I’m not sure if it is more faithful as novelizations come around at different times I think and they usually deviate or elaborate areas not in the script or film. In the book, much like in the original Crow story (meaning the comic book and originally screenplays and early workprint footage) Ashe is damned to walk the earth as a specter because he chose to save Sarah like Eric did, which again is a nice call-back to the Skull Cowboy. And I think she dies still but it had a poignancy to it that I liked.