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joann3's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this book more than I expected too. I’ve always loved the King Kong movies and when I found this book at a flea market of course I couldn’t pass this up. It follows pretty closely to just the story of King Kong itself. I’m very happy with this.
abomine's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
3.0
2020 Popsugar Reading Challenge: a retelling of a classic
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The 1933 film is a classic, historic spectacle of movie-making magic, and is still a great watch in spite of the unfortunately expected racism and sexism. The book stands on its own as a fast, breezy, pulpy, enjoyable beach/airplane (ha) read, but if anything, the racism is worse here. The natives' stereotypical simplicity, superstition, and cowardice is exaggerated more here than in the movie, as is Kong's "blackness", especially in contrast to Ann's "whiteness". This docks what I would have considered a 4-star read down to a 3-star.
Still, if you're a fan of any of the Kong films, or of pulp stories in general, and are willing to stomach some outdated nastiness, you'll have a good time with this.
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The 1933 film is a classic, historic spectacle of movie-making magic, and is still a great watch in spite of the unfortunately expected racism and sexism. The book stands on its own as a fast, breezy, pulpy, enjoyable beach/airplane (ha) read, but if anything, the racism is worse here. The natives' stereotypical simplicity, superstition, and cowardice is exaggerated more here than in the movie, as is Kong's "blackness", especially in contrast to Ann's "whiteness". This docks what I would have considered a 4-star read down to a 3-star.
Still, if you're a fan of any of the Kong films, or of pulp stories in general, and are willing to stomach some outdated nastiness, you'll have a good time with this.
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