I forced myself to open the book up and read it because my 12 year old son was reading and raving about how good the series was. So I started reading and found that I too loved the book. That being said, I was a little leery about how the movie would be since movies are never as good as the book. But in this case, I think they did a pretty good job. No, it is not as good as reading the book but it is almost as good. The characters are believable. You were able to become emotionally involved with them and care about them. I would definitely go see it again or buy the DVD. We loved it!