Certainly very different than I imagined. I've heard about this book for a long time, and basically all I knew was that it was about a mental hospital with an evil nurse, and that Jack Nicholson starred in the movie adaptation. This is a very human story about control that just happens to take place in a mental hospital, and the characters and situations bear that out. The writing is enjoyable and the characters are fairly well-realized, and the plot moves at a good pace. It's a lot less dramatic than I thought it would be, and the action is fairly subtle, but I think those are more strengths than weaknesses. In all, I wish it had more that I could connect with on a personal level, but a great novel nonetheless.