“I Forever Lament Its Loss In The Film Adaptation”: 19 Book Adaptation Changes That Bothered And Bummed Out Fans

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“I Forever Lament Its Loss In The Film Adaptation”: 19 Book Adaptation Changes That Bothered And Bummed Out Fans

A little while back, we asked the enthusiastic readers of the BuzzFeed Community about the changes made in book adaptations that provoked responses ranging from “mild frustration” to “I AM FILLED WITH INCANDESCENT RAGE.” They were extremely generous with their responses, so here are 19 book adaptation plot changes that rankled viewers, even if they otherwise enjoyed the TV show or movie based on their beloved source material.

Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity. 

1. “For me, it’s when they change the location it’s set in. Off the top of my head, I can think of The Girl on the Train (London to New York), Confessions of a Shopaholic (London to New York) and P.S. I Love You (Dublin to New York). These were all books I read and looked forward to seeing the adaptions of, but they lost something for me with the change of location. Not everything needs to be set in New York!”

Weinstein Company / Courtesy Everett Collection

—erudderham55

4. “I think I speak for the entire Twilight fandom when I say the fight scene in Breaking Dawn: Part 2 gave all of us a collective heart attack when we first viewed it.”

Summit Entertainment / Via youtube.com

—PinkPrincess88

5. “Paper Towns, when they finally find Margo. In the book, it’s more dramatic, and you fear the worst with all the clues she left, like you’re not sure what they’re going to find. In the movie, it was so anti-climactic and just fell flat. Actually, I think the whole movie fell flat compared to the book, but the end was just bad.”

20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection

“Also, instead of Quentin going to New York with Margo and having more closure, he just up and leaves and goes back home in time for prom. None of it made sense.”

—sunflowersugar

6. “The Hunger Games: Not having Peeta lose his leg. It explains why he is so slow in the second arena, and it was good representation.”

Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection

—BlankingOut

7. “Okay, so I really liked the True Blood books, and the show changed absolutely loads in ways I didn’t like. One specific thing, though: At the end of Season 1, Sookie gets rescued. In the books, she saves herself! That really annoyed me, and I fell off the show after that.”

HBO / Via youtube.com

—hannahgazy

8. “The movie adaptation of The Other Boleyn Girl was horrendous. The casting and costumes were great, but the script featured so many changes that it felt absolutely nothing like the book. Even the way the scenes were cut was abrupt and jarring. Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn shaking and sobbing before her execution was so bizarre considering that in the book she was resigned to her fate and walked out with her head held high.”

Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection

“Also, the book is supposed to be about the OTHER Boleyn girl, Mary, and the movie really didn’t focus on her at all.”

—Anonymous, 33, Louisiana 

9. “Definitely have to say the fate of the Elder Wand in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In the book, Harry decides to use the Elder Wand only once: To repair his own broken wand, before returning it to Dumbledore’s tomb. This way, when he dies, the wand’s power will die with him. It is an extremely noble and selfless act, showing he doesn’t want that kind of power and just wants to be Harry Potter. You’d think such a powerful decision would make it into the movie, right? WRONG! What does he do instead? He breaks it and throws it off the bridge at Hogwarts. *Face palm* This bothered me so much when I saw it in theaters.”

Warner Bros. / Via youtube.com

—Anonymous, 26, Connecticut

10. “In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie is supposed to run into Susan at the mall, and he has a breakdown and asks if she even misses Michael. I thought Logan Lerman would’ve crushed that scene, but it never happened”

Summit Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

—ginabeena

11. “In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, they switched Emma and Olive’s characters, changing Emma from a fierce firebrand (literally) who could stand on her own into a wispy, more ‘traditionally feminine’ love interest. They also increased Olive’s age so that she could also be turned into a love interest. There was no reason for these changes to be made. They did nothing to serve the adaptation or enhance the story, and in fact reduced two excellent female characters to nothing but romantic objects for male characters who were seen as ‘more important.'”

20th Century Fox / courtesy Everett Collection

—maysmordred

12. “The love triangle in Season 2 of Bridgerton ruined it for me. In the books, Edwina has no real interest in Anthony — she’s actually interested in someone else — and the sisters are so devoted to each other. The story in the book is really, really good, and the show isn’t bad, but it didn’t tell that story.”

Netflix / courtesy Everett Collection

—bedo2836

13. “A lot about the Percy Jackson movie adaptations bothers me, but the most annoying to me was how they don’t even mention Clarisse in The Lightning Thief.”

20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection

—Anonymous, 21, Washington D.C. 

14. “Shadow and Bone: In the books, the Darkling doesn’t reveal his true name to Alina until the third book in a very raw, honest moment between the two of them. It’s very powerful and humanizes him after all they’ve gone through. In the show, he just throws out his name randomly in, like, the fourth episode of Season 1. It bothered me so much because that reveal was such a big deal in the books.”

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

—hannahtraveller96

15. “In the Hunger Games film adaptations, they completely ERASED the storyline of the origins of the mockingjay pin. I can usually forgive most changes when books go to film, but this one was unforgivable. As the symbol of the revolution, the mockingjay pin deserved far better in its storytelling. If I remember correctly, it was given to Katniss after she was picked at the Reaping by the daughter of the District 12 mayor. It was such a small but powerful moment, and I forever lament its loss in the film adaptation.”

Lionsgate

—Anonymous, 22, Georgia

16. “The way the Game of Thrones adaptation did Ellaria Sand dirty. In the books, she’s the only pacifist in Westeros. She wants revenge for Oberyn’s death, but she doesn’t want to start a war over it. Ellaria fears where it may end, and she explicitly doesn’t want to risk her own children or her stepdaughter’s lives. In general, so far, the Martell family and the people of Dorne seem to be the most wholesome, minding their own business and genuinely caring for each other (even though you never know what George R. R. Martin has in store for them). In the series, Ellaria is a crazy and murderous harpy caring for no one. It really bothers me because she’s one of my favorite characters in the books, and I really admire her view on things.”

HBO / Via youtube.com

—Anonymous, 32, Germany 

17. “The entirety of Ella Enchanted. That movie absolutely ruined my all-time favorite book. Worst offenses: Ella constantly being rescued by Prince Char instead of saving herself, the elves being medieval showgirls for some reason, Char having an evil uncle instead of a loving family, Mandy being a bumbling, insecure fool rather than a wise, supportive friend, the magic book being a person for some reason and only able to do a fraction of what it does in the book, and the setting being some sort of weird, fake Ren Fair place (with malls and escalators and fan clubs) instead of just regular medieval. And those are just the broad strokes of what they changed.”

Miramax / Courtesy Everett Collection

—r4c05a94b4

18. “I loveee the book Where the Crawdads Sing. I was really disappointed in how the movie adaptation pretty much skipped the entire trial. I would have loved to see the investigation and proof they presented at the trial in the book on the big screen.”

Sony Pictures Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

—Anonymous, 29, Kentucky

19. And finally, the change that upset the most readers, based on my informal survey of responses: “My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. In the book, Anna dies, and Campbell decides that Kate gets the kidney. In the movie, Kate dies.”

New Line Cinema / Courtesy Everett Collection

—phimi

“The book is ALWAYS better. I get that in film adaptations, changes need to be made due to time and budget constraints, but the biggest example of this for me will always be My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. The book is incredible (as are absolutely every single one of her books), but I flat out refused to even watch the movie when I found out that they completely changed the ending by changing the main character that dies. It changes the entire trajectory of the movie. Why would you change such a brilliant, unexpected twist?!”

—Anonymous, 36, Illinois