One of the novel’s great strengths is how it maintains an ambience of mystery and menace, partly due to the secrecy shrouding the inmates. The story gathers force once the filmmakers pierce the shroud, directly intervening in the fates of several villagers, in ways that are emotionally destructive to their subjects but propulsive to the film they want to make. Here is where the central argument is animated by action, culminating in an ending more heart-wrenching and morally muddled than can exist in a neatly packaged television episode.
Reviewer: Tania James
Book: The Village (Random House) by Nikita Lalwani
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