A review by will_cherico
Friday the 13th Part 3 by Simon Hawke

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This might be the worst of the three of Hawke's novelizations that I've read so far. It really captures how formulaic and soulless the slasher genre can be, and takes a F13 film that already focuses way too much on an immediately dated visual gimmick (3D) and translates it to a book. There's no attempt at a setting - Hawke seems to expect that the reader will simply imagine Crystal Lake from the movies. That doesn't seem like a hugely egregious thing for a novelization of a movie, but it's been about three or four years since I last saw this film and I can safely say that this entire book took place in a blob of empty space. When the book is at its most boring, in which Jason picks off the teenagers scene after scene, it's impossible for any tension to be created because we have no idea of space and where people are. The ending, which is actually one of my favorites in the franchise, ends pretty lamely without even trying to include some sort of dynamic writing for the final girl's showdown with Jason. Shelley's even more of an incel in the book than the movie which isn't necessarily something I'm holding against the book since I don't think we're really supposed to root for him, but God is it hard to read the parts from his point of view.