By Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke

Bloomsbury, out now

 

In 1944 Spain, a young girl descends into a fantasy realm to escape from the greater horrors of the real world.

Until The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth was quite rightly regarded as Guillermo Del Toro’s most revered work, a 2006 fantasy drama that revealed a poetic beauty in his work, and picked up three Oscars (cinematography, art direction and make-up) among many other well-deserved accolades. The greater surprise is not so much that we’re still talking about it 13 years later, but rather why it has taken so long to be novelised. Ultimately it’s a fairy story, albeit a very dark one, and its realisation in book form was an obvious choice, but all good things come to those who wait. Until now we’ve had to rely on the 2016 ‘Inside the Creation’ making-of book, though the focus there was primarily on the gorgeous production design than the writing

Co-written by original screenwriter Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke (German author of popular children’s books the Inkheart trilogy) the joins are thankfully indistinguishable, making for an easy and engaging read. The movie is about the visuals as much as the dialogue, and this is where Funke comes to life, providing beautiful descriptions of what Del Toro has conjured up on screen. Instead of a straight replay of the dialogue with minimal context-setting links, we’re taken into the minds of the fairy folk and other fantasy beings that populate the realm. The full-page illustrations by Allen Williams are also quite exquisite

Verdict: One of the 21st Century’s greatest movie fairy tales gets its own book version, giving you the opportunity to sit it alongside other cherished fantasy classics on your bookshelf next to your Narnias and Alice in Wonderland. Perfect bedtime reading for the older child, its snappy chapters tempt you to go ‘just one more’, and you’re richer for it. 10/10

Nick Joy

Click here to order from Amazon.co.uk