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The 10 Worst Book-to-Screen Adaptations

From Uglies to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and more, here are the book-to-screen adaptations that didn't live up to the source material.

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“The book was better” isn’t always true…but it’s a cliché for a reason. Readers know that unique heartbreak of having a favorite book be mangled in the adaptation. But which adaptations did the worst job with the source material? Aura Print put together a list of the ten worst book-to-movie and book-to-TV adaptations of recent years, using the difference between the average Goodreads rating for the book and the IMDB rating for the adaptation.

Of all of the adaptations Aura Print looked at, only four had adaptations that were rated higher than the book: Normal People by Salley Rooney, One Day by David Nicholls, Fire & Blood (House of the Dragon) by George R. R. Martin, and The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe.

Now, onto the worst recent adaptations. (Goodreads ratings have been doubled to match IMDB ratings.)

The 10 Worst Recent Book-to-Movie Adaptations

The clear “winner” for the worst recent book-to-movie adaptation is Netflix’s take on the 2005 YA dystopian novel Uglies. It has a 16% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critic consensus being “It’s what’s on the inside that counts, but unfortunately Uglies doesn’t have much going on in there, either.”

Uglies movie cover

#1) Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: 7.7 Goodreads rating vs. 4.7 IMBD rating = 63.8% difference

#2) It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover: 8.3 vs. 6.5 = 27.4% difference

#3) The Colour Purple by Alice Walker: 8.5 vs. 6.8 = 25.6% difference

#4) The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown: 8.8 vs 7 = 25.4% difference

#5) Damsel by Evelyn Skye: 7.6 vs. 6.1 = 24.6% difference

#6) Elvis and Me (Priscilla) by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley: 8.0 vs. 6.5 = 23.1% difference

#7) Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens: 8.8 vs. 7.2 = 21.7% difference

#8) Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh: 7.1 vs. 5.9 = 21.0% difference

#9) Pain Hustlers by Evan Hughes: 8.0 vs. 6.6 = 20.9% difference

#10) The Idea of You by Robinne Lee: 7.5 vs. 6.3 = 19.4% difference

The 10 Worst Recent Book-to-TV Adaptations

The Apple TV+ adaptation of The Changeling by Victor LaValle took the #1 spot for its 5.8 IMDB rating, but it fares slightly better on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 69% critics’ rating (but 41% audience rating). The critic consensus is “Grounded by a superb LaKeith Stanfield, The Changeling is an ambitious fairy tale that may be too scattershot in its tonality but never lacks for imagination or spirit.”

The Changeling cover

#1) The Changeling by Victor LaValle: 7.6 Goodreads rating vs. 5.8 IMDB rating = 30.3% difference

#2) A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson: 8.6 vs. 6.8 = 26.8% difference

#3) The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand: 8.0 vs. 6.5 = 22.5% difference

#4) A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles: 8.7 vs. 7.4 = 17.0% difference

#5) Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben: 7.9 vs. 6.8 = 16.8% difference

#6) The Expatriates (Expats) by Janice Y. K. Lee: 7.3 vs. 6.3 = 16.5% difference

#7) We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter: 8.8 vs. 7.7 = 14.8% difference

#8) Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson: 8.2 vs. 7.3 = 12.1% difference

#9) Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney: 7.5 vs. 6.8 = 10.3% difference

#10) Dark Matter by Blake Crouch: 8.3 vs. 7.7 = 7.5% difference

For more adaptation opinions, check out The Worst Book-to-Movie Adaptations, According to Rotten Tomatoes and The Best and Worst of Book Adaptations.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.

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