A review by literarymuses
Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is one of those instances where the entire time I read the book I couldn’t stop reading the lines in the voices of the actors who said them. Which sounds like it could be annoying but I rather enjoyed it! 

However, while reading this book I got the feeling that some of these characters weren’t written with the concept of how they were portrayed on screen in mind. There were just scenes or lines some of them would say that felt out of touch with what we as an audience know about these characters already (assuming you’ve seen the movie before hand, since this is an adaptation off of the movie). Like I read scenes and couldn’t stop myself for thinking  “did this author pay no mind to how these characters were portrayed when writing this?” Then there were some of the scenes that were edited down or changed from what was in the movie that wasn’t my cup of tea. For example the iconic desk set scene goes from a shitty birthday present becoming an airplane during a bonding moment to just Todd sulking and yelling. Rightfully so but you lose the connect Todd and Neil had by doing it that way. I understand that might have been how it was originally written in the original script but wasn’t a fan of it. And please don’t get me started of book Knox, who somehow is worse than movie Knox. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book simply because I enjoyed the movie. That being said it’s really a 3 in my eyes, but bumped to a 4 because of what it is. 

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