Over the last several months, some Netflix users may have stumbled upon a new drama movie called “After”. Some watchers may have loved the film so much they would be interested to know it is based on a best-selling book. Unfortunately, with every great book that is turned into a movie, you lose some of the readers’ favorite details. 

The book After was written by Anna Todd and the movie was directed by Jenny Gage, with the help of Todd by her side. The transition from page to screen was well done, but some literature fans, “Afternaters”, were disappointed by cinematic changes made in the process. The main plot and main characters in the movie stay similar to what is in the book. However, the details that support the main plot and written descriptions that help develop the characters get lost from page to screen.

The main plot, of both the book and movie, follows new college freshman Tessa Young and her eventual love interest, bad boy, Hardin Scott. As the story develops it delves into their overly complicated love story and the ups and downs of a college relationship. 

One drastic change was the portrayal of Hardin’s attitude and spunk. 

The Nerd Daily states, “The most interesting change in the movie was the lack of Hardin’s violent nature… We saw a couple [of] vases smashed on the ground but not once in the whole movie did he even raise his voice. Which… was the heart and soul of the book… part of the allure of Hardin was his violent, troubled nature, then watching him change and grow.”

Another change made was some of the main characters, involving gender and erasing some completely. 

“There are some things where I knew,…I wanted and very much supported, and sometimes even drove the change from the book because… it’s six years later and times are different. Everything is different [from what] it was,” Todd told International Business Times.

Todd continues speaking about some characters who were in the book, such as Logan and Nate, who played smaller roles and with the time limit of the movie it just made sense to cut them from the script completely. She also continues with reasons to change two male characters to females, which included a professor and a member of the rebellious group of college students. 

In my opinion, I think the book is better. It’s hard to fit a whole storyline, in this case, 97 chapters worth, into only a one hour and 45-minute movie. 

“Yes, it’s going to be different than the book- because that’s just the way it is when you adapt [to] something. There are so many different restrictions, like time which is the biggest culprit, and sometimes things written on pages don’t sound the same when humans say them on screen,” stated Todd.

I will always stand by both the movie and the book, but there’s nothing like getting hooked on an interesting book and just sitting down to relax and have your only focus be on the characters on those pages. And the great part about this book series is you don’t have to wait for the sequels as you do for the movie productions. 

If this is your first time hearing of the series, I highly recommend reading the book online at studynovels.com or order it on Amazon for $10.99. To make the most of your time, you can order all four books along with the pre sequel book for $49.99 on Amazon. Also, don’t forget to check out the movie on Netflix or buy it on iTunes for $14.99.