It has recently come to my attention that most movies and shows were books first. In fact, the most famous and arguably the best movies were best-selling books first. Of course, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Great Gatsby, and The Lord of the Rings are all known for being best-sellers first, but I didn’t realize how many of my favorite and go-to movies took the same path. As a book lover, I am so upset I wasn’t aware of this before I watched the movies. I would’ve read the books ages ago! My TBR list is miles long now. But in the case of my favorite book series of all time, it was announced that it will soon be a series on Prime, and I am having mixed feelings about it.Â
Chloe Walsh just announced her partnership with Prime Video to create the series, “Boys of Tommen”. If you’re a book lover like me, particularly of the romance genre, you should absolutely know this series. The Boys of Tommen is an ongoing series with six books already released, surrounding a group of teenagers in York, Ireland, who attend a rugby-focused boarding school. The series is gut-wrenching, heavy, anxiety-inducing, emotional, but oh so amazing. I could go on and on about all the reasons why this collection of books is the best I have ever read and will ever read, but ultimately, I don’t think this series should ever be on my television screen.Â
Lock me in a room until there’s a happy ending
First of all, each individual book is the most gut wrenching one I have ever read; and there are six of them sitting on my bookshelf. To give an inch of context to the roller coasters I am referring to, the central conflict of each book is the extreme domestic abuse, ongoing sexual assault, addiction, or mental health struggles that each character faces as they try to navigate first loves and relationships. Long story short, the books are a tough read. They are so good, I read them in one sitting, but I required multiple days of meditation before picking up the next book. To see any of the terrible scenes depicted in the books on my television screen would be a step up from gut wrenching and I can’t imagine a way to do them justice but yet portray them tastefully. I think the only way I could watch the series would be to lock myself in my room, bury myself in bed, and stay there until I have seen the happy ending. There is no universe that would allow me to do anything productive after getting my heart torn from my chest that many times; mostly out of love, but definitely in a cry myself to sleep that night kind of way.
i just want to read their minds
In addition to the detailing of trauma each character experiences, these books are so amazing because you see inside the minds of the abused and broken. The characters’ inner thoughts while experiencing hardship are laid out on paper. Their fear, conflicting feelings, insecurities, thoughts of giving up, and the truths they cannot express through words are only visible to an audience if they are read. You also experience first hand the thought process as they attempt to come to terms with their trauma and grow emotionally as individuals; most of which aren’t depicted outwardly in fear of portraying their struggles. Televising these experiences terminates this vital aspect of the books. You might see the fear in the characters’ eyes and the few times they express their trauma through words, but you won’t experience their inner thoughts and feelings with them. You won’t see the times they fear for their life or the ones where they emotionally give up. You can’t see the ways their brains process abuse and sort through what actually happened and what they have been tricked to believe. Their emotional growth is invisible through a television screen.
joey lynch belongs in my imagination
On a happier note, similar to any spectacularly written romance novel, you truly fall in love with the characters in the book. I will absolutely admit that I am obsessed with Joey Lynch, the older brother in books one and two and the MMC of books three and four. He is unlike every other book boyfriend I have been in a relationship with, and I cannot imagine an actor doing his persona justice. The man that is Joey Lynch and all that he went through, to me, is not recreatable, and belongs in the safest place in my imagination. There are some things Hollywood shouldn’t even try to recreate, and in the process take away from the imagination of a reader, and one of those things is Joey Lynch.
Until this book series, I have not experienced the feeling of being torn between being excited and terrified for a book to reach my television screen. I didn’t read the Harry Potter series until it was made into a movie, and the same with the Hunger Games. I read “The Great Gatsby” and watched the movie at the same time, and didn’t even read the books of The Summer I Turned Pretty, Heated Rivalry, or We Were Liars until after the televised version was released. I have never felt these feelings before. Are they normal? What am I supposed to do about them? And what if the series ruins my favorite books? Should I even watch it? Send help.