Novel Companion to Red Riding Hood Film

Weird to write a book to go with a movie, I always thought; usually, it’s the other way around: Filmmakers are too unoriginal to come up with real ideas and scripts, so they look for authors willing to let them massacre the story they started out with. It seems like cheating though, to pen a novel, after there’s already been a film. All you have to do is basically write the movie, and add filler likes thoughts, and set descriptions, and so on. But I will say, that giving us a companion novel for Red Riding Hood is a pretty good way to promote the film, plus, it gives us even more of a good thing: werewolves, massacre, badass action scenes. They’re also adding a frustrating little bit of hype to the whole book thing, by keeping the last chapter a secret until the movie premiers in March. So no one will know the ending, not even if they read the book ahead of the film.

Inside Beat has the scoop on the companion novel, Red Riding Hood, penned by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright:

Cartwright, a first time writer, has been chosen to write the novel for the 2011 film Red Riding Hood that will be released in March 2011. With the novel, Cartwright gives readers a first glimpse of what they could expect in the theaters this March.

The book begins with the 7-year old protagonist Valerie, who is visiting her grandmother with her family. As night approaches, the family makes their way back to their village, Daggorhorn.

The residents of Daggorhorn live in fear of a werewolf that has terrorized them for centuries. So far, they’ve managed to appease the wolf by providing it with offerings of farm animals every full moon. But 10 years later, Valerie’s sister has been killed, putting an end to the peace the village had embraced for so long. The villagers are suddenly left to deal with the haunting fact that one of their very own may be the werewolf in human form. This begins a capturing tale that leaves readers questioning every character, wondering about the true identity of the werewolf.

Despite the various Little Red Riding Hood adaptations, the story’s never been told in such a dark and enthralling way. With Red Riding Hood, Cartwright puts together a story that will leave readers both intrigued and frustrated with the abrupt ending. To build up even further hype for the movie, the last chapter to the book will not be released until the movie comes out on March 11, so readers will have to wait a bit longer to have any unanswered questions addressed.

This is, I believe, Cartwright’s first book; if not, then she’s written other novels under a different name. In fact, the only claim to fame the woman has is her role in the film ‘Thirteen’, in which she played ‘Medina’. So what did they just pick her name out of a hat? Anyway, if anyone else has read this, drop us a line in our comments. How does the novel add up? Do you think the book will be as good/better than the film? And what do you think of the mystery author, as well? Is it weird that they picked someone no one had ever heard of to write the book that’s supposed to be pretty important to the film? Tell us what you think!

3 comments

  1. I read because frankly I will read just about anything related to the werewolves that I come across or find listed in the library.
    It was okay and could totally picture how this would be adapted for a movie. It brings up some interesting if not exactly original concepts but while I know the ending chapter is missing, I kind of felt in reading the last chapter it does have is they were unsure how to pull it together to finish it.
    The major conflict is sort of ended and it seems to try and reengage for further story at the part when you are just looking for it to resolve and end. Some questions are not answered but is it enough to chase the last chapter or see the movie? Hmmmm maybe but I think it could have been done better.

  2. I’ll save my money and see if a version of the book/movie adaptation comes out with the last chapter included. This is marketing, they’re trying to get money and it’s not one I’ll go for.

  3. i got the book and its the best book i’ve read under the werewolf isle.and on one of the last pages it says go to redridinghood.com to download the last chapter and i did,and its amazing.

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