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lavvoid 's review for:
Codename Villanelle
by Luke Jennings
I probably would have rated this higher if I wasn't disappointed that this is completely different vibes from Killing Eve.
As a huge fan of the show I now realize how well the creators of Killing Eve adapted it. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of things that the book brings to the table that the show doesn't. We get a bit more Villanelle lore (though her backstory seems to be pretty different) and some of the mystique of a spy novel that is put on the back burner in the show (code-cracking, more of Villanelle's daily tasks as an assassin etc).
Honestly though, I think the main trouble is the fact that this is a novel about two women being obsessed with each other and it's written by a man. A lot of Villanelle's sexuality and even Eve's feelings around her marriage to Niko feel like they are disingenuous or laced with a bit of misogyny.
The characters are also less dynamic and harder to relate to. Book Villanelle is cold and bored the same as screen villanelle without the levity and depth of emotion that make her messy and relatable. She doesn't have that color and charisma that is portrayed in the show. Just the brutality with an occasional vulnerable moment that hasn't really led anywhere quite yet.
It is a short book, so i'm tempted to see if the plot and character dynamics get more interesting in the rest of the series. But I'm not sure if I would recommend this one to the average Killing Eve fan because It's just a very different thing entirely.
It's just unfortunately one of those moments where I can say I liked the screen adaptation better than the book.
As a huge fan of the show I now realize how well the creators of Killing Eve adapted it. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of things that the book brings to the table that the show doesn't. We get a bit more Villanelle lore (though her backstory seems to be pretty different) and some of the mystique of a spy novel that is put on the back burner in the show (code-cracking, more of Villanelle's daily tasks as an assassin etc).
Honestly though, I think the main trouble is the fact that this is a novel about two women being obsessed with each other and it's written by a man. A lot of Villanelle's sexuality and even Eve's feelings around her marriage to Niko feel like they are disingenuous or laced with a bit of misogyny.
The characters are also less dynamic and harder to relate to. Book Villanelle is cold and bored the same as screen villanelle without the levity and depth of emotion that make her messy and relatable. She doesn't have that color and charisma that is portrayed in the show. Just the brutality with an occasional vulnerable moment that hasn't really led anywhere quite yet.
It is a short book, so i'm tempted to see if the plot and character dynamics get more interesting in the rest of the series. But I'm not sure if I would recommend this one to the average Killing Eve fan because It's just a very different thing entirely.
It's just unfortunately one of those moments where I can say I liked the screen adaptation better than the book.