chopping mall (1986) is honestly such an iconic 80s horror film with such an absurd premise that it’s an impossible to forget film. so you’d think a novelisation would be able to capture what made the film amazing — maybe even give new depths to an otherwise depthless film. 

no such luck though. this felt more as if someone was asked to write a too long recap of the film without bothering to flesh out any characters beyond ‘blonde hair and huge boobs’ (granted, that’s very on point for the film) but having read other film novelisations this was subpar. stilted writing and nothing exciting makes it less fun than the film.

there’s limits to what an author can do with a film novelisation, obviously, and since i’ve not read anything else by the author i think it’s only fair to try out his original stuff in the future. but for now, this just didn’t do it for me, unfortunately — except maybe it’ll make me rewatch chopping mall in the near future. 

// ARC courtesy of BookSirens.