From The Hunger Games movies to The Hunting Wives TV show, book adaptations are everywhere. If you haven’t at the very least been hearing about The Summer I Turned Pretty, you must be living under a rock; it’s inescapable.
I tend to have very mixed feelings about adaptations because they can go so right or so wrong. I believe a good adaptation can indeed be life-changing. To name one, Normal People, based on Sally Rooney’s book, is one of my favorite shows ever, and the teasers for Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation adaptation look great. Evidently, I have high hopes.
As I’ve been checking books off my to-be-read list, or TBR, I’ve been envisioning certain books as movies and shows. Here are a few I think would translate well to screens.
- The Two Lives of Lydia Baird by Josie Silver
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There’s a new movie coming out called Eternity, starring Elizabeth Olsen. The main character is in the afterlife and must choose between spending eternity with her late first love or with the man she remarried.
When I first watched the trailer, I was instantly drawn to the plot because it reminded me of one of my favorite books. In The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, the main character is struggling with the recent passing of her fiancé. As a result, she gets some sleeping pills, and when she falls asleep, she’s back with her fiancé like he never left. It’s a great story that I could easily picture as a movie or TV show.
- Book Lovers by Emily Henry
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With all the People We Meet on Vacation buzz, I wanted to pick another one of my favorite Emily Henry books. Book Lovers is a story about a cutthroat literary agent and book editor, and like most Emily Henry books, it’s a funny, heartwarming romance.
I loved this book because it was refreshingly different from a lot of the opposites-attract-style rom-coms I’ve read and watched in the past, and the female lead is such an incredibly nuanced, well-developed character. I think it would make an incredible romantic comedy.
- Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
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Alone With You In The Ether might be my favorite book. It’s almost a romance, but it’s a little offbeat, a little funny, with some heartbreaking moments woven through.
I could easily see this book as a limited TV series. In my brain, I imagine it like a combination of Fleabag and Normal People, which sounds like a pretty perfect show to me.
- Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
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This is a book that would adapt beautifully into a TV show. Set in Ireland, Rooney writes about two friends and their lives. It follows many different stories, such as friends drifting in and out of each other’s lives, making the book feel like it already has the perfect plot lines for a TV show.
By the end of Beautiful World, Where Are You, readers really feel attached to the characters, which is why I can see people feeling the same way about it if it were a show; you get to watch everything unfold visually.
Netflix/See-Saw - Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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This one is sort of cheating, because in 2021, Hulu started developing Malibu Rising into a TV series, but they haven’t announced much since.
Malibu Rising is a story following the lives of a legendary musician’s children. I hope the project doesn’t die out, because I would absolutely love to see Malibu Rising turned into a show like they did with one of Reid’s other books, Daisy Jones and The Six.
I hope this list helped give you some book, movie, and TV show recommendations!
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