The Alan Dean Foster ghosted SW novelization actually gets graphic in it’s depiction of blaster hits. A tad gruesome when I was a kid!
I specifically remember a description of a stormtrooper’s helmet melting along with the flesh after being shot on Tantive IV, with bone even being visible. That’s stark contrast to the mostly family-friendly movie.
That’s the part I was thinking of. There was also Red Leader ruminating on the fact some of his pilots could end up chunks of frozen meat orbiting Yavin. One passage that was really terrifying to me at the time was the description of troopers and other Imperials on the Death Star being sucked out a hull breach, into “a bottomless black tomb”.
What’s hilarious to me now is I got the novel at a book fair held at my elementary school. 😃