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Title: An ok novel, but not great
Review: I saw the movie before reading the novel. In the novel, Ellie Arroway isn't as annoying as the movie's Ellie Arroway: she is not constantly criticizing religion. The movie spent too much time focusing on the question of religion versus science. It is a theme in the novel, but the theme is not as in-your-face as in the movie (for example, Hadden and his Preachnix device).Unfortunately, the novel is very awkward at introducing backstory: a character is introduced and then the next few paragraphs give a quick biographical sketch of the character. Personally, I'd rather have the backstory of a character introduced in pieces and in surprises. For example, Palmer Joss could have been a much more interesting character if his backstory were introduced much slowly. These sketches should have been editted out.The last chapter of the novel, was much better than the movie's end. It would've been nice to see what Ellie did with that information from her mother's letter.
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