I was so looking forward to reading this book. After hearing so many good things about The Killing Joke graphic novel I couldn’t wait to get my teeth into it. I can’t compare the two as of yet, as I haven’t read the graphic novel, however, from what I’ve read here the actual story is great. It flows nicely and moves at a good pace. It’s relatively easy to read and I found myself picking it up in most of my free time.
There are a couple of problems I had with it though. First of all, what happened to Giggle Sniff? Did it just get forgotten about?
And secondly, the thing that I’m really disappointed about was how incredibly sexist and at one point homophobic the book is. When you first come across a character drooling over a pair of tits you think, “ok, fair enough, maybe that’s just what that character is like.” But, when it happens repeatedly with pretty much every male character, it makes you wonder if the authors’ own opinions are showing through a little. I found that these characters’ views didn’t really add anything to the story and so seemed a bit pointless. I also thought a lot of the characters seemed a bit two dimensional and I get that henchmen are pretty disposable characters but if you’re going to add something to their personality, does it always have to be how they love objectifying women?
Also, Zack is a by the book “nice guy” who really deserves some sort of comeuppance. Poor lad, always being friend zoned. *sigh*
Come on guys, I know this was originally written in 1988 so you might have gotten away with some of this stuff then but this book was written in 2018. Can we get with the times just a little bit?

A really great adaptation of the iconic comic book story. This novel really brings the comic to life in a vivid way while expanding on the story. It bridges the gap between the original comic story and the movie adaption of said comic (Disclaimer: the expanded story elements in this novel, while similar in plot to the film; are MUCH better done here). If you didn't like the movie adaptation this is the book to replace it.

The writing style fits this story so well, its descriptive and atmospheric. The book blends the imagery from the comic with the atmosphere of the Batman animated series, with the expanded plot from the movie adaptation of Killing Joke.

TLDR; a really good adaption of one of DC's most famous Batman stories. Would highly recommend to any Batman or comic book fan.

This review was originally written for my blog http://turnthepage.travel.blog/2019/04/12/the-killing-joke-by-christa-faust-and-gary-phillips/

I saw this movie when it first came out - what Batman fan (or, in my case, Joker fan) didn't? I enjoyed it. I didn't love it, but I didn't feel like I had wasted 80 minutes of my life by watching it. I have never read the comic on which the movie was based, it's on my list though.

This book is set in the year 1988. It tells the story of Batman and Batgirl as they do what they do best - fight crime and try to save Gotham City from a new street drug named Giggle Sniff which is highly addictive and has fatal side effects. The authors do a good job of casually name dropping a lot of well known characters from the Batman series: Alfred, Robin, Maxie Zeus, The Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, Dr. Tompkins, and so on. This book doesn't focus entirely on the protagonists however as it zones in on other characters as each chapter moves the spotlight to someone else.

My first complaint with this book was that despite its title, and despite the movies focus on the Joker, apart from a few brief short chapters early on in the book he's only in this final chapters of this novel. At the start Batman and Batgirl fight Maxie Zeus, then the middle of the book focuses on a drug deal, and the Joker isn't the main concern until the end.

My second complaint is that if you have seen the movie then the book doesn't really add anything of interest. It's not a literal book of the movie, there is some added backstory and it goes further than the ending of the movie, it even clears up the controversy about the films ending (you'll know what I'm talking about if you have seen it). But I felt that it had a lot of filler content that didn't add anything to the story. I feel that this story works well in a more visual format such as a film or a comic, but it did not translate well to a book.

My third complaint, which is very minor, was that I found a few parts of the book very awkwardly written. The fight scene at the start against Maxie's two robotic dogs just felt like "Batman jumped over one dog, kicked the other, then threw a batarang at the first, then punched the other", it was too long and not varied enough for the length. Other sentences were just badly written as if there was a word missing. This did not happen frequently enough that it made the book hard to read, and like I said it was just a minor issue for me.

Overall I'd give this book a 2/5 star rating. I would only recommend it if you really really want to read it, but if you're just a small fan of the series or curious about the story then I'd propose for you to watch the movie instead.

(A huge thanks to Bloomsbury India for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.)

I'm going to start off by saying that I have not read the comic, The Killing Joke. So my review won't be comparing the two but rather just be talking about the novelization by itself. I found this book to be quite dark and gritty. There's physical and mental abuse and quite a few things that can make people feel queasy.

That being said, the author has done an immensely good job of bringing together multiple plot lines and binding them together into one story. This is not just the story of Batman and Joker. This is the story of a girl who moonlights as a superhero and revels in the freedom, it's the story of the girl who wants to escape from life under a drug dealer, it's the story of a man who lost his family, it's the story of a cop trying to play the hero, it's the story of a cop who loves his daughter, it's the story of a boy who worked for the wrong man, it's the story of how one bad day reduces the sanest man alive to lunacy... or does it?

For me the character that stood out most was Barbara Gordon. Her character arc was the most dark and complex but i can't say much about giving away any spoilers. This book sets up the arena for the future DC novelizations from Titan Books. Introducing a certain character the way the author did at the end was so genius and unexpected.

I enjoyed the conversations between Bruce and Alfred. Not all the conversations added much to the story but they sure added a lot to the characters' personalities. Growing up with Nolan's version of Alfred, this Alfred seemed quite different to me and it was intriguing to learn about him. I also enjoyed the conversations between the patients of Arkham asylum and their conversations with the doctors there. It was interesting seeing how some criminal masterminds justified their crimes in their own twisted manner.

Although I was underwhelmed by Harleen Quinzel whenever she appeared in this novel. Hopefully her character will be built more in Mad Love because I'm really looking forward to reading that! I also missed seeing enough of Batman. He's probably considered the main character but he wasn't around as much and I wished we'd seen more of him throughout the book.

To sum up, this novelization of The Killing Joke is dark and gritty with a well written and brought together plot but I'd have liked to see more development when it comes to some characters.

Não acrescenta nada à graphic novel, ao contrário do que tinha acontecido com os outros dois livros da colecção

There were a couple of small things added that I wish were not changed because I feel like it changed the meaning of the original comic. But for the most part I liked this story a lot. Most of the book was not the comic, but I feel like the extra stories fit into the overall world better then the stories from the animated movie did. I'm glad I gave it a chance and I'm excited to read the others.

It made me want to go back and reread the graphic novel. The novel wasn't bad but it wasn't great either... points for graphic design of the book though, really sharp package.