The book Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton was first published in 1990. I thought it might have been earlier than this, because the movie came out in 1993. I think because we are only just getting movies like Artemis Fowl (published 2001), my brain thought, “Oh, Jurassic Park must be a super old book!” But no. Even the book is younger than me! So that’s interesting.
Jurassic Park is one of those books that I read, in general, at least once a year. I have a copy on my Kindle now, because for a good 2-3 years, all of my 500+ books lived in crates, in a storage room (oddly enough, room came out as tomb just now, which is actually kind of interesting, a Freudian Slip perhaps? Books are meant to be read after all…), but when I can, I much prefer my hardback copy, which is bound with JP at the front and Congo at the back. Side note, after all this time, I have still not read Congo. It begins with a very graphic scene of someone/something’s head being slammed between two wooden paddles with, if I recall correctly (it’s been a long time!), enough force to cause their eyeballs to explode. Where I was going with this story is that I love my hard copy. Usually I’m not a particular fan of hardback books - in part because they tend to be heavier, and in part because all of my copies of Harry Potter books 3-7 are hardbacks, and books 4-7 have cracked spines and general falling apartness, which is unenjoyable! JP is holding up well however. I am not a scientist (okay, not a qualified scientist), or a mathematician, so I can’t vouch for the mathematical theory throughout the book. I do have a friend who is a big math nerd, and he seemed okay with most of the parts I read out to him, so what I will say is that I very much enjoyed the additions of Chaos Theory throughout the book. Dr Ian Malcolm is and always has been my favourite character, both in the books and the movies, so of course I had to get the “Sexy Ian Malcolm” Pop! Vinyl. His sarcasm and direct bluntness is even better in the books - he is determined from the outset that the Park is guaranteed to fail. My copy of the book has the story broken down into “Stages” (I think, I am writing this at work, and the work copy is out (no, I’m not annoyed that people are actually using their public library…)), and at the beginning of each stage there is a fractal drawing and an Ian Malcolm quote. I personally love this, and there may be a chance that I am planning to stitch one of the patterns and hang it on my wall… (keep reading to see my lockdown stitching efforts!). The book goes a lot more in depth into the electrical/computer systems which keep the park running and ‘safe’. There are a lot of pages detailing the computer systems - you get a pretty solid overview of the methods they are using to keep the animals separate, which isn’t something that we get as much of in the movie. I understand why - the computer system shows in a kind of DOS format - words not pictures, which wouldn’t have translated well to a movie - most people don’t want their dino action interrupted by a wall of text on a black background! This was something I enjoyed, but I can see where people would just skim over it; but when it comes right down to it that is possible and you’d don’t lose a lot, most of it is covered in the actual story. As for Book to Screen elements (given that this is what this review is meant to be about), these guys did it right. The fact that it’s a Spielberg movie obviously helps with this, but yeah, they did a pretty good job here. There were a few changes - they flipped the ages of the kids, making the girl the elder sibling; and from memory, the construction of the buildings was a little different, I believe in the books there was more dino proofing than in the movie. This last I believe made some changes to the narrative; instead of having one or two characters in various rooms, they made changes which meant the groups were bigger, which meant less different storylines and locations for the watcher to keep a track of. I’m 100% okay with prot changes like this, provided that it doesn’t actually detract from the main plot (I’m looking at you Harry Potter…)! Overall, the Book to Screen transition was very well done, and I am happy to watch and read over and over again. The movie itself has held up so very well. There are a number of shows which came out in the 90’s that stand the test of time - some of the graphics are a little kooky (hello Charmed and Buffy), but the meat of the show/movie is not filled with pop-culture references or other things which swiftly become irrelevant. The JP universe has grown since 1993, but honestly? I think the original movie, animatronic dinosaurs and all, is a more enjoyable watch than the new ones, with all their CGI and special effects. That’s not to say that they aren’t worth a watch, but to me, they just aren’t as good. Overall, this Book to Screen is one of my favourite. I sincerely hope that they DO NOT REBOOT the originals (I’m looking at you, new (rubbish) Charmed…). Oh! I forgot. The beginning of Jurassic Park - the book, is used as the beginning of Jurassic Park, the Lost World - the movie. Minor thing, but I was impressed to see that - though it’s worth a giggle at the very very rich and entitled family and their beach ‘picnic’ complete with servants... Content Warnings: gore, language Book Ratings: 5 stars Movie Rating: 5 stars Overall Book to Screen Rating: 4 stars
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Ah, Orange. My one true comfort show. That sounds weird, doesn’t it? But it’s true. There are a few shows that I can watch again and again and again, and feel relaxed and comforted. Is it weird that one of these is this prison show, and two others are crime/mystery shows with all the death and violence? Maybe, but it works for me!
Orange is the New Black is one of the shows that really catapulted Netflix - and the idea of binge watching - fully into the mainstream. With the first season premiering in 2013, the following 7 years were a carefully balanced blend of anticipation, all-the-emotions-while-binging, regret at having watched it all in one night, the joy of rewatching, and anticipation. I avoided it for a while (I have this super annoying habit of purposely refusing to jump on a bandwagon - yes, sometimes I regret this!), but eventually, I caved. I didn’t expect to love this show as much as I do. Set inside a women’s minimum (for the most part) security federal prison, it starts out following one main character, Piper Chapman. As this is adapted for screen from a book - Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman - this makes sense. Using present time narrative and flashbacks, the story of why, how, and what happens next is built around Piper. As the show progresses, the other inmates at the prison begin to take on a more substantial role. Season One focuses primarily on Piper. While we do see flashbacks to other characters, they tend to be in relation to a specific interaction Piper has with them on screen. Season Two begins to deviate further, and by Season Three, almost every episode is the backstory of a different prisoner. The way they have done this - introducing us to the prison through the eyes of one character, and then slowly widening our gaze - is masterful. I heard (and this is hearsay, so don’t quote me on this) that the directors/writers did this on purpose: they handed us a white, non-violent, easy to root for, middle-upper class woman; someone who people felt they could relate to and sympathise with, before beginning to bring in characters who may have been outside of the regular contact of their personal bubble*. Honestly, the representation in this show is phenomenal. It can be uncomfortable to be confronted visually with the fact that POC have a much higher incarceration rate in the USA than Caucasian people, but it is reflective of reality. The show does this well, especially from Season Four, when the Hispanic women make up the majority. The over representation of people of low socioeconomic backgrounds is also highlighted, as is the fact that many prisons in the USA (and world wide) are doing very little, if anything, to actively help to rehabilitate prisoners. The treatment of prisoners with mental health problems is painful but so important. Wow. This show sounds depressing. And I guess it is. If you’re looking for light and fluffy and all good vibes all the time, this might not be the show for you. But if you enjoy actually feeling a human connection to character on a screen; rooting for them to win; being devastated when they lose; and can accept that this is reality, and that reality isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, then maybe it is. It is a testament to people taking a situation and making it the very best they can - Red, in the kitchen in Season Four, Taystee and Daya on their very different outlooks post sentencing, Caputo realising that he has helped contribute to the problem and choosing to work on himself for the betterment of others. Many characters can seem awful, but have a redemption arc, or a backstory that makes you see how they came to make the choices they did. And it all feels so genuine. There are humorous parts - don’t get me wrong! Adeola is a wealth of dark humor; Nicky is self-deprecating and hilarious; Taystee is larger than life; Suzanne and her sci-fi erotica; an illegal panty smuggling ring - I could go on for days. But this isn’t just an essay about how wonderful Orange is the New Black is, or how I want to read Suzanne’s erotica. It’s a post about the Book to Screen aspect. So, here, we go. I struggle with reviewing biographies. It’s literally the story of someone’s lived existence, and critiquing that is hard. So I try to focus more on the actual execution of the book - pacing, content, storytelling, readability. It took me a long long time to get around to reading the book, Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman. Most of this was simply because I couldn’t find a copy at any of my local libraries. So I bit the bullet a week or so ago, because I needed to read a Book to Screen adaptation for my local library's adult reading challenge. Honestly, while it was interesting from the point of view of wanting to know how close the TV show was to the actual book, I probably would not have finished it if I didn’t have that vested interest. I found the pacing to be weird - some memoirs are more ‘blocky’; more this happened-then this happened-then this happened, but still fleshed out enough to be able to follow the story. This book I struggled with, as it did not flow like a story, but the scenes felt short and choppy and I found it very hard to follow. I understand why people want to be bare bones about their life experiences, but in this case I felt it was too much that way, and not an enjoyable read. In comparing the book to the Netflix show, it was… interesting. The TV show feels as though it pulled from the book for the first season, and the very beginning of the second, but after that it most definitely deviated! The first season was filled with direct quotes from the book, and scenes and characters who, as I was reading, could easily pick out. It was interesting to see which parts they picked out to use, and which parts they didn’t. I do feel like there were aspects that were left out purely because they didn’t fit the visual narrative of the show, but that didn’t bother me. Would it if I had read the book first? Maybe, but, like I said, I’m not sure I would have continued reading had I not had that link to the show. Content warnings: whooo boy. Hetero sex, queer sex, violence, pornography, homophobia, transphobia, erotica, masterbation, rape, assault, mental health, murder, drugs, alcohol, suicide attempts, religion, cults, language, racism, racist language, treatment of mental health, pysch ward depictions, gun violence, army scenes, sexism, cutting (self harm), clowns, abuse of immigrants, burning, scalping, talk of abortions, pre-term birth, Alzheimers - and more, apologies for those I have missed. Book Ratings: 2 stars TV Show Rating: 5 stars Overall Book to Screen Rating: 3 stars *While I hate that we as a society still feel the need to pander to this sort of behaviour, I understand how it works to use this as a marketing tool. I may be 30, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still read books which are classified as “childrens”! In fact, as my job includes buying books for the Young Adult section of a library, I read a LOT of YA (hence this blog started - there is never enough time to read EVERY book, so the more reviews we add and the more voices we have reviewing; the better off we as selectors (or parents, or friends) are when it comes to suggesting or buying books with a specific person or goal in mind.)
That said, there are 500+ books in my bedroom, and a solid half (minimum!) of them are classed as “childrens books”. I am slowly chipping away at gaining the full collections (with original covers/content where I can get them) of The Three Investigators, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Famous Five, and (recently) The Baby-Sitters Club. I love the old books - the smell, the texture, the enjoyment of a book being about people in a place in time without distractions like cell phones, emails, and social media. These days, unless you read fantasy, it’s harder to escape from these mundane things which make our lives not only better, but busier and more scattered. Mysteries can be (or, should be!) solved within a few clicks of a keyboard; a camping trip must (of course) be in a place where there is mobile reception; Pics-Or-It-Didn’t-Happen. It’s nice to be able to get caught up in a story where the characters are simply in the here-and-now. Malory Towers is a series set around about the end of the 1940s - post WW2but still in the era of a recovering economy and rations. Each book follows the main character Darrell Rivers through a term at a boarding school - Malory Towers. Later in the series, as we see the main characters (Darrell, Alicia and a whole cast of other girls) age up and become more focused on their school-work and out of school prospects, we also get the perspective of the new, younger girls coming into the school. It’s a really nice balance of ages, and lends itself well to young people who are growing up - the books can grow with them in a way. I have always had a soft spot for boarding schools (I went to one myself for all of high school, but only as a day pupil), and for any and all books set in them (Naughtiest Girl, Truly Devious, you get the gist). Malory Towers is a series I have read many times, and I was a little hesitant to see how it would be brought to the screen, and if they would do it justice. There is a fine line when adapting books set in such a different era - do you keep the mentalities the same? Will people still identify with the characters if you keep them true to the books - kids can be cruel and blunt, and so can teachers! Is the thinking of the time - women have only really just begun to reach for further education and work outside of the home - going to come off backwards and old-fashioned? Or do you take it the other way, and remove the nostalgia somewhat, and update some of the thinking? Not a task I would particularly like to take on! I haven’t seen any of the previous adaptation iterations of this series, so I was nervous going into the first episode. I didn’t have to be. This series is pure, wholesome, nostalgic perfection. Okay, maybe not perfection - that might be a wee bit of a high bar - but very close to it. The characters are cast beautifully; the sets are outstanding (if you ever dreamed of seeing the Malory Towers tidal swimming pool in real life, here’s your chance!), the acting is superb, and the series feels right at home in the era it should. Similarly to Call The Midwife (aside, if you haven’t read the CTM books, you should!), it feels like an authentic look at a time which is fading from living memory. The attitudes of the students and staff felt appropriate - respect for elders, no back talk, no harsh language; the views were for the most part in line with the times. There were some changes from the original books - reasons students had been sent to school; methods of covering tuition - but for the most part it was true to the books. What changes were made also made sense. The casting was on point. The casting directors did make some changes - the level of racial inclusivity in the TV show is missing from the books, but at the time that they were written, it was normal*. The BBC show has characters of a variety of different ethnicities; a variety of different body types; and inclusion of children with disabilities both physical - Beth Bradfield, a young girl with a facial deformity plays Jean - and intellectual - our heroine Darrell Rivers is ‘diagnosed’ as not being simply slow or having to work much harder to keep up with her peers, but as having “word blindness” - a term for dyslexia (this doesn’t happen in the books). The series is sweet, wholesome, nostalgic, and feminist. At an all girls boarding school, there’s not the expectation that boys rule the sports fields and the STEM subjects, instead everyone is encouraged to participate across the board; but the show makes more of the female empowerment that we are seeing in current times. Content warnings: nil really, some bullying/teasing, tense situations (all age appropriate!). Book Ratings: 4 stars - good but whitewashed, easy to read, engaging TV Show Rating: 5 stars Overall Book to Screen Rating: 5 stars *I am firmly in the camp that says we should not erase history. I understand that there are some very troubling things in our past media (Disney, I’m very much looking at you here, although you are not alone…), but to me erasing this leaves us in a worse position. If, instead of erasing problematic things such as whitewashing in older children's fiction, we used this as a teaching tool - Yes, the depictions in Peter Pan are awful; this is why; this is what we do differently now etc, I feel that we would have much more success moving forward. Removing racism from books/media doesn’t make it all nice and pretty and as if it didn’t happen, it simply removes what many people face on a daily basis from the forefront of our awareness. Talk, don’t erase. And, as always, call me out if you don’t agree! But expect me to ask questions and have a discussion, as that is the only way we learn and grow. Disclaimer: This is about the 2016 TV adaptation, not the 2010 movie. (If you want to watch both, watch the movie*, THEN read the books, THEN watch the TV show.)
So despite the fact that the entire book series is written and set in Australia, it took a woefully long time for this TV show to make it all the way down here to little old NZ. In fact, it’s only now as I go to write about it, that I found out it’s four years old! But that’s OK. It has aged well (read: could easily be set today), and I enjoyed every second. Quick re-cap of the books (this is a book-based blog after all): Book One (Tomorrow When The War Began) was first published in 1993. Based in rural Australia, it’s a situation that most definitely still feels unnervingly possible. A group of teens “go to Hell” for a weekend - Hell being an off-the-beaten- track location in the Australian bush. When the teens come out of the bush, things feel… wrong. as they make their way to their various homes - mostly farms - they realise that wrong is an understatement. Further (careful) investigation tells them that their town has been invaded by an enemy country - and they are among the few who are not under the enemies control. Everyone who went to the town’s Commemoration Day Show is still there; still in the showgrounds; held prisoner. Our heroes embark on a mission to help their families, friends, and ultimately their country in a war fought guerilla style. With 7 books in the original series, and 3 in the spin-off sequel, there is a lot of action in the show. Basing their camp down in Hell - due to its unlikely position and a location unknown by those who are not locals - the 6 teens make their way around their town, trying to discover as much information as they can, while remaining unseen. In the books, set in the early 90’s, power has been shut down to the town, save for where the invaders are holding the townsfolk. Due to the time period, cell phones are not prevalent, and our teens work without them. In the TV show, which is set closer to the present time, cell phones obviously do exist, and I was wondering how the producers would either a) write them in while still maintaining the urgency and lack of communication that the book contained, or b) simply pretend that they didn’t exist. As it was, this was done so well. Our heroes have cell phones, but due to a) lack of reception in Hell and b) the power to the down being cut off to the town, they can’t use them. An added scene which was necessary and felt completely natural was the use of the parents cell phones. As we all carry them these days, when the parents of the heroes were rounded up at the Commem-Day Show, almost all of them had cell phones. While waiting in line to be searched, one quick-thinking parent realises that their children are not with them, and that the parents cell phones pose a huge risk - if their captors realise that the teens are not in the camp, they will likely be hunted down. The message to delete photos is passed from one parent to another in a way that feels urgent and rushed and 100% believable. The TV show did a masterful job of representing the teens, showing off some beautiful Australian bush, accurately showing the true atrocities of a war, and also making it clear that all parties in the war are fighting for their lives. Most of the soldiers don’t want to be killing people, don’t want to be hurting other people, and are actual living humans who feel pain and should be treated as such. There is a scene which is heartbreaking (and graphic) where the teens fight for their lives and fatally injure an enemy, and it sticks with the teen who lit the match for a very long time. It’s rare to see this in young adult fiction and TV, and to see the PTSD-like symptoms they display. It was refreshing and heartbreaking at the same time. This book series has long been used as a classroom text in highschool, and I do worry that it may put some teens off from reading it in their own time. I highly recommend it, as it is well written and withstands the test of time strongly. The books also have a diverse cast of characters, with Australian-Asian and Greek rep in the main characters. In the movie, Corrie, has been cast as Indidgenous - played by Madeleline Madden, which was a nice inclusion as well. The TV show is very good. There are scenes which may be distressing to some viewers, including violence. I would recommend it to anyone who likes teen drama, action, friendship and TV shows with a darker lean. Content warnings: Language, violence, racism, gore, death, murder, invasion, injury, animal death due to starvation and dehydration. Possible sex/assult scenes later in the series (I know they are in the books, I haven’t quite finished the show yet). Rating - Books: 5 Stars Rating TV Show: 5 Rating - Book to screen adaptation: 5 stars Overall Rating: 5 Stars *It’s been bugging me for weeks - we watched Artemis Fowl, and I tried to step back and watch it as “just a movie”, but even that didn’t help! This movie, however, is an OK movie, it’s just not up to snuff as an accurate book to screen adaptation. This was what I was trying to compare AF to - not like the book but still a good movie! AF was not. (yes, I’m still salty.) I’m pretty sure I get my love of the adult mystery genre from my mother. I have a memory of being about 7-10, and being left in the car while she went inside to get fish and chips for dinner. Being the sort of child who read anything and everything - cereal boxes, toilet air fresheners, literally everything - I picked up the only book in the car. It was The Bone Collector, by Jeffery Deaver. There is a scene, right near the beginning of the book, in which a hand is found, pointing skywards out of the ground. All of the flesh has been stripped down to the bone. One finger bears a wedding ring.
Oddly enough, that scene stuck with me. Even more oddly, it didn’t forever dampen my interest in crime novels, or even this particular series - which, by the way, is dark and twisted and wonderful, and I highly recommend it if you haven’t read it! But this post isn’t about that series, or it’s less-than-perfect-movie. It’s about the Rizzoli and Isles TV show, and the books they are - loosely - based on. The Surgeon, the first book in the series by Tess Gerritsen, was another book I found through my mother. I was a little older, a little less disturbed by the content - maybe 15? - and hooked from book one. The books follow a detective called Jane Rizzoli, and a medical examiner called Maura Isles. In The Surgeon, there is a killer making the rounds who mutilates his victims by removing a body part. The books are dark and creepy and make you want to double check the doors and windows are locked, and sleep with the lights on. I highly recommend the books, especially the first three - The Surgeon, the Apprentice, and The Sinner. The TV show is a lot different. The named characters are the same - we still have Jane, we still have Maura, we still have Barry Frost - and the killer in the first episode is The Surgeon. That’s about where the similarities end. Our hero Jane differs a lot from her book-based namesake - in the books she is very work focused, has problems with her family, fights hard to be taken seriously by her male colleagues. In the TV show, she has a good if sometimes overbearing relationship with her family, and a supportive work environment. So, if you’re looking for a perfect recreation of a book into a TV show, this probably isn’t the show for you. However, the series, as a crime/mystery series, is fantastic. Unlike the various CSI iterations, both of our lead characters in Rizzoli and Isles are strong, independent females, with the ability to stand, live, and work alone. There is a wonderful friendship between the two, and a balance of two very different personalities. Rizzoli is very direct; if she has a problem she will tell you straight up; but this is balanced by the fact that she cares deeply about her family and friends, will never intentionally hurt them, and stands up for what she knows is right. Maura, on the other hand, internalises her thoughts more, and often won’t make a move until she has weighed up all of her options; all of the pertinent information. She also refuses to use the term guess - being an empirical scientist, she often drives Rizzoli a little nuts when she refuses to give a cause of death before the autopsy is completed. The series is fast moving, with at least one case per episode, and follows the main characters over a long period of time. If you just like stabby stabby murder murder - this may not be the show for you. There is a lot of character development; a lot of inter character development; a lot of people focus. It’s done well though. The pace of the show makes it easy to fall in love with the characters - to want them to succeed, to cry when they have struggles. Character development itself is well paced and in depth, and the characters act in very human way - they don’t tend to stray too far from actual behavioural patterns that fit their character - unlike some other shows/movies where you sit there staring at the screen, asking yourself what the writers were smoking when they chose an action for a character. Content warnings: murder, gore, death, dead bodies, violence, language (is surprisingly clean, off bitch, maybe shit on a bad bad day). Additional warning: one of the main actors died by suicide while the series was ongoing. The character was written out in a beautiful and heartbreaking way, and returns as memory for an episode, allowing the cast to make their peace with not only the characters passing, but the actors as well. It will make you cry. Rating - Books: 5 stars Rating - TV Show: 5 stars Rating - Book to Screen Accuracy: 2 stars Overall Rating: 4 stars *big sigh*
I don’t know if it’s the Disney curse or something else, but this was an awful movie. For a start, it held none of the original story. Yes, there were characters with the right names (and some without - COME ON! Butler is Butler, none of this Dom stuff - that’s a central plot point!), but otherwise… No. The original Artemis Fowl books may have been white presenting (although I’m not sure why they made a specifically Eurasian character (Butler) into an Black character (with weird bleached hair and eyes that made him look blind…), and had a male lead, but Captain Holly Short was dual-lead, and she was supposed to have been “nut-brown”. But it’s not even all about race. By making Commander Root into a female (I have read the reasons and after watching the movie I still don’t agree), they shifted Holly’s entire reason for trying to prove herself - and had to invent an entire backstory to fill this important gap. Having a person try to prove that they are valid as they are is not something that has simply gone away, even if we are getting closer to equality (closer. We are not there yet.). The plot of this movie made zero sense. In the books, Artemis was a bad guy. A. BAD. GUY. He has a redemption arc, and it was great to see this as he progressed through the books. Because people change! And having a character grow and change is what keeps us coming back. Star Wars had the opposite effect - Anakin was good and slowly got worse - but it was still a story that people could resonate with, and had a desire to see through to its conclusion. This movie removed the autonomy of Artemis Fowl; the opportunity for a discussion about mental health (Angelique Fowl - his mother, the only one to call him Arty - was trapped in a deep depression ever since her husband had failed to return from a “business trip”); character growth; and basically any reason to feel anything for the characters. I’ll be honest - loving the books has made me biased. So I put aside that bias about 20 minutes into the movie, and tried to watch it with fresh eyes that did not know the story. And you know what? Meh. I mean, a character literally dies, and I didn’t care. There was no interest, no character growth, no reason to care about them, and so I didn’t. At the end of the movie, I turned to my flatmate (who hasn’t read the books and required a LOT of convincing that it would be worth it after watching this mess) and asked: “What actually happened in that movie?” I still don’t have an answer. It felt like they took the special effects of Star Wars (there were literal scenes where I paused the film and then showed the screen to people who were more than willing to believe it WAS Star Wars), added some elves and a centaur (who needed far more screen time, BTW), and then just made pretty explosions and weird voices for two hours. Zero feeling for characters, zero understanding of the plot, and zero desire for a sequel. The only good part was Josh Gad as Mulch (don’t get me started on the bullshirt Giant Dwarf thing), which was the best casting I have seen in a long time. Overall Rating: 1 star - for Josh Gad. That’s all. Today I learned that the first Baby-Sitters Club book came out before I was even born. That blew my mind a little bit. I grew up reading these books, as well as the Baby-Sitters Little Sister spin-off series, and had no idea they were older than me. Which makes the diversity and representation even more impressive.
This review is about the Netflix adaptation, but with an almost cult-like retro following, I feel the need to make a few mentions of the books first, and representation is one of these mentions! The original books did have a majority white/white-presenting cast, but in comparison to many books written before the advent of #weneeddiversebooks, they did very well. One of the main club members is Japanese-American, one of the junior members African American, and a number of the kids they sit for also have varying ethnicities and religions. The inclusion of a main character with Type One diabetes (which, for the record, actually gets discussed!) also feels progressive in a great way for books published late 80’s, early 90’s. The Netflix adaptation steps this representation up in the perfect way. Our core BSC is true to the book, apart from a couple of changes. Mary-Anne in the books is described as having brown hair and brown eyes, but her ethnicity is not stated - in the Netflix adaptation, she is mixed race. Dawn, our “blonde haired, blue eyed Cali surfer girl” is the biggest change from the on page descriptions, being played by Xochitl Gomez a young Latina. This threw me for a little while, as I tend to not like change (the hill I am going to die on is the colour of Hermione’s Yule Ball Dress in the movie…), but honestly, Xochitl Gomez does a wonderful job of being Dawn, and I now can’t see her any other way. Just something to be aware of if you are the type who are sticklers for book-accurate adaptations! Not only do we have racial representation in the show, we also have a trans child played by a trans child! I’m not going to say which child, but it was handled so so well - from the POV of someone who does not identify as such - the whole episode handled the situation kindly and sensitively, while offering knowledge and appropriate ways to discuss with children. Not going to lie, there may have been some tears when one of the club members stood up for the child to hospital staff. Beautifully done. Stacey and her diabetes were also covered in a way that felt age appropriate - her fears of being different felt realistic, as did the tension in the club due to the secrets she didn’t feel able to voice. Having a friend with Type-1 in real life, it was nice to see the medical equipment Stacey uses. The books, to me, always read a little older than the girls were supposed to be, but not in a bad way. It may have more to do with the fact that where I live, you have to be 13+ to babysit, than with the actual writing. This adaptation shows the club members as actual tweens. Like, the actors are young; their relationships are age appropriate (there are two kisses in the show - both chaste pecks on the lips followed by excited giggling); they have young person worries. On that note, the adults in the show are also written very well. They speak to the girls with respect, and acknowledge that they are in a transitional period in their lives - they speak to them about issues that concern them - family illness, re-marriage etc - without being condescending. Given that BSC was released well before mobile phones and the internet were commonplace, we were pleasantly surprised to see how they merged the new tech into the old story. It was refreshing to see tweens who HAVE phones, but still act like kids and don’t have them surgically attached to their hands. Basically, we binged this show in a day, and then wanted to re-watch from the beginning. Content warnings: not a lot! Mentions of illness - on screen seizure, fever; discussions of transgender; wholesome romance. Oh! How could I forget the best part?! Karen Brewer. Oh. My. Gosh. If that freaky little darkly funny kid doesn’t get a spin off, I will be unimpressed! Overall Rating: 6 out of 5 stars. Oh, bonus note! Each episode starts with the handwriting of the club member who is narrating the episode. Yes, they kept that in! |
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