I’ve always been a “the book was better” girlie.
One of my mom’s favorite stories is when I stood up in the Mall of Georgia movie theater and shouted “THAT’S RON’S LINE!” during Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
My whole life I’ve been a purist. Loyal to the details. My thinking was along the lines of “if you’re going to turn a good book into a movie, why would you change it?” On the drive home from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I’m pretty sure I was up to 28 on my list of details they got wrong from the book. My parents encouraged me to write a letter to the director with my qualms, but of course I was never satisfied with a final list, and thus sent nothing at all.
You live and you learn, and if you’re lucky, you grow. I am happy to say I have evolved beyond that stringent need for fidelity to the source material, but nine times out of ten, you will catch me saying “the book is better.”
With that being said, my career goals are now aimed towards working in the “IP space,” or to get on a team that develops books into films and television series. However, I’ve also had a mini-revelation that I’m more often than not in the “just don’t adapt it” camp, so who knows.
I believe most stories can thrive across multiple mediums, but just because something is really successful on the page does not mean we should force it to conform to the conventions of the screen.
nine times out of ten, you will catch me saying “the book is better.”
I don’t want this to spin into a tangent about how over the moon I was for Halle Bailey to be The Little Mermaid, or how impactful and important color-blind casting is. So let’s save that for another day and get to it:
My favorite page-to-screen adaptations
Normal People by Sally Rooney
I’m really curious if this is a hot-take or widely agreed upon opinion. I think they cast the show so well (and age appropriately) and the the vibe and energy captured my experience with the novel. I felt the same devastating heartache. There were also full-frontal scenes and a specific accessory that lead to the buzz, and grew my infatuation.
Normal People put me on to mini-series as a preferred mode of adaptation. Often in when condensing a novel into one film lots of details have to be cut (please see my Harry Potter anecdotes above). And when they expand shows into full series they add and change stuff in a way that irks me. (Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere come to mind; more on them later.)
The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis
This is one where I had never heard of the book when the show popped off. I binged the shit out of Anya Taylor-Joy’s quiet performance and couldn’t tell you why I was so captivated. Then a few months later I saw that the novel was available “for free” on Audible (I’m pretty sure it was included in the Audible membership and did not cost a credit). I decided “what the hell!”
Like most people, once I’ve seen the movie (or in this case mini-series) I struggle to be gripped by the book. Well this was the exception. I found that the show was extremely true to the source material and I enjoyed it just as much on the second experience. I was pleasantly surprised, and this is actually the book that made me start a mental list of “best adaptations.”
Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
Like The Queen’s Gambit, I had not heard of this book before the film became a cultural phenomenon. If I recall correctly I watched this movie because it was raved about on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast and my good friend Sarah Witte highly recommended it to me personally. She said, “It’ll make you understand why people are into this Timothee guy.” She wasn’t wrong! It became one of my favorite films of all time. Don’t ask me why. Naturally I decided to pick up the book that year and give it a go.
I wound up taking it with me to Greece and staying up late every night to finish it. I was working 18 hours a day for my cousin’s bakery but still taking some of my precious sleep time to devour the story a second time. What’s so special about this book and the film for me is how they capture that adolescent ennui of summer break. Ugh! I loved the book as much as I love the movie. And was gifted with the bonus of the book continuing on beyond the iconic end of the film. There’s essentially an extended epilogue that touches on Elio’s and Oliver’s lives and experiences as queer men. I’m glad I read it second because I am not sure I would have appreciated the film’s abrupt ending if I was waiting for more.
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
I had never heard of Bridgerton before the show came out on Netflix. I was probably one of the first people to be excited for its announcement as it was touted as “Downton Abbey meets Gossip Girl” from Shondaland. Everything that is so me. Well Christmas Day 2020 my family tried to watch the new Wonder Woman but Max crashed, so we started the new Netflix series. Y’all! We were hooked!
Once I found out it was a book series I requested the audiobook from the library. I did not love listening to the first one (The Duke and I) as much as the later books because it was so true to the show with the plot points of the romance. However I think the creators took the source material and ran with it in the best directions. They captured all the magic of Daphne and Simon’s love story, but then added so many details, richer storylines, and made it less rape-y. (If you think Daphne trying to get pregnant in the show is heavy cringe and questionable consent, you do NOT want to read the scene in the book. Actually horrific.)
By casting diversely and adding backstories, the show enriched the world and made the stories better while maintaining the swoon-worthy core. However some of these choices were choices, and I do think the changes are risky. For instance the creation of a love-triangle between sisters in the second season ruined it for me. I have not even watched the third season yet because I’m dreading one storyline that was manufactured in the second season and deviates so far from the books I’ve lost interest. So season one was an EXCELLENT adaptation in my book, the rest is more typical of what I expect. Adding all of these storylines pulls the focus from the primary couple and loses that intense, fantastical love story that draws fans to the book series.
How to Be Single by Liz Tuccillo
This is an adaptation that is very specifically “inspired by” and not a straight adaptation. And I think it thrived all the better for it.
It’s one of those books that some people [in my circles] love and some found it disappointing. I think it captured a certain demographic’s dating experience in the 2000s very well, and the themes have continued to be relevant to the dating scene in decades since, but some of these characters and experiences already feel outdated.
The film captures the essence, themes, and purpose of the novel while creating a whole new setting and ensemble of characters. 10/10 recommend the film and 8/10 recommend the book!
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Sooooo, [I know I’m going to regret publishing this under my real name when I apply for jobs down the line] but I usually call the “Reese’s Pick” the “kiss of death.” And my friends and I all agree, the few books that she gets on her list that are actually SO GOOD she then also gets the rights to adapt and then decimates the source material.
I loved the novels Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere but was only able to watch the pilot of each series. [I haven’t even tried Daisy Jones and the Six yet, but I am drawn to it.] I have no doubt that both series were great shows and top tier quality, but they deviated so drastically from a beloved source material I could not watch it. I couldn’t divorce the shows from the books.
Enter Where the Crawdads Sing. Now I’m not sure if it’s the difference between film and mini-series choices. Or it could be that more time had passed between me finishing the book and the film release. And of course there’s the possibility that I didn’t love the original novel as much as the previous examples played a part. Also worth noting: I read BLL and LFE with my eyeballs and I listened to WTCS with my ear holes so the detail remembered would be sparser.
Any way you slice it, I really enjoyed the adaptation. I thought the film captured the feel of the novel really well. The vibes were vibing. The only nagging detail that bugged me was in my memory Kya didn’t speak after she was arrested (which may be inaccurate) and in the film she did. But other than that, no notes. That being said, I saw it in theaters with friends of the stack Belinda & Alice. Both had read the book much more recently and both were less impressed with the adaptation than I was. So who really knows.
If you made it this far… work must be really boring today!
Totally kidding! Thank you for reading through the random thoughts and analysis that take up way too much real-estate in my mind.
Do you agree with these? Do you have any other favorite or least favorite adaptations? Do you think mini-series is the way to go or films? We can all agree mini-series > full series right? (Will Trent can be the exception.) Did this motivate you to pick up any books or hit-up whatever modern-day-equivalent you have for Blockbuster? Let me know. I really want to know!
Hyper-fixation du Jour: diet mountain dew
[OMG y’all I have been slacking so much on writing and side-questing too hard on hyper-fixations, it’d be quicker to give you a list of all the things in the universe I have not hyper-fixated on this month.]
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[oooh honorable mention: to Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter]
If you want to purchase any of the books mentioned in this article, please consider using my affiliate link with my favorite independent book store, The Ripped Bodice, or using my referal link to libro.fm for an audiobook!