Stardust

by Neil Gaiman

[ladygrey]

I don't know that I can offer a fair review of [b:Stardust|16793|Stardust|Neil Gaiman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328433738s/16793.jpg|3166179]. Because while a lot of people see the wonder of it, I thought it was lovely but somewhat placid.

I think it suffers twice over. Once for having seen the movie first; which is exciting and beautiful and fun. And secondly for not being particularly beautiful; which is an awful thing to say about a fairy tale sort of story. [a:Neil Gaiman|1221698|Neil Gaiman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg] does a phenomenal job of seeing the world of fairie and how lovely and strange it is, where a glass flower can be traded for the color of your hair, but he evokes it in rather a straight forward sort of way. His writing style worked great for [b:The Graveyard Book|2213661|The Graveyard Book|Neil Gaiman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1303859949s/2213661.jpg|2219449] but this needed something more magical. I'm not sure if it's a boon or a detriment that the movie captured that sense of magic and gave it life, but I think it's important to read the book before watching the movie.

And now I have a better understanding of how incredibly well this book was adapted to movie form. It may be the second best adaptation I've ever seen.