Silent Hill 2 (novel)

Silent Hill 2 is an official Konami-published novelization of Silent Hill 2, written by Sadamu Yamashita and containing illustrations by Masahiro Ito. It is written in Japanese and was translated into English by Lady Ducky.

For the most part, the novelization could be seen as canon since it's a rather faithful novelization of Silent Hill 2 and doesn't really contradict anything from the game. However, it is unknown if Hiroyuki Owaku was involved and if Yamashita received any official story notes from Owaku. Thus, the novelization is seen as a secondary source.

The novelization also delves deeper into the backstories of many of the characters.

Book information
The front cover uses the cover from the Japanese version of Silent Hill 2.

The back cover reads:


 * He received a letter from his beloved wife. A woman who had died three years ago. "I'll be waiting for you in our ‘special place’." Could Mary really be waiting in Silent Hill? In this town that holds far too many memories? There are many suspicious people there; including Maria, a mysterious woman who resembles his late wife. A red demon restlessly looms in the shadows. Can James discover the truth in Silent Hill? What message is his wife trying to send from beyond the grave?

The page opposite to the table of contents bears this dedication: "To Mary".

Novel and game differences

 * The novel has a short prologue with Eddie and Laura.
 * In the novelization, during James's and Angela's first meeting, James literally just walks away.
 * In the novel, James doesn't encounter any Creepers.
 * In the novel, Wood Side Apartments has a plate with its name.
 * In the novel, James thought that Mary could wait for him in the Wood Side Apartment building. In the game, James initially marks Rosewater Park as a place where he thought he would meet Mary, and the apartment building was considered as a passage to another part of the town.
 * No scene with the corpse sitting in front of the TV occurs in room 208 in the novel.
 * In the novelization, in room 307, James doesn't hear Pyramid Head's footsteps after he shoots at him, and for James, it looked like Pyramid Head disappeared "like smoke".
 * A different and expanded version of the Legend of the Lake article is found by James in the novelization.
 * In the novelization, as Eddie dies, a pack of four large dogs gather, ripping at his torn stomach, pulling out his intestines. Eddie notes they are all the same as the dog he killed back in his hometown. The dogs tear at his flesh and rip him to pieces. It is unknown if this really happened, or is a dying hallucination as James never comments on it in the novelization.
 * The novelization uses the "In Water" ending, while the canon ending of the game is ambiguous.

English translation

 * Chapter 1
 * Chapter 2
 * Chapter 3
 * Chapter 4
 * Chapter 5
 * Chapter 6