Nicola Yoon. What a brilliant mind she has to create such beautiful characters and storylines. Full review of Everything, Everything coming soon, however here I wanted to talk about the book vs film.
There were some really special moments in the book that I’m disappointed didn’t make it into the film. For starters, I didn’t think the film captured the amount of time Maddy and Olly actually spent together. In the film he visited Maddy’s house twice however there were many visits in the book which were so lovely to read. However, I loved how they captured all of the text message scenes in the film. The choice to have Maddy and Olly ‘talking’ in the cafe and library she designed a was really beautiful touch.
I was shocked to see that the part where they go to visit Carla before Hawaii had been completely missed out. I felt that that was a really important part in the book. It reveals that Maddy is genuinely fearful for the journey as she’s scared to die and I didn’t think the film portrayed Maddy as scared as she actually was. Therefore the film takes away some of Yoon’s tension as the watcher doesn’t share the same fear for Maddy.
I would also have loved to have seen the scenes on the roof and Olly’s model. I know that parts have to be cut out but I really liked how it opened up more about Olly’s character. I thought the roof had a strong significance to Olly and people who only watched the film may have understood him more by seeing his need to escape.
There were also some really strange deviations from the book to the film that just didn’t seem necessary to change. For example Olly being into parkour and teaching Maddy how to handstand. I thought that part of the book was really important for the growth of their relationship and I found it quite humorous that Maddy kept falling over. This was the moment they touched for the first time so I was surprised the film took a different avenue. In the film they changed it so that Maddy was the one who could do a handstand and showed it off to Olly has her trick. Personally I feel this moment in the book is so significant so I don’t understand why they made the big change.
With all this being said, I did thoroughly enjoy the film adaptation and I will definitely be watching it again. I thought the added scene in which Olly put pictures of the ocean on the wall of the glass room so that Maddy could see them was absolutely beautiful. It is probably one of my favourite scenes of all time, it was just stunning. Overall it’s a pretty good adaptation of a brilliant book.
read with abi 