I picked this book up due to my interest in the movies. I thought that the storyline was incredibly creepy & had heard that the book plotline was drastically different. It was! 
 Where the movie decided to focus around a female character, the main character in the books is actually a man. Also interesting is that while the main characters are all sympathetically portrayed in the movie, the book's characters are incredibly flawed (especially one in particular). Things are *just* different enough to make this into a truly interesting read, yet similar enough that people aren't thrown off from the plot. 
 The only weaknesses is that the book does suffer from translation. There are parts where the writing seems a little clumsy & clunky. Not bad enough to keep you from reading, but awkward enough to notice. Also, some of the "down time" scenes sort of bored me a little. The overall story was good enough to keep me going, but some of it was a little tedious to wade through. 
 Would I recommend this to a friend? I would, but only if they were book lovers. People who don't read as much may not be as willing to wade through the tedious parts in order to get to the truly thrilling & shocking parts, which would be their loss.