So The
Mortal Instruments has just been released, and Divergent, The Fault in Our
Stars, The Book Thief, and Vampire
Academy are in the pipeline. It’s clear that now’s the time for Young Adult
book adaptations. So as we reread and wait, I thought I’ll take a trip down
memory lane and look at the explosion of adaptations that have become a
phenomena in my life so far.
Harry Potter
I guess my story, as many others my age,
starts with the unforgettable series that is Harry Potter. I read The Chamber of Secrets in 1999, after seeing the press surrounding The Prisoner of Azkaban. And before you
say anything, yes I read the second one before the first because my mother
brought me back the wrong book. At age 6, it gave me nightmares, and I didn’t
touch another Potter book for two years, until the movie release of The Philosopher’s Stone. Harry Potter
was a big part of many people’s childhood, and in my case I literally grew up
with it, with the last film being released when I was 17. I think the key
reason why people loved it so much was because even though it was about a
fantastical world, it was so relatable. And the world was astonishing! The
amount of detail that was in it made you really connect with the world, and dare
I say it, believe it could exist.
Twilight
The year was 2006, and I was in a
bookshop when I saw a mysterious black book with white hands and an apple. I
was 13 and new to YA, and this book grabbed my attention with how adult it looked. I picked it up and saw
the words “vampire” and put it straight back down. For me, vampires were
something out of a horror story, completely terrifying (flash-forward seven
years and I still can’t watch horror films). Nevertheless, I was intrigued by
the story and bought it. And I was obsessed. Back then, only Twilight and New Moon was out, so I was counting down the days to Eclipse. Honestly, I cannot remember for
the life of me why I loved it so much. Maybe it was the forbidden love idea.
Maybe it was because I had never read paranormal romance before. In fact, two
years later, I was completely off it, so much so that I didn’t go see the
movie. Not that one person’s changed attitude to it mattered, because the rest
of my all-girls school had gone nuts. On the opening day, I swear my whole
class flocked to the cinema. If you want to know about my current opinion of
Twilight, look at my Goodreads rating for it.
The Hunger Games
Okay, I was late to the Hunger Games
party; I heard about it a few months before the film was released. I have to
say, I wasn’t quite as into it as
other people were, I don’t know if it’s because I hadn’t read the books that
long before I saw the film. But I was blown away with how different it was to all the other YA I had read before. I think the
reason The Hunger Games took off like it did was because it came at the right
time. Twilight-mania had died down, and after years of Bella Swan being thrust
in our face, Katniss Everdeen was a breath of fresh air. There was a female
heroine girls could aspire to, and an incredible action packed story for
everyone to get behind. It was dark and moving, and I’m not surprised it did so
well.
The Common Denominator
Nothing. Well, there is something.
People buy into a good story. Oh, we’ve had flops. Beautiful Creatures and The
Host being this year’s ones. I think something to note is that all of these
“crazes” have happened with good time between them. Yeah, there’s been some
overlap, but none of them have happened too close together. Also all three are remarkably different from
each other, which is why movie people (though I doubt any of them are reading
this), should be less focused with looking for “the next…” and get something
original out. I know the reason I didn’t see/ read Beautiful Creatures was because I saw the trailer and thought, “it
looks like they’re trying to sell this as the next Twilight”. One other link is that people know about the book before
the film. I think that’s quite easy to forget in the book community because we
are always talking to people who have read the books, but an example is,
despite nearly everyone I know online having read Divergent and for sure, TFioS, I know a few of my friends haven’t
even heard of the books, but would
definitely enjoy them.
What I’m saying is… Well, I don’t
really have a point here. Since I’ve grown up with the boom in book adaptations
and mania, and have been part of it, I’ve always been interested in it. It’ll
be great to know what everyone else thinks on the whole matter, so leave some
comments below!
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