happen in the end of the film does not happen for a very specific reason - because it is not how the story ends, and because it takes away from the power of the female characters, specifically Edith. There are only two love stories here - not three. The author of this novelization trivializes the entire story by adding a third love story and changing the ending. I suppose she wanted to make it all more mainstream, more "happy ending". This is not a happy ending story. The author also has toned things down to an incredible degree, obviously to make the story less shocking to readers. The disappointment of the last two pages of the author's version takes away from anything else she might have added as far as more depth of character via backstory and giving more character to the house itself. It trivializes it. Do yourself a favor - watch the film, and then rewatch it with Guillermo Del Toro's commentary. Everything that you wanted to know more about the characters will be given to you there, and you will understand why the story does not end the way the author has chosen to alter it, and you will feel satisfied with the way the story was intended to end and how that empowers rather than trivializes the female characters. If you are a woman, I believe you will also come away with the distinct impression that Guillermo Del Toro is a genius and a champion for women, and that the author of this novelization should take a page out of his book as far as how to depict women and empower them. I would really love to specifically say what those last two pages have in them that should never have been there, but that would be too much of a spoiler. Go ahead and read the book. I think that if you don't find it disappointing in the end, you didn't really understand this story at all. Or you wanted a different story, which is certainly what you will get. Which is unfortunate. Because a story should be told the way the original story teller intended, whether or not it conforms to mainstream ideals.

I loved this movie novelization of Crimson Peak! I was slightly disappointed by the movie, but loved this book! Slightly ironic I know, seeing as this is a movie novelization, but I truly feel this way. I can see why this author won the Bram Stoker award in 1994, she has quite a way with words! I found Edith so much more endearing in the novel, than I did in the movie. Don't get me wrong I love the movie, but this book, in my opinion, is better. I watched the movie before reading this novelization, and I still finished this book in one day. I could not put this book down! Her literary devices are phenomenal! I encourage any Gothic Romanticism fan to give this book a chance!

I really love this novelization of the movie 'Crimson Peak' by Nancy Holder. It describes details that were hidden in the movie. 'Crimson Peak' movie itself is easily the best movie I've seen in 2015 and directed by my all-time fave director, Guillermo del Toro. May I keep my fingers crossed for a prequel that will tell the story of the deepest, darkest secrets of the Sharpes Family and the Sharpes Mansion in Cumberland, England? That would be so awesome.

I loved this book as much as the movie. Actually, I watched the movie and immediately bought the book. The movie follows the book almost perfectly but in the book, of course, you get a person's thoughts. I thought it was amazing, vivid and very creepy. But, sometimes the creepy things are not the things you should be afraid of, never judge a ghost by it's looks. Watch out for the humans! I think all of the characters were well written and I enjoyed them all.

I think anyone that loves the era the book is in along with ghosts and mysteries will probably like this book. And if not, that's okay too :-)

It did a great job portraying the moving and adapting it and adding even more depth to it, absolutely in love with it