Heathers: A Novel Approach to Cinema (Deep Focus) Paperback – June 14, 2011

An engaging extended essay--not too nostalgic, nor overly academic. I was a little concerned about other reviewers' complaints about the author's narrative presence, but it worked for me; I enjoyed the personal perspective & enjoyed comparing it, looking back, to my own relationship with Heathers--maybe that's partially because I'm almost exactly the same age as the author. Reading this was like the feeling you get on those seemingly rare days when you find something really compelling to read on the Internet that's more than a few paragraphs long.

As a fan of other books in this series, Deep Focus: Heathers was a big disappointment. The main problem I had with this book is that the author’s personal reflections seem to overshadow the analysis of Heathers. This type of anecdotal interjection is fine when done subtly, strategically (for example, Jonathan Lethem’s Deep Focus: They Live incorporated some anecdotes, but they were brief, poignant and enhanced the analysis) but in the case of Jon Ross Bowie’s text, it was distracting and overdone. On page nine, when the discussion of Heathers officially begins, Bowie states, “If you’ve made it this far in this book, you’re probably familiar with the [Heathers] storyline,” and I found this line rather humorous considering that, yes, the first nine pages were hard to get through considering they were, for the most part, a reflection on Bowie’s high school life. Later, amongst other personal interjections, we’re treated to updates, views on “our author” and general, lackluster comments of the film Heathers from Bowie’s high school girlfriends (Heather #1 and Heather #2).There are some good sections in this book, some funny lines and some decent trivia for the Heathers fan (I especially enjoyed the insight into the names within the film) but the analysis is also disjointed at times, there are many unnecessary tangents and Bowie’s personal information was really drowning and uninteresting.

Interesting perspective on an amazing movie. The author dug deep within himself to intertwine his life with the writing of the book. Normally I don't read books about movies and I am not sure this book makes me want to again. My desire came from the lack of press and a passion for it.

This shows the importance the movie and musical cant

John Ross Bowie crafted an interesting book about Heathers and the most interesting is when he talks about being a teenager seeing the movie.

Great horror classic!!!

Unfortunately the author was more interested in himself and what Heathers meant to him than he was in analyzing the mise-en-scene in the movie. I found a podcast by Dylan Davis on iTunes that references this book but had way more detail than I found here. It's a shame because the series is pretty good - the one Deep Focus printed on They Live was particularly interesting. So great movie, great effort by the publishing company, but a bad attempt at film analysis.

If you're interested in the screenplay writer's life of the movie "Heathers" then this book is for you. If you're interested in the actual movie itself as i am, then DO NOT purchase this book. Complete waste of money.

Very good

My daughter loves this. It's ok . I never heard of it before until going through some freebies from a newspaper I already had it. Better to have a harder cover if your child is anything like mine. When you finish with something you just leave it lying around.

A Happy Daughter!