Novelizations are inherently tricky to review fairly and purely on their own merits. In the case of Star Wars novelizations, readers have definitely seen the movie before picking up the book and formed opinions, myself included. So let’s go ahead and get my biases out of the way: I came into this book with a fondness for Rae Carson’s writing and with something less than love for The Rise of Skywalker. I don’t say the latter to grind an axe with the movie but rather to offer a bit of clarity regarding my approach to such a polarizing film.

(Usually, I’d put a summary of the story here but you don’t really need that, do you? Besides, it’s fun to change things up sometimes.)

With all that said, I genuinely enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker novelization. It does exactly what a good novelization should do which is add depth and nuance to a story we already know via both the internal monologues of assorted characters and by adding in new scenes. Both of Carson’s previous forays into the galaxy far, far away (especially Most Wanted) were strong in terms of character and her work here is no different. I particularly liked her takes on Rey and Hux which is great news if you’re like me and 1) love Hux even though he’s done some truly evil stuff and 2) love and adore Rey and how she is the main character of the Sequel Trilogy.

Another character who benefits greatly from this particular novelization treatment is that of Leia. We all know why her presence was so limited within the story but Carson is able to go beyond the dialogue JJ Abrams had on hand from Carrie Fisher and give us more. Not only do we get to see more of her talking with characters like Rey and D’Acy but we get her point of view regarding her past Jedi training, the state of the galaxy, and even more of her relationship with her Luke. We haven’t seen nearly enough of the Skywalker twins once they know they’re siblings and this book delivers moments between them that express how deeply they cared about each other and the good natured humor between them.

As one might expect from both a novelization and something that says “expanded edition” on the front, the book does contain scenes not seen in the movie. I believe they are a mix of deleted scenes and ones of Carson’s creation and they all do good work in adding depth to the story. But here’s the thing I touched on before: ultimately, the novelization does not nor can it change the plot of the movie. The book won’t change your opinion about the story whether you like it or not so yeah: if you found yourself scratching your head at some of the plot twists during the movie, you’re going to do the same while reading the book.

At the end of the day, The Rise of Skywalker is a solidly good novelization. Does it rise to the top tier of Star Wars novelizations? No, but it doesn’t have to in order to be enjoyable. If you’re even somewhat interested in the book, I would absolutely recommend giving it a read. After all, it’s the end of the Skywalker Saga: why wouldn’t you?

Thank you to Del Rey for providing an early copy of the book for review purposes.