While book-to-screen adaptations often garner mixed reactions from fans due to plot accuracy and appropriate casting, one cannot deny that witnessing the words come alive visually is thrilling. Especially when shows like Big Little Lies and Normal People have done a world of justice to their novel counterparts. Plots that explore out-of-pocket worlds with bizarre characters, like The Witcher and Game of Thrones, undoubtedly thrive on screen.
More often than not, bookworms think that the book they’ve been engrossed in lately would thrive as a movie or TV show if done correctly. It’s no bolt from the blue that a massive chunk of entertainers this year are based on beloved book series. From Bridgerton to Shōgun and everything in between, the most talked about shows were conjured from the worlds created by talented authors. Amongst these, YA novels always seem to reign supreme with their hype and popularity. Their ability to capture fantasized worlds and groundbreaking love stories is inherently appealing to young minds. So, let’s take a look at five such YA novels that deserve on-screen adaptations!
1. The Selection Series By Kiera Cass
Starting strong with a popular YA number, The Selection series by Kiera Cass contains infinite potential to be adapted into a TV series like Bridgerton or The Summer I Turned Pretty. The plot of the five-part series is just as dazzling as its book covers, which garnered widespread popularity when the first book debuted in 2012. The plot is set in a futuristic world where the population is divided into numbered castes from One to Eight based on profession.
The first three novels, The Selection, The Elite, and The One, revolve around the protagonist, America Singer, a Five — also known as the artist cast. Circumstances led her to participate in the Selection competition, where 35 women competed for the prince’s hand in marriage. Throughout the three novels, readers witness America being caught in a love triangle between The Prince of Illéa, Maxon Schreave, and her secret ex-boyfriend turned guard, Aspen, as she struggles to recognize where her affections lie. The last two novels in the series take place 25 years later and delve into the life of America’s daughter, Eadlyn.
The entire series contains umpteen twists and turns with exciting plot points and endearing themes that make for great screenplay. Over the years, the series’ rights have been optioned and dropped by numerous production companies, with Netflix currently holding them after buying them in 2020. Here’s hoping they bank on the opportunity and don’t sleep on this gripping storyline.
2. Blood for Blood Series by Catherine Doyle
Blood for Blood Series by Catherine Doyle is an underrated trilogy best described as a rendition of The Godfather meets Romeo and Juliet. With book titles like Vendetta, Inferno, and Mafiosa, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the storyline is brimming with mafia drama. There’s nothing deadlier than a blend of forbidden love, generational rivalry, and irresistibly hot bad boys.
The story circles Sophie Gracewell, who finds herself unexpectedly pulled into the criminal underworld when five brothers move into the abandoned mansion in her neighborhood. What’s more? As the plot progresses, Sophie gradually uncovers dark truths about her own family as she is inevitably stuck between warring dynasties. Bursting at the seams with sizzling passion, bloodshed, and heartbreak, Blood for Blood exudes endless possibilities to be transformed into a chilling on-screen adaptation.
3. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Where does one even get started with Rainbow Rowell’s debut novel Eleanor & Park? Published in 2012, this wholesome YA novel is a dual narrative that tells the love story of adorable misfits Eleanor Douglas and Park Sheridan. The plot is set between 1986 and 1987 in Omaha, Nebraska, where a chubby 16-year-old girl with curly red hair and a biracial Korean boy have a meet-cute on the school bus on her first day at school. The duo bond over comic books and mixtapes as their old-school relationship blossoms gradually.
What makes the novel stand out is its exploration of serious themes like parental neglect, domestic and child abuse, bullying, and body image while tactfully maintaining the innocence in Eleanor and Park’s love story. Although the book has been privy to controversy on multiple accounts, that doesn’t detract from the impact of Rowell’s quirky writing style. The novel has gone through a tumultuous ride as far as movie rights and on-screen adaptations go, with fans waiting patiently for over a decade for this literary masterpiece to finally make its way to the big screen.
4. Hush, Hush Series By Becca Fitzpatrick
A book series that is sure to catch the eye of Twilight enthusiasts, it is a wonder that Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush is yet to be adapted into a blockbuster movie. The quartet of novels—Hush, Hush, Crescendo, Silence, and Finale—features teenager Nora Grey and delves into the journey of how she falls in love with fallen angel Patch Cipriano as she gradually discovers her ties to the world of angels. The fantasy series quickly rose in popularity and had teenagers in a chokehold at the time of its release back in 2009.
The Hush, Hush series boasts endless potential to become an edge-of-the-seat entertainer that could become a cult-classic TV show. Much like the other work on this list, the rights to the series have been passed around from one production company to the next. The latest news is from 2018 when Fitzpatrick announced that The Vampire Diaries fame Kellie Cyrus would direct the film. Here’s crossing our fingers and hoping for things to materialize with this fan-favorite series sooner rather than later.
5. The Dark Artifices Trilogy by Cassandra Clare
Author Cassandra Clare is no stranger to her books being adapted for the big screen. Her debut series, The Mortal Instruments, boasts a movie adaptation, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and a three-season TV series, Shadowhunters. The Dark Artifices trilogy is yet another installment centered in Clare’s world of Shadowhunters. The premise is set in LA and tells the story of Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn across three books: Lady Midnight, Lord of Shadows, and Queen of Air and Darkness. The duo share a sacred bond of “parabatai,” a bond greater and more sacred than any other, with the only catch being that they are forbidden from falling in love.
Being “parabatai” makes the two people in the bond more powerful, with the oath containing chilling lines like “…The Angel do so to me, and more also, If aught but death part thee and me.” While the entrapment by platonic chains that prevent one from being with the love of their life can be the most painful ordeal, the looming dangers and gory enemies just add to the list of challenges in the protagonist’s lives. An underrated number in The Shadowhunter Chronicles, The Dark Artifices, must be adapted for the screen someday, come what may! Don’t forget to check out this list of Roald Dahl’s book to screen adaptations.
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