Customer Reviews (17) 
A rare case where the film was better
Caveat emptor: aside from the story setting -- a world in which humans and Toons coexist in the real world -- and a handful of character names, this book has pretty much nothing to do with the film WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?
The book is not particularly well-written. It's not awful, but it's just not very good. The majority of it goes like this: our detective narrator, Eddie Valiant, gets Character 1's side of the story. He then goes to Character 2 and repeats this story to them. Character 2 balks and tells him a different version of the story. Valiant returns to Character 1, reviews the story as Character 1 told it and then tells Character 1 what Character 2 had to say about all this and this happens over and over again, getting pretty tedious after a while. Wolf/Valiant never skip past with a "I told him the information I got from the girl," it's always reiterated in complete detail. The book could probably be cut by half just by removing overly redundant detail, but then I guess we wouldn't get all the descriptions of what the Toons' word bubbles look like. (In this version, the Toons are comic strip Toons, not movie Toons.)
Valiant is a pushover -- he'll believe whatever anyone says to him until someone else contradicts it, and then he'll believe THEM at face value until further notice. This would be funny if it were being played that way, with Valiant being a too-nice poseur of a P.I., but the book seems to think it's presenting him as being appropriately hardnosed. Several times it's noted that he is a former Marine and he's constantly drinking some kind of alcoholic beverage -- in a world where Toons are living breathing creatures, it's a little sad that the author seems to have spent the bulk of his creative efforts in coming up with a new metaphor to describe Valiant taking a drink every time he does so.
There's an attempt to make humans vs. Toons some kind of racial allegory. Their police forces are segregated, with humans handling human cases and Toons handling Toons exclusively, and there's a brief and pointless scene where Eddie's weekly poker game bails on him when Roger shows up ("That was the deal: no women and no Toons"). But this is never really explored, or much utilized, it's just kind of a superficial gloss over the proceedings. Eddie is clearly different because he doesn't mind Toons as much, but they never go into why, just occasionally pat him on the head for being such a good guy on the inside.
The plot is kind of all over the place and contains no fewer than three flagrant deus ex machinas in the third act. The formatting was decent in the Kindle edition but there were some OCR errors and a new characters dialogue does not always start a new paragraph. The characters don't have distinct voices and it can be momentarily confusing, and when this happens repeatedly over the course of the entire book, it becomes a little aggravating.
I give it one star for being readable, another star for a great concept, and a third star for inspiring a film that did a much better job of leveraging the concept and its opportunities. It's under $2, so it's not a big financial loss if you get curious and pick it up, but you could probably find better things to do with your time.
Very Original
The book's not particularly well written, though it wasn't badly written.
The cocept is very imaginitive, though I thought the underlying theme of racism was a bit preachy.Overall, the book's fairly predictable, but has some interesting twists.If you're a fan of the detective. genre, it's worth the read.If you're just a fan of the movie, I'd suggest you skip it.
Great Book, Kindle Version Needs Work
Glad to see this FINALLY back in print!This alone shows the advantages of eBooks:long-out-of-print books finally seeing the light of day yet again.
Originally got this in paperback (and its sequel) years ago directly from the author (so they're both signed and stamped with a Roger Rabbit rubber stamp) and the original has become one of my favorite books of all time.It has little in common with the movie, but it's still one of the greatest pulp fiction-style murder mysteries of all time.
However, the Kindle edition needs some work.It's basically laid out as one long text file.No cover page, no separation of chapters.Look at the sample and you'll see what I mean.That's the only thing that has caused me to rate it a bit lower than 5 stars.It's at least laid out better than its sequel, "Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?"The complete text of that is tabbed over a bit much."Censored" does not contain the tabbed margin problem.
Still, even with that, it's a must buy!Especially with it being as cheap as it is...good to see it affordable once again.
An Uncensored Opinion
First off, let me state that I am big Roger Rabbit fan.When I found out that the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was based on a book, I searched for it.After searching for a while, I finally purchased a copy.I started to regret buying it at first because I was worried I would not like it. While waiting for the book to arrive, I continued to read reviews, which all said basically the same thing: IT IS NOT LIKE THE MOVIE.This review will do nothing more than basically repeat what everyone else has already said, but I like to give my opinion. It may help someone decide to buy it or not.
With that said, I will continued onto the review.I recieved the book, and decided to start it on a Friday so I could have the weekend to read it.I opened it up, and found myself completely wrapped up in the story.By the third chapter, I was already anxious for the ending.I enjoyed every word I read.It is true that the story line is completely different from the movie's plot, but it is still a good book.Do not read it expecting to read the script.That is not what this book is.It is its own Roger Rabbit story.It is true that ther are SOME similarities between the movie and the book (i.e. characters, some lines, actions, etc.) but overall there is basicallynothing that is the same.
The writing style was done very well.The author makes the main characters very round, and established specific personalities for them.Aside from the main characters, he also spend time developing the minor characters throughout the story.He works them into the plot, and gives them important roles.He uses some patterns throughout the book that help keep the story going.The images, wording, and overall tone that is used throughout the book can all be used to affect the reader's senses.The book is written in first person, which makes you feel like you are seeing through the eyes of the narrator.It makes the story personal and real.It was an easy book to read with simple writing.This book is good for light reading.
The only con I have against the book is the ending.It is definatly not what I expected, and I am still not sure how I feel about it.I cannot decide if I liked it, or if I just settled with it because the rest of the book was so good.The story keeps building up and then all of a sudden it is resolved.There is no transition into the climax of the plot. It just happens.The ending of the story is the only con to me.That is why this is a 4 star review instead of a 5.But that is only my opinion.
Good Condition
The book "Who Censored Roger Rabbit" is in as good condition as the seller said it would be. It is a gift for my boyfriend so have not read it.
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