lou's library

Ah, book adaptations. I love them and I hate them. More precisely, I love them when they’re done right and I hate them when they’re doing a disservice to the book they’re based on. But seeing your favourite stories on screen and them being done so well is one of my favourite things ever. So, here are some books I think deserve an adaptation like, right now.

Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney

After the perfection that is the Normal People adaptation, it is only fair Beautiful World Where Are You should get its own mini series (we don’t talk about the failure that was the Conversation With Friends adaptation, let’s just pretend that never happened). I would love to see the friendship between Alice and Eileen unfold on screen, and the tensions between them and Felix and Simon that Sally Rooney crafts so expertly. I just think that her books lend themselves to these drawn-out, tender and heartfelt adaptations that are so true to the original story. I do hope they’ll adapt it eventually (not sure what they’re waiting for), but something I will say is that it all falls apart with the wrong cast (which, in my opinion, is exactly what happened with Conversations With Friends), so if they don’t find the perfect Eileen and Alice, they might as well not even bother (no pressure, guys). If they get it right, I’ll be there in the front row.

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

I love this retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth from the point of view of the Scottish lord’s wife. And I think it would be perfect as a movie, because while reading the book, I could see the plot unfold in front of my eyes. They would have to release it in autumn or winter, because the barren Scottish landscape and brutality depicted just scream cold weather to me. Also, there’s lots of witchcraft in this book, so spooky season would be such a fun release time! I also always love to see Shakespeare’s work being adapted on the big screen as it is so versatile and can be told in so many different ways (looking at you, Ten Things I Hate About You). I think Lady Macbeth would make for a gripping and dark and fast-paced movie interwoven with slower and more emotional moments. Please someone make this happen, because I am dying to see it!

Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan

Oh my God, please please please let this become a reality. Mayflies in the cinema would be such a mood. Obviously, the soundtrack would be absolutely banging, as music plays such a pivotal part in this book. The protagonists would have to be stunning and cool and awkward at the same time, and 80s Manchester would make me nostalgic for a time and place I never experienced. The movie (or maybe a mini series to give them more room for the characters to come into their own?) would illustrate the joys and despairs of youth, it would be shot gorgeously with every single frame worthy of an Oscar and the actors would have to be absolute no-names, but would then obviously become famous over night. Actually, someone just let me direct this thing, I’m on a roll here.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi, you wonderful and oh so weird masterpiece. Adapting it probably takes a genius, but I’m confident someone out there is bonkers enough to try it. And I would certainly watch the hell out of every second of this movie! The book is notoriously hard to describe in terms of plot, but the pictures it paints of the world it is set in just beg to be translated onto a screen. This could easily turn into a movie that is so beautiful visually that it actually hurts. The set designs would be stunning and we as the audience would be dying to be able to join Piranesi on the other side of the screen. Honestly, this would be so magical!! But as I said, it takes someone who knows what they’re doing and more importantly, someone who gets the book. It would be such a shame for the movie not to match the (impossibly high standards) the book has set, but I think it is too tempting not to give it a try.

You Are Here by David Nicholls

I did not love this book, although I did enjoy it (truth be told, I simply had impossibly high expectations after One Day). However, I would pay to see this adapted in the cinema!! You Are Here makes for the perfect, good old 90-minute long movie that entertains you incredibly well and makes you leave the cinema with a hazy feeling that the world isn’t such a bad place after all. Also, I just know that the footage of the English landscape would be absolutely gorgeous, and I eat that stuff up like candy. It would be funny, we would instantly adore the characters and love them despite their flaws, it would all be terribly predictable and yet so much fun. The characters would either have to be played by really famous actors now in their middle age and perhaps just past their prime, or by complete unknowns who look refreshingly human and not at all like movie stars. The entire affair would also be brilliantly British, of course. I am seated, someone show me this movie right now, please and thanks.

There you go, the books I’m desperate to see on the big screen! Are there any really obvious ones I’ve missed? I feel like there definitely are, oops. Anyway, let me know if you agree with my picks ❤