After reading this book, I have realized that the movie was SERIOUSLY miscast. I'm so glad I went ahead and read the novel after being thoroughly underwhelmed by the film because Nick & Norah is one of the best novels I've read all year. I love the story, and more than anything, I love the characters. Rachel Cohn and David Levithan created these two wonderful, flawed, completely realistic leads that I can't find anywhere in the movie. Don't get me wrong. I love Kat Dennings and Michael Cera, but I don't think the two of them together made the perfect Norah and Nick. 
 For Kat, I'm positive this was only because of the script's faults. I've seen her act, and I know she could pull off the perfect Norah in her sleep. On the other hand, Michael Cera is very limited and every. single. character he's ever portrayed is identical to George Michael Bluth. Although he's very adorable and endearing, he's nowhere near the sexy, charming damaged Nick from the novel. I can't stress enough how much I love Nick and how incredibly disappointed I am that the movie made him into a cliche boxer-short-wearing-in-public pansy. And Norah, sarcastic, guarded-except-when-it-comes-to-that-one-douche, streetwise Norah became a whiny oh-poor-me piner. 
 I know this is supposed to be a review of the book instead of the movie, but I feel that I have to make the comparisons between them to demonstrate the profound differences in quality. In short, read the book. It's wonderful and so very realistic. The movie...well, it's like a parody of cliched teen behavior without much of the substance that the novel contains. Read the book.