Saimon (ZanyAnomaly)'s Reviews > Batman: The Killing Joke

If you’re thinking of reading this book, chances are – you’ve read the original graphic novel by Alan Moore. I hadn’t. I had put off reading the graphic novel until I heard about this Novelization. I was curious to know how the experience would be – since I’m only used to seeing books turned into graphic novels and not the vice versa. My perspective is that a novel will give me a better perspective to the graphic novel. And it did exactly what I hoped it would. It takes the original storyline, adds all these subplots that give the characters more depth, motive (and context) to their actions and gives us a more well-rounded story. It is not just the story of Batman and The Joker. It is also the story of all the supporting characters, them being the heroes of their own POV. I read the graphic novel as soon as I was done with this novelization and found the storyline to be almost similar in most aspects. Everything that the reader of the graphic novel has to assume is clarified with each sentence we read and I found myself being glad that I had read the novelization to understand some of the context of the graphic novel (Yes, I know the graphic novel is more than capable of standing on its own. I just appreciated the fact that I knew the context more clearly and beforehand, thereby making my experience of reading the graphic novel better than it would’ve been.). The writing was smooth and kept me just enough interested to turn to the next page.

But there were a few things that I did not like about this book:
1. There is one particular subplot that just made no sense to me and I do not understand why it was a part of this story cause it is not at all relevant to the storyline. Truly frustrating.
2. The constant mention of all the cool gadgets and the detailed descriptions of them, especially in the beginning, really made me roll my eyes. It just felt unnecessary.
3. The ending. The one part where the novel strays away from the graphic novel. For those of you who don’t know, the ending of the graphic novel is left ambiguous (though its widely assumed by the fans). But the novel removes the ambiguity and takes it in…a certain direction. And I’m very disappointed by that. It is truly disappointing that the novel stuck with the storyline of the graphic novel for so long only to not in the last few pages.
That’s my only gripe with the book. Other than that, The Killing Joke novelization is a fun one time read for anyone – from a DC novice to hardcore fan. This book also sets things up nicely for an expanding DC Novel universe. So, strap in folks. We’re in for a ride.
-----------------------------------
Loved it! It follows the exact storyline of the graphic novel but adds a lot to it to make it a more emotionally rounding tale.

Review to come soon!
Thanks to the Bloomsbury India for providing me with a review copy!