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Cannonball Read IV: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

By taralovesbooks | Books | April 13, 2012 |

By taralovesbooks | Books | April 13, 2012 |


I am terrified of dinosaurs. I frequently have nightmares where they take over my house and eat me. My friend convinced me to ride the Dinosaur ride at Disney World in college and I actually huddled in a ball on the floor of the ride, sobbing. I fully blame my 3rd grade teacher for showing the class Jurassic Park in school. Hm…showing a freaking terrifying PG-13 movie to a bunch of 8-year-olds without parental permission? Yayyyyy public school in the 90s! Anyways, even though I was traumatized as a child, I now absolutely love Jurassic Park.

I read the book sometime back in college and loved it. I’m one of those people who can read a book or watch a movie and immediately forgot almost everything about it except whether I liked it or hated it. Therefore I have no problems re-reading books because I generally have forgotten almost everything besides the basic plot. This irritates my husband to no end because it means I can watch a movie 400 times and not get tired of it.

Okay, back to Jurassic Park (the book). I’m pretty sure everyone knows the plot — crazy, rich, old man recreates dinosaurs from DNA to open a dino theme park. Things don’t go as planned and the dinosaurs get out and eat people. Main characters include paleobotanist grad student Ellie Saddler, paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, pre-hipster hipster mathematician Ian Malcolm, crazy old man’s grandkids, Tim and Lex, and a few other minor characters.

I really do love this book and think it’s one of Crichton’s best works (if not THE best). Tons of action and only minor bits of dry scientific crap (usually when Malcolm opens his mouth — a shame since he was always my favorite in the movie). There is just a constant sense of fear and apprehension the whole time you’re reading. The characters are really well done too. You actually get to know the characters and care whether or not they live or die. I’ve had issues with other Crichton books not having enough character development. And again, I love an author who has the balls to kill off main characters (the book still has some surprises even if you’ve seen the movie).

Overall, this is one of those books I’ll probably keep going back to every few years. It’s a little campy, but a whole of lot of fun and excitement. Now I’m just going to sleep with my lights on for a week and hope I don’t dream about a T-rex eating me through my bedroom window.

Check out more of taralovesbooks’s reviews at her blog: Tara’s 52 Book Challenge.

This review is part of Cannonball Read IV. Read all about it.