Pan's Labyrinth is one of my favourite films of all times, so when I found out that there was a book I was like a little girl on Christmas Day, so excited to read, The story opens with Ofelia as she is taken with her mom to live with her new father, an evil captain of Franco's regime. A lover of fairy tales, the story follows Ofelia as she is tasked to do challenges set by the Faun
From the opening pages, I was transported back to early 20th century Spain. living Ofelia's terror as she is forced to live with a hateful man in the midst of a war against the rebels. Ths story felt more descriptive than I can remember of the film and gave the story more meaning. The story would alternate between Ofelia's story and the past events of the character's ancestors to help tell the complete story. Whilst Ofelia was the star of the show, you also get to know more about the rebels, in particular, Mercedes a brave young girl who was placed into the lion's den.
This is a dark story and there are some characters that I can never forget. My favourite is still the Pale man and when I came to his story in the book I was so excited as I could picture him straightaway. I am envious of anyone who comes to this book without watching the film as the descriptive scenes make this story a chilling tale.
This is a must-read for any lover of dark fantasy whether you have watched the film or not. I know for a fact this will be one book that I will reread constantly.

This was an excellent read. Not something I would usually pick up but It had me hooked from the outset and throughout. Will be keeping an eye out for more in the future.

Although I have never seen the film I was drawn to read this book & what a wonderful read it was. Set in 1944 in Franco's Spain the harsh reality of the historical setting matched the often dark fantasy. When Ofelia's father died her mother remarried to the sadistic Captain Vidal. He is only interested in the child she bears & insists she joins him where he is fighting the rebels.Ofelia's mother is very sick & in effortsto save her she undertakes the tasks given to her,

The writing is beautiful, atmospheric & totally captivating. I loved ths book . Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for takingme into the labyrinth- I found it hard to leave!

This is a creepy and atmospheric little tale that is based on the movie of the same name. I have never seen the movie, but enjoyed reading this and getting lost in this labyrinth world nonetheless. It follows Ofelia and the adventures that she takes, who she meets along the way, and the sinister things that are tempting her and tricking her throughout.

I was initially drawn to this because Cornelia Funke wrote one of my all-time favourite series, The Inkheart Trilogy, and, though they are very different, I was not disappointed. They are both strong stories with magic at their heart, but the atmosphere and themes of this novel are a lot darker. It really made it feel like the next logical step up from that world that I fell in love with as a child.

Overall, it was a great read and I would definitely recommend it. I liked the way it was written with little short stories woven in, it really gave it the feel and look of a tale and each one added to the vibe that the story was weaving together. It was well-written and the two authors worked together really well to create this novel adaption of a beloved movie.

When I started reading this book reality fell away, I was right there with Orfelia standing at the beginning of the labyrinth. I could see her world so clearly and found myself following her. She had to perform tasks reminicent of myths but far creepier.

There’s dark fairy tales throughout the novel, explaining backstory and adding depth and atmosphere to the story. But this is no Disney story with a happily ever after, this is more like a Grimm fairy tale or some sort of creepy fable. Reading these fairy stories was a surreal experience for me, I could hear a voice in my head telling me these weird but wonderful stories.

The character of Vidal is a horrific psychopath and one of the many well wrought terrifying characters in this book, though not the scariest!

I can’t fault this amazing, wonderfully dark and perfect book.It’s an engaging fantastical story and the words of the ending recall childhood memories of reading lovely fantasy books. Nostalgic but also beautifully dark. If you like horror and dark tales you’ll love this.

If you’ve seen the film: the plot is the same but there is more depth to the book and after watching the film again I think both are perfect!

Confession: I’ve never seen Pan’s Labyrinth in its entirety. My sole peek was a glimpse from behind my sofa of the clip of the Pale Man, an entity which disturbs me so much that I doubted I could endure watching the whole film. So in many ways despite knowing of the cinema telling of this tale, I was coming to this story cold.

The writing is enthralling, a beautiful plunge into a world stalked by mystery and terror. I mainly enjoyed the fantasy bits of Ofelia’s journey rather than the grim aspects of the terrors wrought by their stepfather, the sadistic Captain Vidal. The pace is lively but at the same time the characterisation is very good. I was a bit concerned when I requested the book that it would read like a fleshed out screenplay when in fact it is much more than that, a deeper and darker exploration of the themes of such as identity, good versus evil and moral disobedience.

I’d highly recommend this book for anyone who loved the film or who simply loves the power of a tale well told.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC provided in return for an honest review.

If anyone was going to properly put this story to paper it was going to be Cornelia Funke. Funke and del Toro together are a creative force to be reckoned with. His vision, and her talent made for an absolutely astounding book. This adaptation manages to remain true to the source material, while still offering something new - a perfect dark, adult fantasy novel with the whimsy of childhood.

I will again have my little running rant with retelling's and movie novelisations for any new people and then we will jump straight in. Remember that this book based on Guillermo del Toro’s critically acclaimed movie, not a retelling or different story. This book expands upon the film and gives us a better understanding of what happened during the film. It’s a faithful adaptation of the film, with beautiful imagery that adds to the fantasy.

I will be honest because I have seen the film (waaay too many times), my brain was a little lazy despite the wonderfully dark and rich descriptions, I had some of the creepy imagery in my head particularly of The Pale Man and the Faun. Reading this bought back the movie in much of its original glory, haunting, tragic, painful, the magical realism, the darkest of fairy tales, immersing us the reader in all its vibrant intensity.

I’m a huge fan of adult fantasy books with a child protagonist there is something that makes the story darker and it adds more of an uncomfortable edge to the story and completely changes the tone. I particularly liked how the book split itself between the folklore-style stories of how the underworld influenced ancient times and the historical fiction narrative of civil war-ravaged Spain. There is the young girl, Ofelia, living in the brutality and terrors of the fascist Franco's regime. Ofelia desperately longs for and dreams of a world free of the everyday nightmares of her life.

You get the sense of a fairytale coming to life with this, of course, Ofelia is the princess. How could she not be? Vidal is every inch the Wolf, hunting his prey through the pages. Ofelia and her Mother arrive at a once-abandoned mill steeped in fairy tale history, Ophelia stumbles upon a labyrinth and soon begins to explore the labyrinth in the gardens where she meets an ancient and sinister faun, who claims she is the long lost Princess of his underground kingdom. The labyrinth is so much darker in its myths and magic, reflecting the realities of life, of a war-torn nation and fascism. The Faun sets Ophelia three dangerous tasks, which she must complete while avoiding the guerrilla warfare of the forest. Despite being set the three tasks Ofelia is so grateful to be given this escape from her miserable life at the mill, however, she doesn’t allow herself to get completely swept away.
Ofelia is our protagonist and I adored her, she's the ultimate embodiment of both the innocence and the fierce intelligence that children can possess, and she’s probably the most interesting younger protagonist that I’ve come across.

Let me try and explain this Ofelia has that unquestionable belief in magic, fairies and fauns that only children can have, however, She’s intelligent enough to figure out that a dress her mother painstakingly made, isn’t really for or about her, it’s just another way for her mum to try and please her stepfather. Ofelia is beyond wise for her years I think she only 9 I may be wrong she has an understanding of what it is her mum really is doing and saying with her actions, but she just can’t fathom why she would choose to and it’s honestly so heart-breaking.
The Faun is an exceptionally creepy character and I’ll be honest I’m not really sure what his relationship with Ofelia is, and that isn’t really cleared up in this novel. However, I think the mystery is a part of the story.

This novel effortlessly captures so much of vitality of the film, reinforcing just how imaginative and beautiful it is, and the despair of this historical period in Spain, Something I LOVED was the inclusion of the older “fairy-tales”, the myths that build up the world that Ofelia is just now stepping into. The book does a wonderful job adding depth and clarity to the world and finds a way to subtly connect most of the characters within the magical kingdom in a very clever way, adding a whole other layer of depth to the legend of the labyrinth. I was also impressed with the pacing of these stories, as they never felt unnecessary nor distracting from the main narrative.

If you haven’t seen the film read the book first, then the del Toro magic from the film will be stunning and you can compare the book to the film without any preconceptions. I can’t recommend this book anymore its brilliantly dark ad whimsical.

This book was simply beautiful to read, I have not seen the film so this was first journey into the labyrinth and it in no way disappointed. Will definitely be recommending this book

What a gorgeous read, I loved the film so was looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint, it was enchanting and magical and I loved it

I'm in total love with the movie on which this book is based and would go so far as to say it's in my top five movies.

I would recommend this to any fans of the movie as it gives you a lot more information, especially that of Ofelia's inner thoughts and also makes the Faun's motivations clearer. It was amazing just to be back in the world again, experiencing this emotional and brilliant story in a different form. Its written extremely well, has lots of twists and turns (especially if you haven't seen the film already) and is a book I will no doubt come back to reread a lot in the future!

This book was a lot darker than I anticipated-definitely a high spook factor here! Unlike most people, I haven't seen the film of this, although perhaps I should give it a go. Unfortunately I found the story quite difficult to follow and struggled to engage. There were some beautiful descriptions, however, and Ofelia is a brave and admirable heroine. A little too bleak and grim for me though I think that is definitely a matter of taste rather than quality of writing.

Pans Labyrinth is one of my all time favourite films, so when i saw this title i just had to read it.
A beautiful, haunting fairytale, brought to life on the pages of this book.
It is suck a shame that i didn't get to read the book before seeing the film, as i had already been given faces to put to the names, however i still found the story painfully moving, and enjoyed every bit of it.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury publishing for the opportunity to read Pan's Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro & Cornelia Funke in exchange for an fair and honest review.

Following the death of her father and remarriage of her mother to Captain Vidal young Ophelia is forced to move to a new home deep in the woods. Where her new stepfather, the vicious Captain Vidal, is hunting down the rebels fighting against the Francoist regime of Spain.Here she finds her true destiny when she meets the ancient and sinister faun, who claims she is the long lost Princess of his underground kingdom. Faun gives the young Ophelia three dangerous tasks complete to regain access to the kingdom and her memories

Having not seen that movie ,I decided as a bookworm reading the book would be the most appropriate course of action. It's a wonderful story about monsters, both the fairy tale kind and the human kind , it's about loneliness, freedom and hope. It has tales interwoven along side the main story, it has rememberable characters and characters you want to love and hate. The book is beautifully written and I really enjoyed reading it so much that I read it in two sittings.

Am I now tempted to watch the film ?
No I don't think I will the book does a wonderful job of bringing the movie to the reader.

I would highly recommend this book to fantasy fans.

I couldn’t resist this one when I spotted it on NetGalley, as Pan’s Labyrinth is one of the best films I have ever seen: a dark fairy-tale horror of a story, where the scariest monsters reside in human hearts.

This book did not disappoint!

Staying faithful to the plot of the film, Cornelia Funke fleshes out the mythology of the story and brings out more detail in the characters’ thoughts and feelings.

My only reservation was that I wholeheartedly wish I had read this story before I saw the film, as I found the film unrolled in my head as I read, which made me wonder what I would have seen if the images had been left to my imagination and the words on the page instead.

So my recommendation is that if you haven’t seen the film yet (and you should!) then read the book first. The book will entrance you with its deliciously dark storytelling and the weaving of historical horror with fantasy; then the film will bring the book to life exactly as you imagined it.

If you’ve already seen and enjoyed the film, read the book too! While the film brings the book to life, the book adds depth and detail to the film that will leave you lost in the Labyrinth long after you’ve put the pages down.



Evil seldom takes shape immediately. It is often little more than a whisper at first. A glance. A betrayal. But then it grows and takes root, still invisible, unnoticed. Only fairy tales give evil a proper shape. The big bad wolves, the evil kings, the demons, and devils…

– Guillermo del Torro & Cornelia Funke, Pan’s Labyrinth


Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

Pan's Labyrinth is one of my all time favourite films, so when I heard it was being transformed into a book by Cornelia Funke who captured my childhood imagination with her Inkheart series, I could not be more excited.

Thankfully this book did not let me down. The narrative follows the film not only word perfectly but Funke capture's the unspoken details, the feelings the film evokes. She does not embellish the story but enriches it and brings the characters even more to life as we see their inner thoughts, feelings and motivations.

As well as the main narrative, Funke wonderfully interweaves additional aspects to the tale, very much in the vein of fairy-tales, from old witches and curses, to watchmakers, these stories both add background to the story and come full circle with it. It is a book which asks to be read numerous times over to follow the fine threads that interlink.

Magic flows throughout the tale even more so than the film thanks to these vignettes. Yet for all of the fairytale and magical influence Funke does not shy away from the brutality of the original. Scenes of violence pose a harsh reality in contrast to the magic of the story, and the politics are just as, if not even more so apparent. Del Torro's film railed against fascism however, it seems even more relevant in today's world that Vidal is portrayed as a Wolf, a predator and a brute. Equally Funke expertly highlights the abuse and plight of women in this story, as well as their strength and resilience, drawing on the already empowering source material to make Ofelia and Mercedes truly inspiring characters, and the whole narrative one of resisting oppression in all it's forms.

It is unfair to compare this book to it's source material, and my biggest hope for it is that it will stand as it's own work in the future, as it certainly deserves to. This wonderful, magical fairytale will capture the hearts of anyone who loves the film but also entirely new audiences. I cannot wait to revisit it as this is one of my all time favourite books.

I was SO nervous for this book. Pan's Labyrinth has been my favourite film for as long as I can remember and I was terrified it would not translate well from movie to book. I was worried about details being left out and not being able to capture the creepiest parts of the story line but this book met my expectations! A wonderful little oddity and beautifully written. The only reason I am giving it 4 stars out of 5 is because I felt that the writers were trying to very literally recreate the images in the movie instead of just allowing the story to flow differently to fit a literary format. It felt a little bit forced at times and too obviously a retelling of a story. However, I'd still recommend to fans of Pan's Labyrinth.

Thank you to the author for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Right.

Before I begin with my book review I need to tell you this Very Important Thing:

Pan's Labyrinth is one of my favourite movies. 

There's so much to adore about the movie; the stunning visuals and cinematography, the haunting musical score, the imaginative set design, the costumes and prosthetic's, the acting (lord the acting) and of course.... the story which is so rich in atmosphere and imagination.

Pan's Labyrinth is a tale about monsters, both the fairy tale variety and the human. It is about loneliness, freedom and hope. It is very much a dark fairy tale for adults that mixes the real world with a fantasy one and you never fully know whether the fantasy world is a lonely child's escape (albeit a brutal one) from an even more vicious world or whether faun's and fairies are real.

It was a movie that I had to look away from at times due to the level of realistic (and yet never gratuitous) violence and it definitely left me sobbing in parts. Me and my friend walked home from the cinema that evening in silence with an occasional muttering of 'what the heck did we just watch?!'

I loved it when I first watched it and I love it now even though the Pale Man still terrifies me.

I think it's strange that this book has been published 13 years after the release of the movie because I can't see anything that would suggest a reason behind such random timing. No anniversary edition, no new movie release tie in - nothing like that.

However, because I loved the movie, I didn't really question the timing of publication I just greedily accepted the promise of the book.

But I did have questions. As Ofelia has to perform three tasks I will ask and answer three questions. These are 1) does the book work as a YA novel when the movie is clearly for adults? 2) Does the book evoke the richly evocative world of the story? 3) Did I ugly cry and hide behind my hands and feel all those intense emotions?

Well...

Not really, no.

First I have to say that I don't fully understand the point of this novel. Yes, it is an incredibly faithful adaptation to the story but it's so faithful that it may as well have been a series of scene descriptions and that doesn't really add anything to the world of Pan's Labyrinth.

There are some brief additions to provide background to the underworld and its inhabitants but I'm going to be controversial here - I enjoyed the fantasy world when it was more ambiguous. These additions add nothing or serve to remove mystery.

The story is well written but deciding to switch an adult fairy tale to a young adult fairy tale means the real life horror and dark fantastical elements have to be toned down yet in doing so the descriptions of some of the events come across rather bland.

Why was the story switched to YA? No clue, I don't think it works in honesty.

Don't get me wrong, I really don't want YA's reading in great detail about someone getting their face smashed in with a bottle (believe me, I don't want detail either) but then if there are these moments in the story - why was this adapted into a YA book?

If we lose some of the ugliness in the retelling then we also lose some of the emotion.

The writing is fine but it feels rather perfunctory at times and everything seems presented as a step by step process. Ofelia does x, then she does y, z happens and then Ofelia feels x. Repeat.

This presentation of the story creates distance between the reader and the story, maybe it's a way to cause a sense of disassociation between the YA audience and the more disturbing content but this also meant there were no sobs from me. If there's a barrier then don't be surprised if there's no emotion felt. 

The story of course, is wonderful because the story of Pan's Labyrinth is wonderful. The way it's been written and categorized - not so wonderful.

I seem to be an outlier on this one but this was disappointing.

The movie though? Watch it, re-watch it and hum Mercedes' lullaby to yourself. Ensure you have tissues.

I enjoyed this story, loved the tales interwoven with the main story. The characters were interesting, and it was beautifully written.

An excellent, dark fairy-tale with real-world horrors.

Following the death of her father, young Ophelia is forced to move to a new home deep in the woods where her new stepfather, the vicious Captain Vidal, is hunting down the rebels fighting against the Francoist regime of Spain. With her cruel stepfather and sickly mother unable to entertain her, Ophelia begins to explore the labyrinth in the gardens where she meets an ancient and sinister faun, who claims she is the long lost Princess of his underground kingdom. The Faun sets Ophelia three dangerous tasks, which she must complete while avoiding the guerrilla warfare of the forest.

‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ is a novelisation of the award-winning film by director Guillermo del Toro, written by the man himself alongside children’s author Cornelia Funke. I saw the film for the first time several years ago and really enjoyed it; thankfully the book is also a great read that immerses the reader in the dark, fairy-tale world and masterfully parallels the magic with the gritty, real-world horror of post-Civil War Spain. The first few chapters did feel slightly like a description of the film more than a story in its own right, but as I got further into the book it improved dramatically and it is a well written, readable story.

The magic in the book is handled extremely well. The Faun is an exceptionally creepy character; we are never sure whether he is a trustworthy creature and his intentions are unclear throughout the book. The story uses a small cast of characters but each one feels important to the tale and the different themes that the book explores. The novel offers us the thoughts and perspectives of a lot of different characters which the film cannot, which works in a lot of cases but sometimes felt a bit unnecessary to me. There are some scary moments and adult themes so I wouldn’t recommend the book for children.

Alongside the main narrative, the book also includes regular ‘fairy-tale’ chapters where the origins of creatures and concepts are explained. These chapters are excellent as they add depth and clarity to the world and subtly connect many characters with the magical kingdom in a very clever way. These sections are not in the film, so are perhaps the key draw for fans of the original. I was also impressed with the pacing of these stories, as they never felt unnecessary nor distracting from the main narrative.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book to any fantasy fans, whether they have seen the film before or not. The story is concise, clever, thought-provoking, exciting and really very difficult to a fault! And if you like the book then watch the film too!

Boromir

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.