Spoiler Warning: Spoilers for It Ends With Us follow. The film adaptation of the popular BookTok novel, It Ends With Us, was released in theaters on Aug. 9 and I’m sure longtime fans of the book brushed up on the story’s plot before seeing it on the big screen. With the film finally now out, it wouldn’t be surprising if you start comparing the book to the film to see what changes (if any) were made. If you’re curious about the differences between the It Ends With Us book and movie, we’ve got you covered!
1. Lily’s journal entries to Ellen DeGENeres
In the book, Lily Bloom is an avid watcher of Ellen Denegeres’s daytime talk show and writes journal entries as letters to the comedian from her teenage years until adulthood. Although the journal entries are explicitly not mentioned in the film, Lily is seen writing in her journal at certain points throughout the movie.
The film has nods to the Lily’s love of Degeneres when teenage Lily and Atlas Corrigan are sitting on the couch in her living room after school watching to watch Denegeres’s talk show. Also, in Lily’s childhood bedroom, there’s a poster for Pixar film Finding Nemo, in which DeGeneres plays Dory.
2. Lily & Ryle are older in the film.
When Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni were casted as Lily Bloom and Ryle Kincaid respectively, fans were not thrilled to find out that the characters’ ages were different in the film compared to the book. Readers initially thought then 35-year-old Lively and 39-year-old Baldoni were going to portray 23-year-old Lily and 30-year-old Ryle in the film.
blake lively being cast as lily bloom in it ends with us is confusing because the character is 23 in the book and blake is 12 years older ??? like could they not have got someone age appropriate
— amika (@amikagott) January 27, 2023
Hoover addressed the decision to age up the characters in the film in a July 2024 interview with E! News.
“Eight years ago, when I wrote the book, new adult was huge and everyone was wanting to read characters in their very early 20s,” she said. “And this is such a tough subject matter that putting young, young characters on screen just didn’t feel right to us. So I think aging them up was such a great move, and it worked so well on film.”
3. Atlas’s restaurant has a different name.
Atlas, teenage Lily’s love interest in the book and film, is a chef and the owner of a restaurant in Boston. In the book, the restaurant is called BIB, which stands for “Best in Boston.” In the film, it’s called Root, which references a conversation Atlas and Lily has as teenagers about an oak tree being strong enough to rely on themselves unlike other flowers.
4. A few characters from the book didn’t make it into the film.
Lily’s best friend in the book, Devin, her former roommate Lucy, and Ryle’s parents are not in the film. Ryle’s parents not being in the film changed how he proposed to Lily as it wasn’t in their apartment but in his sister Allysa’s hospital room after she gives birth to her daughter.
5. Ryle’s domestic violence is conveyed differently in the movie.
The film initially portrays Ryle’s abuse as an accident as Lily is in denial of what happened until the reality of his actions are shown to the audience in a montage. How Ryles’s abusive ways are portrayed in the book is that Lily knows it isn’t an accident and says she will leave him if it continues to happen. Fans think this change in how domestic violence is conveyed is more realistic of how survivors initially understand the abuse they are facing.
During It Ends With Us, we’re shown what’s perceived as “accidents,” but at the end, what really happened is shown in flashbacks. Very reflective of how victims of DV think. Hopefully this doesn’t get missed with all of the drama behind the scenes of this movie #ItEndsWithUs
— Jamie (@Jayme_888) August 10, 2024
Some fans have pointed out the missing details from the book and have mixed feelings about this.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, call 911 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1(800) 799-SAFE (7233) or visit thehotline.org.