The Last Jedi (Studio Fun International) adapted by Elizabeth Schaefer

The Last Jedi (Studio Fun International) adapted by Elizabeth Schaefer, illustrated by Brian Rood

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So this one took a lot of liberties compared to The Force Awakens book. The story was much more truncated and not as fully fleshed out as the previous entry in this series. It's still a beautiful book and tells the overall story well. But even the cover of this one wasn't as gorgeously stunning as that of The Force Awakens adaptation. This cover had a more drab silvery-black metallic outline of Kylo, Luke, a porg, R2-D2, and two TIE fighters set against a burgundy red backdrop. It sounds pretty, but the effect in real life is just not as intense as the red metallic against blackish-gray that the TFA book sported. But the circular cutout of the cover frames a bada** illustration of Rey holding Anakin's saber with a determined look on her face and I am definitely here for that!!

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So, what did they get wrong??

-Although the timeline matches up for them to do such a thing, it felt odd because it was out-of-sync with the movie when they essentially went back in time with Rey, Chewie, and R2-D2 on their way to meet with Luke on Ahch-To. They didn't start at the same moment as the movie with Rey holding out the saber to her hopeful Jedi Master...even though the previous book showed that silent moment between Rey and Luke...odd choice.

-It says that Finn was with Poe running to the hangar bay after the First Order followed them through hyperspace...except Finn was too busy at the time realizing his desire to find Rey and deciding to run to the escape pods. There's even a picture of Finn, Poe, and Kaydel Ko Connix running down the hallway together which is just...wrong.

-Vital character beats are skipped over like Rose originally calling Finn a Resistance hero and being all awkward around him. The mutiny is completely ignored as well, something I felt like was a huge part of the story and definitely was a huge part of Poe's character development. 

-When Luke is teaching Rey the first lesson, about balance and what the Force really is, it skips over all of that and goes straight to the part where she gets called down to the dark side cave. This effectively changes what is being presented as Luke's first lesson.

-It says Rose and Finn crashed their ship on the beach of Canto Bight...I'm pretty sure they simply parked it there, albeit illegally.

-It insinuates that DJ purposefully opened the jail cell doors to let Finn and Rose out when we all know he was doing it for his own good, not caring about them one iota.

-In the movie, no one explicitly suggests riding the fathiers away to escape, but in the book it says it was Finn's idea. Going from facial expressions alone, it was definitely Temiri Blagg's idea (a.k.a. broom boy).

-This book makes it seem like Rose, Finn, BB-8, and DJ never even got to the A-class process's power breaker before being caught. And it goes further sideways by saying, "DJ waved to Rose and Finn, then went to join Phasma and the stormtroopers." Wait...what?? That is definitely not how that happened. *sigh*

-It makes it seem like Hux immediately accepted Kylo as the new Supreme Leader with absolutely no question...uhh...Hux was the opposite of pleased or accepting of the situation.

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Overall, this does get the story across. And if you enjoy realistic illustrations, these are certainly super well done. But, although I get that the movie is the longest of all the Star Wars films and so has a ton to cover, I still think better care should have been taken with telling the story properly so to keep certain character beats intact. Oh well, adaptations will be adaptations.

Again, this book probably took me about 20-25 minutes to read and that was at a faster pace so this probably wouldn't be a book you'd be able to read to your little one in one sitting for bedtime. I will say the ending is inspiring and lovely with, "The spark of rebellion had been lit, and hope started to spread through the galaxy once more...." With an ending like that, even with all the missteps content-wise, I still found myself tearing up as I reached the final page. 

So if you're a completionist, I'd say get this one simply because the TFA book is so stunning in appearance and so incredibly well-written in regards to the content. And if you get one, why not get the other?? But definitely keep in mind all the missteps and errors that the narrative contains. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Rise of Skywalker book stacks up against these two!!! Especially since TROS is my favorite of the three movies. Looking forward to it!

And I'll leave you with this super rad illustration of Rey and Kylo about to fight the Praetorian Guards!!!