Movie and television adaptations often come with significant changes from the source material, and Every Year After is no exception. The plot centers on the lake town of Barry’s Bay, in rural Ontario, Canada, where best-friends-turned-lovers Persephone Fraser (Sadie Soverall) and Sam Florek (Matt Cornett) met as teenagers. Percy visits the town annually after her parents purchase a property in Barry’s Bay, and every summer her bond with Sam grows stronger over their mutual interest in horror movies and swimming in the lake.
It took years of playing the will-they-won’t-they game before they acted on their feelings for each other; still, the relationship was filled with rough patches. Finally, a heartbreaking betrayal drove them apart. The series takes viewers through two timelines, depicting the main characters as teenagers and as adults returning to Barry’s Bay. The first season, based on Carley Fortune‘s 2022 novel Every Summer After, expands some characters and relationships to create suitable television content. Only fans of the book would easily notice these significant changes and similarities between the book and the series.
1. Different Titles
The differences start from the obvious twist in the title of Fortune’s book. Every Year After adapts the novel Every Summer After, but the need to extend the story beyond the book led to a change in the title. In an interview with Variety, the book author said, “There were a lot of conversations about it” before the title was changed. Apparently, showrunners have big plans for the series, and adding more seasons to it means going beyond that one book, thus the name change.
2. The Secret about Charlie and Percy is Not Hidden From Sam in the Book
In the novel, Sam already knows about the one-night stand between his brother Charlie (Michael Bradway) and his girlfriend Percy, as well as why they ran away from Barry’s Bay. However, the reveal came later on the TV show, when Sam was already an adult. Unlike the novel, where Charlie tells Sam about his hookup with Percy a few months after it happened, Percy is the one who reveals the truth to Sam several years later, before the closing credits of Episode 5.
The reveal is delayed in the show to allow audiences to learn more about the characters and understand what happened. “You need to be able to see how we got there. And I think you have to spend that time with them before the reveal,” Fortune said. Showrunner Amy B. Harris said Percy should not be allowed to take all the blame for her mistake: Sam treated her badly, and his hot-and-cold attitude doomed their relationship in their teenage years.
3. Percy’s Job in the Series is Different from the Book
In Fortune’s novel, Percy is an editor at Shelter Magazine, a renowned home decor magazine in Canada, alongside her best friend, Chantal (Aurora Perrineau). Although she probably started as a writer before becoming an editor in the book, the TV adaptation just portrays Percy as an obituary writer, deviating from her dream of writing horror fiction. “It’s one of the few things newspapers still need writers for,” she says in the series about her job as an obit writer.
4. Percy’s Nationality
While both the show and movie are set in the Canadian lake town of Barry’s Bay, Percy is a Canadian from Toronto in the book. However, in the television series, she hails from Seattle, Washington, and attended the University of Washington, while Sam went to medical school at Stanford University. Also, the book uses the real location of Barry’s Bay in Ontario, but the Prime Video series used a fictionalized version of the lake town in British Columbia.
5. The Kiss During a Truth or Dare Game
In the book, Sam refuses to kiss Percy during a game of truth or dare initiated by Delilah (Abigail Cowen), but Charlie swoops in to the rescue. However, Charlie backed out of kissing her on the show after making a convincing move. The primary reason for not kissing her is that Juliette Hawk, who plays the young Percy, was 17 at the time, while Carson MacCormac, who plays Charlie in the flashback scene, was 25.
6. Chantal Doesn’t Embark on the Trip with Percy in the Book
In the book, Chantal didn’t make the trip to Barry’s Bay with Percy and only supported her through text messages. Harris expanded Chantal’s arc to give her a more important presence in Percy’s life. Showing up at the lake town with Percy also changed Chantal’s life, particularly her love life. She also teams up with Delilah to help Percy set up the tavern she inherited from Sam’s mom, Sue Florek (Elisha Cuthbert).
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