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brighella 's review for:
Red Sparrow, Volume 1
by Jason Matthews
Having loved the movie, I thought this would be one of those “the book was better” situations, but that is not the case imo. The writing gets bogged down in the minutiae of boring spy work—sending cables and telegrams and spending ages walking around aimlessly to make sure the characters aren’t being followed. The action—if you can call it that in many instances—happens over the span of three pages and then you’re left with six chapters of boring nothingness.
There’s also the issue of exactly when this book is meant to take place.... had it not been for like two? three? specific mentions of dates post 2001, I would have said this book takes place either during the Cold War or during the 80s. Nothing of the book or the characters or the settings lends me to think this is supposed to be a modern day story. They hardly even use/mention cell phones, and there’s not one computer in the whole story. It was jarring when I came upon those dates (and with the knowledge of the movie) that this is supposed to be taking place this decade.
The is one of the few times I’ll say this: the movie was better. It had a better plot, better pacing, better characters, better suspense, better payoff.
There’s also the issue of exactly when this book is meant to take place.... had it not been for like two? three? specific mentions of dates post 2001, I would have said this book takes place either during the Cold War or during the 80s. Nothing of the book or the characters or the settings lends me to think this is supposed to be a modern day story. They hardly even use/mention cell phones, and there’s not one computer in the whole story. It was jarring when I came upon those dates (and with the knowledge of the movie) that this is supposed to be taking place this decade.
The is one of the few times I’ll say this: the movie was better. It had a better plot, better pacing, better characters, better suspense, better payoff.