Scan barcode
liantener's review against another edition
3.0
Buena adaptación del guión. El autor se da la libertad de agregar algunos aspectos a la relación entre Elliot y E.T., aunque nada que cambie la trama.
kellitrusedell's review
4.0
This wasn’t the best book ever written, but it’s based off the screenplays of one of my all-time favorite movies, so I already had a sweet spot for it, before I even started reading. This follows the same story of the movie, but you get to experience it all through E.T. and Mary (the mom)’s point of view. I was giggling outloud at some of their thoughts and words used, but was also confused about the sexual attraction between them. So glad it never came to fruition (yikes). Overall, I enjoyed the book. But this might be one of the few instances where I think the movie is better than the book.
luthien3720's review
1.0
I've read good novelizations and bad novelizations, and this one goes into the category of terrible novelizations. While novelizations often include scenes and even subplots that end up cut from the final film due to the author writing from the screenplay rather than the final cut, this one seemed to be made up almost whole cloth from the author's imagination. Frankly, I prefer Spielberg and Mathison's imaginations. E.T. has a strange one-sided relationship with the kids' mother that verges on disturbing, he seems to dislike the kids, even his relationship with Elliott doesn't come through like it should. There's a character named Lance who isn't in the movie (maybe he was cut?), and there's so much stuff with Mary (the mother) that makes her a horrible character. I have never liked her in the movie, but she's not as awful as portrayed here: she's such a middle-aged divorcee stereotype it's offensive (even for the time this book was written!). Also, the novelization portrays E.T. as an old being, but I have always thought of him as a young character. He gets left behind because he's curious and goes too far away from the ship, to look at the city below. An older, experienced character wouldn't do that. Some novelizations add more detail and make a richer story while still keeping true to what we see on screen (see Wayland Drew's novelization of "Willow" for a great example). This one does not.
didyousaybooks's review against another edition
2.0
I want to say if you liked the movie, you'll enjoy the book.
You get povs of all the characters, including E.T. who speaks to vegetables (and they speak back ;)
It's a little bit ridiculous and fun.
Except twice the mother makes rape comments that felt super weird and out of place. She says to her two boys who were making a little bit of mischief with their little sister "what you were doing here? I hope you weren't raping your sister?!" Like WTF?
I don't know if it comes from the french translation but still...that's a very weird joke/comment for a mother to make, no?
You get povs of all the characters, including E.T. who speaks to vegetables (and they speak back ;)
It's a little bit ridiculous and fun.
Except twice the mother makes rape comments that felt super weird and out of place. She says to her two boys who were making a little bit of mischief with their little sister "what you were doing here? I hope you weren't raping your sister?!" Like WTF?
I don't know if it comes from the french translation but still...that's a very weird joke/comment for a mother to make, no?
apolasky's review against another edition
4.0
Of course it isn’t as amazing as the movie, but it’s quite good, and it made me cry all the same.
pagesfullofstars's review against another edition
3.0
I remember really enjoying the movie as a kid but this book truly confused me and made me question my memory of the movie. My biggest negative about it is that the author seemed to confuse genres a lot. The overall adventure seems to be a perfect story for children but there are also parts that sound like taken straight from an adult novel. There was a lot of warm, funny moments, like E.T. listening to the story or thinking about his planet but I thought that the parts from Mary's POV felt completely out of place.
More...