Cheap Catwoman (Book) (ELIZABETH HAND) Price

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Customer Reviews of Catwoman

Not that bad!
One star is way too harsh! First rule of mine is entertain me and please don't bore me. Hand did entertain me. It's just a fun summer film, come on! Not the greatest but worth a look. Hand does a nice job of putting us inside the head of Patience/Catwoman and that's more than a bigger name author did for a novelization of another film that disappointed me. I also think this is the sort of book that younger (teen) readers and older readers can both enjoy.

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How NOT to write fiction. I wish I could give this 0 stars.
Elizabeth Hand's novelization of the "Catwoman" Screenplay should be on every writer's desk and on every English student's desk. It is the textbook example of how not to write fiction. This is one of the worst pieces of creative writing in the history of literature.
In adapting this poorly written screenplay, we see almost all the mistakes often used by first-time writers use in creating their stories. Patience Phillips a shy artist who cannot stop apologizing for herself is drowned and brought back to life by being licked by a stray Mau cat she saved. This is a clear example of the Deus Ex Machina, a plot device that conveniently gives the main character power to get out of an impossible situation or achieve a victory they could not achieve on their own. Any good writer knows to avoid this plot device at all costs because it pushes the story along without explaining things in a logical fashion.
As a character, Patience Phillips is poorly defined. There are numerous scenes where things conveniently happen to Patience through amazing coincidence. Her friends give her a leather suit to wear on a " date"; this becomes her costume. She steals a diamond tipped necklace from criminals that conveniently has diamond tipped claws on it. Ophelia Powers is there to tell her she was "reborn" and is "one of nine catwomen." The Mau cat gives her powers. In the stages of her character's development Patience never comes to discover anything on her own and grow as a character. In creative writing this is truly horrible storytelling. In good writing the plot moves forward from the characters discovering things on their own and the audience learns about them from seeing what they see.
The writing style used here isn't good at all even for a movie adaptation. Yes the writer is working from a screenplay, however this is terrible work coming from an award winning professional writer of published books. The prose style and sentence structure in a lot of the paragraphs is very unprofessional. In describing looks Hand excessively uses the word "stared" as opposed to using words with similar meaning to add variety to her writing. Some sentences don't even make any sense. An example: "She was back in her studio apartment "I hope you don't mind, Bast or whatever your name is," she said, lifting the mask to peer through the two slashes she'd made for eyeholes. "But I need something that looks a little more modern. And a name that's easier to pronounce.... like, say -Catwoman"
Her lip curled. Her hand closed around the diamond-tipped claw necklace. She drew it toward her face, regarded it appraisingly before suddenly, violently giving a snarl, and ripping it apart. Claws went flying. Catwoman looked at them coldly, then quickly gathered them. One by one, she slashed each diamond-tipped claw through a finger of her leather gloves, until she had ten lethal, shining talons. She turned her hands this way and that then shoved her chair away from the desk, exposing her legs in her skintight leather pants. Swift as a striking cobra, her hand tore at the leather. Catwoman hissed, the sound somewhere between pain and pleasure, and when she was finished raised her hands, curling her fingers in delight. This is the writing style used by an amateur writer who knows nothing about sentence structure, wordplay or description. The overuse of melodrama in these book passages is a common mistake used by first-time writers in their rough drafts. First-time writers often think these wordy descriptions are smart, however they make no sense to the reader. It's filling up pages with words for the sake of ego.
If this is book adaptation is an example of what the movie will be like then this will be a horrible movie. Elizabeth Hand's Catwoman is written in a language for a child however I cannot recommend this book to any parent who wants to give their children something to read or any adult looking for something entertaining to read. There are better books out there. Buy one of them instead.

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Catwoman by Elizabeth Hand
I bought this book not knowing nothing about the film. The story is interesting and fun! Her outfit is explained purrfectly, from the mask a "Symbolist version of a jaguar's skull", to the open-toed shoes. Everything in the outfit has a reason, and its all explained. After reading this book I'm super hyped to see the film.

Now this is one movie I cant wait to see! Buy the book, you'll fall in love with it, just as I did.