What do You think about Leave Her To Heaven (2007)?
This took me awhile to finish reading ... I think because Ive seen this movie so many many times, and if it were on tonight I would sit back and watch it again. As with any book that was made into a movie... it was certainly different, many parts of the book never even made it at all into the movie.Ellen in the movie version seems so much more evil and sinister than the Ellen in the book, and Roger seemed a bit more stronger in the book, stood up to Ellen more than he did in the movie.Ahwell... good book and worth the time to take to read :-) and worth every minute to watch the movie !
—Rosann
After seeing the 1940s film, I hunted down the at times vivid and lyrical original novel. It lags in places, particularly near the end, but it's an interesting, often disturbing story with female character rare in books/film of the time. Here's a favorite passage of mine:"Harland was conscious of a deep intangible disturbance in him, an emotional anticipation like that which one may feel before the curtain rises at the opera, when the orchestra sets the key for the tragedy to follow. The night was fine, the moon was bright, Ellen was lovely and tender here beside him; yet there was a vibration in the very earth itself, transmitted from the rocks on which the long swells beat, which seemed to warn him that this sweet and stable world was insecure... "You don't understand how much I love you, Richard,' she said gravely. 'You'll never understand how jealously I love you. I hate sharing your thoughts with anyone else at all.' The hot passion in her tones was like the first rumble of a distant storm."
—Nel
I really enjoyed this book. I was initially intrigued by the idea of a 1940s novel focused on a female main character, and wondered if I would enjoy reading about Ellen Berent from the perspective of a male writer of the era. I found that Leave Her to Heaven was well-written, engaging, enjoyable, and in the end, rewarding. I've never seen the movie based on it, despite being a classic film buff, but I plan to now. The physical imagery and character development were enough to keep me interested, but the plot itself, despite having been alternately described by previous reviewers as convoluted or too simply resolved, I found to be realistic and true to the foibles of humanity and human emotion. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes novels featuring complicated or dark characters, or tales of ill-fated infatuation.
—Dani Massaro
