Since Jurassic Park has been my favorite movie since I was about 9, I thought it was time I finally got around to reading the book. I had heard that it was very different than the movie, and that's true, but I enjoyed the differences for the most part. 

I found the expanded conversations on genetic science, paleontology, chaos theory, etc etc really interesting in fleshing out the story, and also the further look into the park security features which I think made it much more impactful when those same security features fail. It was also interesting to compare the roles of the characters in the book versus the movie and see which responsibilities and personality traits they retained and which ones got rolled into other characters.  I love movie Malcolm but I also really enjoyed book Malcolm who exists simply as a martyr to the cause of telling Hammond how awful and dumb he is through the entire book like a one man Greek chorus. 

I said I enjoyed the differences "for the most part" but the one that I really deeply did not: Lex SUCKS so much. I like kids and truly never thought I would be reading a book begging for one to be eaten by a dinosaur, but here we are. If we had gotten this version of Lex in the movie (the one we got already kind of annoys me) then I really firmly do NOT think I would have watched the movie more than once, let alone multiple times a year for the last 15ish years.  Idk if Michael Crichton hated children and that's why he wrote her as the most horrible dislikable character in the whole book (even beyond the people written as a direct metaphor for greed and callousness) or WHAT that was about but wow I HATED every moment of her presence here.  I do feel like Crichton had the hardest time writing the children in general, since Tim's personality and tone seem to shift wildly between fairly mature young teen and that of a much younger child, but not to the degree that Lex is just... A caricature of the worst damn kid you've ever met.