‘The Cabin in the Woods’ – Tim Lebbon (Titan Books)

 


Page Count: 295 Pages

It’s not really the plan to be doing a post a day at the moment (although I’ve said that before…) but I wanted to finish this book before my daughters come over, later today, so I can lend it to my eldest. We watched the movie, the over day, and she really enjoyed it so I thought, why not grab a copy of the book as well?

To be honest, I hope she enjoys it a lot more than I did. It wasn’t a bad read but… I think I’ll stick with the movie.

‘The Cabin in the Woods’ has been out in the wild (film and book) for a few years now so I’m going to skip the bit where I copy and paste a little blurb. I’m guessing you’ve probably either seen the film or read the book by now; if you haven’t, I’ll use this sentence to thoroughly recommend that you give the movie a go if and when you get the chance. That’s all I’ll say though, I don’t want to spoil the plot for you. And with that said, lets talk a little about the book…

I love movie tie-in novels, they were one of the staples of my ‘reading diet’ (as a kid) and were a great way of experiencing a number of movies that I wouldn’t get anywhere near until I was a lot older. What I find though, these days, is that a movie tie-in has to have a little spark of its own, otherwise it’s just a word for word retelling of its source material which is okay but you shouldn’t have to settle for that, whether you’re the reader or the author. Hopefully I’m making a little sense (it’s been a long day…) Tell the story but give me a little more at the same time, show me things that I wouldn’t necessarily see on the screen…

Lebbon tries to do just that with ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ but for me, he missed the target on both counts. The recounting of ‘on screen events’ felt really dry and those little glimpses into the minds of the characters felt like more of the same; interesting but again, a little too dry to fully engage with. I mean, you could tell which characters were thinking those thoughts but the delivery was far too similar for any of them to properly stand out. Your mileage will inevitably vary (and I really hope it does) but for me, there were large(ish) chunks of the book that I skimmed.

To be fair, the novelisation does its job in recounting the events of the movie and if that’s all you need then fair play, I reckon you’ll find something to enjoy here. For me though, I was after a little bit more and while the potential was there, it didn’t quite make that final leap. I’ll stick with the movie.

Comments

  1. Bookstooge10 July 2024 at 08:45

    I skip most movie novelizations now, for just this type of thing. If I'm interested in the storyline, I'd much rather watch the movie.
    Unless it is an actual book the movie is based on, then I'll gladly read it...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Graeme11 July 2024 at 00:30

      For every 'Cabin in the Woods' there's a 'Ladyhawke', 'Return of the Jedi' (I loved that book growing up!) or any one of a number of novelisations by Alan Dean Foster. I'll take those odds ;o)

      Delete

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