One of those rare cases where the movie beats out the book. I will say that the first half of the story is very closely mirrored in the movie, but something about the writing style made the pace a bit lagging. There is a lot of imagination wrapped up in this novel and the character descriptions are incredibly creative. It's got a bit of a Wonderland feel to it. Had I not seen the movie prior I probably would have enjoyed it in a different way, though I may have been a bit more overwhelmed by the sheer amount of fantasy work.

The second half was not quite as magical for me. It provided the information for the later released sequel, but it moved even slower for me and didn't seem to have the same cohesiveness in the first half. The ending does provoke some good thought about kindness, joy, love, and self-acceptance, but it just took a long time to get there. The characters also didn't have that same warm and fuzzy feel to them, though I do attribute some of this feeling to the sheer amount of nostalgia attached to the first half.