This novel got to me on a blood sugar level, it echoes down your spine, you can feel it in your mitochondria. The writing is fresh, quick and hard. The pace is fast, and the pressure builds throughout. The movie was great, but there is a presence in the book that you do not get in the movie, and scenes in the book that are not in the movie. It hits you over the head and then it saves you. The one blot is the racist language, which I would like to believe is just a period character and not the author.