Reading helps improve memory and increases intelligence, yet not many people are big fans of books. Movies, on the other hand, are enjoyed by a lot of people. For book lovers such as myself, when a book gets developed into a film, it’s the equivalent of winning the lottery because I see my imagined story lines and characters come to life.

Recent Adaptations

Many book-to-movie adaptations take years to make. The Twilight saga, for example, took around five years to film due to there being four books and the last one being split up into two movies.

Many popular books have been adapted into films in recent years. The mythological Percy Jackson series written by Rick Riordan, consisted of five books. The first two were developed into films— one in 2010 and the other in 2013. In addition, Gone Girl, a psychological thriller by Gillian Flynn, was turned into a movie in 2014. Another was The 5^th Wave by Rick Yancey which was released in 2016, and focused on an alien invasion of Earth.

The Good and the Bad

There have been many movie adaptations that made me feel blessed to have been alive to see them. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was an amazing adaptation that showed how broken the characters’ world was. What I liked about this movie was that almost all the important details from the book were included.

Another book-to-movie adaptation I enjoyed was Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, which was about a man that became a quadriplegic after a horrible motorcycle accident, and it stayed true to the book. It was an emotional book that brought tears to my eyes, so I was expecting no less from the movie.

Although both these adaptations were amazing, my all-time favorites are the Harry Potter Series, which have become globally recognized by millions of people. Even though the films are over ten years old, they’re my favorites of all time because they really brought the magic of the books to life for me.

Some of these movie adaptations, however, didn’t work out for me. The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner, who is currently working on its last film, was almost nothing like the book, and that automatically changed my view of it. The way the characters escaped the maze in the book is completely different from how they escaped it in the movie.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult was a heartbreaking book about a girl with cancer and showed how her family coped with it. My issue with this adaptation was that the ending was completely changed; nothing that happened in the last three chapters of the book happened in the film!

Upcoming Adaptations

Some upcoming adaptations for this year are:

• It by Stephen King (September 8), a horror film about a killer clown
• Wonder by R.J. Palacio (April 7), about a boy with a disfigured face
• Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle (November 22), which is about three intertwined holiday romances

The one movie adaptation that I am most excited about is Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (March 3), because I remember reading the book almost five years ago, and completely loving it. Before I Fall is a drama/mystery film, and is currently being directed by Ry Russo-Young. American actress Zoey Deutch is playing the lead role as Samantha Kingston, and Kian Lawley, a famous Youtuber, is playing Rob (Samantha’s boyfriend). In the book, Samantha Kingston finds herself re-living the same day over and over again, and as the story develops, she tries to find the reason as to why this is happening to her.

Photo by Maryelin Leal

Upcoming Book-to-Movie Adaptations

• The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman (March 31^st, 2017)
• The Lost City of Z by David Grann (April 21^st, 2017)
• The Circle by Dave Eggers (April 28^th, 2017)
• The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin (October 20^th, 2017)
• Red Sparrow by Jason Matthew (November 10^th, 2017)