It had a lot to live up to, but this storybook delivered.
As an adaptation of a film that's easily on my Top 5 Favourite Films of All Time list, it did a wonderful job. 'Pan's Labyrinth' is perfectly suited for the book medium, and the result is just as bold, beautiful, haunting, frightening, melancholy, tearful, ethereal, creative, multilayered, and enriching an experience. A story all about the importance of stories, of children's dreams and innocence and knowledge; about the folly of adults, and their wars and the ways in which they attract death; and the folly of man and his fruitless quest for immortality.
We are each living in our own fairy tale, even when we don't believe in them anymore and think they hold no relevant lessons and truths for us in life.
'The Labyrinth of the Faun' can be read in a day. As well as further insights into its characters and story, it contains little backstories at the beginning of each of its parts, presented as miniature fairy tales within this bigger fairy tale and reality parallel. There's how the labyrinth was built, a witch's curse, a silver watch curse, and more on what the Underground Kingdom is like and who the people and creatures living in it are. There's even a backstory for the Pale Man, and the giant poisonous toad. Pencil illustrations are included.
The writing is extremely well done. The forest, the fairies, the Faun itself, the too-human characters in the real world, the rooms, the temperatures, the suffering, the loss and grief, the hope and bittersweetness - I felt it all, and I never wanted it to stop. The narration can be as sharp as any kitchen blade, or any blow from a desperate, unhappy man. For the majority of reading I found myself more interested in the real world parts and the inner and outer wars the human characters were going through than in the fantasy parts and elements. This might be Cornelia Funke's best work yet, to be honest.
'Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun' is a must for fans of Guillermo del Toro's filmmaking masterpiece, which I shall now re-watch and gain yet another whole new perspective on it. I've said the following, years ago on my blog, but it is 'one of the best at cinematography, special effects, [music], setting an atmosphere, layering the horror and fantasy elements, psychoanalyzing childhood, and showing the best and worst of humanity'. And it 'shines in its own darkness - a beautiful, ethereal flower on a powerful, magnificent tree'.
Darkly enchanting. Heartbreaking and depressing. But both tellings of 'Pan's Labyrinth' reward and give so much back to you, like all great stories.
This book is not for the faint of heart or weak in spirit. It’s not for skeptics who don’t believe in fairy tales and the powerful forces of good. It’s only for brave and intrepid souls like you, who will stare down evil in all its forms. - On the blurb.
Final Score: 5/5
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