I’ve been really trying to get some reading in this week, with success! Also, these are quite different reads, but neither less entertaining than the other.
First up was Lauren Oliver’s novel Before I Fall. If you’re keeping up, yes, I just re-watched this movie over the weekend for the first time since it came out in 2017. I think at the time I wasn’t aware that the movie was based off a book. Having read several other novels by Oliver, I knew this one wouldn’t disappoint, especially since I liked the movie. Remember my motto of watching something before reading it. You will never be disappointed in the book! And I wasn’t! The only difference here is, Oliver was able to add a lot more do-overs and a lot more detail. Some of it was rightfully left out of the film, but it was nice to get a more nuanced look at this story.
Sam is in a tragic car accident, but keeps reliving the same day over and over again until she finally realizes that it’s not about saving herself, but about saving someone else. I’m not going to re-hash everything since I gave a brief rundown of the movie earlier this week, but there were some major differences I want to point out. One of the biggest differences was that her teacher, Mr. Daimler, was a real perve in the book. In fact, in one do-over day, he actually kisses her roughly after class. It something that seems to stay with her through the rest of her do-over experiences, but in a profoundly disturbed way. I get why they cut this out of the movie, as it would have been too much ground to cover. Another major difference was how many times Sam tried to get through to her friends and help them see the error of their ways. In both scenarios this would be so difficult to do in a day, but at least in the book Sam seems more aware of how awful her and her friends are. Overall, this was not my favorite book by Oliver, but it’s definitely up there!
Next up was the neo-noir thriller novel, Drive. Not all that long ago, I finally watched the 2011 film of the same name that was based on James Sallis’ work. Before watching the film, I was totally unaware of the fact that it was based off a novel. Luckily, the film stayed pretty true to the source material. Obviously, Irene and Benecio had a more expanded role in the film because love interests keep the audience’s attention for the most part. Either way, Driver is living a bit of a double life, as a stunt driver by day, and a getaway driver for criminals by night. His involvement is limited until he agrees to help Irene’s husband, Standard with a robbery. Standard ends up dead, and after a bloody hotel scene, Driver ends up with a lot of cash that he wants no part of. When a gangster can’t keep his word, Driver then goes on a bit of a rampage in retaliation.
Again, even though the film did a great job in honoring the text, there were still parts of this very succinct novel that were left out of the action of the adaptation. For instance, we got a more deep-dived look into Driver’s life growing up. His mother sliced up his father before he got sent to a nice foster family, and then he decided to move to California as soon as he turned 16. I also really liked reading about Shannon’s kindness to Driver in those early days. There were also a few alternating chapters told from Driver’s final foe, Bernie Rose’s point of view that added some nice color to what the gangster’s life was like. All in all, though, the book was a fantastic read, but you can’t go wrong with just watching the film either!