I’m sure most people are familiar with the film “It Ends With Us,” based on the book by Colleen Hoover, breaking through the box office this summer. I went to see the movie, and even though I enjoyed what I saw, I still believe books should stay off the screen and be kept to an individual’s imagination.Â
One of the worst things as a reader is falling in love with a book and having a picture in your head of what everything is supposed to look like, only for you to see the adaptation looking nothing like what you imagined.Â
When I think about the last time a book-to-film was done well, the only example I come up with is the 2005 “Pride and Prejudice,” based on the novel by Jane Austin. Since then, I have been severely underwhelmed when it comes to transforming a book into a movie or show.Â
I’ve grown up with the ideology that, nine times out of ten, the book is better than the movie. All movie adaptations have lived up to this, and that hasn’t strongly bothered me until this summer after I watched “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” on Netflix. I had just finished the second out of three books in the series when I watched the show, and it threw me off so badly that I have no desire to pick up the final book.Â
I understand that those who don’t read the books may have enjoyed these films or shows more, however the reason they got turned into a show in the first place was because the book had such high popularity.
In an interview with Variety, Holly Jackson, author of “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder,” said “I made lots of suggestions and I said things that I thought would be really important to book fans, that they would feel betrayed if they weren’t there. And ultimately it wasn’t my decision. So I sympathize entirely with book fans who wanted to see their favorite moments.”
One of the largest problems with converting books to films is that they will never live up to the readers’ expectations of what they should be. This could be due to character development, plot lines, or even the setting.Â
Every time I finish a book and then find it’s in the works to become a movie or show, I get a little frustrated. Some of my favorite books, including “The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood, “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, and “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas, have been purchased by production companies to become movies and shows.Â
In a way, it’s easier not to mess up a romance movie adaptation because of how simple the story can be. However, fantasy books tend to have more intricate details and complex descriptions that are easy to mess up, especially in the eyes of a book fan. Every time I realize a book is being made into a film I think, “I can’t wait to see what they mess up.”
At this point, I have little to no trust that the film industry will accurately portray a book how it was written. It is not fair to the reader to spend so much time, and become so attached to a story, all to see it ripped to shreds on the screen.
There is something so refreshing about reading a book and choosing what the characters look like in your mind or choosing how you think their voice sounds. This concept is being taken away by the production world because, in all seriousness, you can never fully satisfy a reader.