Savannah Shelton

SPOILERS and lengthy review warning Let’s just start by saying, after reading reviews it seems many who have read the book hated the movie and those that like the movie admittedly didn’t read the book. I’m surprised it even got decent reviews from people who haven’t read the book. The script was not good, characters were painfully undeveloped, and the plot was rushed and not very carefully constructed. From the get-go, the movie suffered MAJOR integral changes from the book. In the book, Darby is a red headed college student, not a drug addict. Her and Devon’s relationship is not nearly as strained as in the movie. Her mother has pancreatic cancer, not a brain aneurysm. Darby does not steal someone’s car, she has her own. Ash’s real name is Ashley. Jay was nowhere near as bratty as she is in the movie. “Uncle Kenny” was an HUGE part of the plot (though we’re never actually with him) in the book but in the movie he’s just casually mentioned in passing once. “Mrs. Lowrey” the housekeeper was actually just a bus driver from Jay’s school in the book. I’m sure I’m missing a multitude of changes but I lost track. The book was so entertaining. I’m a reader but I don’t often find a book I cannot put down. I finished this one in 3 days it was so riveting and entertaining. I expected the movie wouldn’t be as good but I didn’t know the translation would be THIS bad. The author wrote an amazing, entertaining, gut-wrenching book just to have the movie be nothing like it except for the skeleton of the plot. The book easily could’ve warranted a 2+ hour runtime but the director smooshed the intense happenings of the night into an hour and a half. Darby was hard to root for. Jay was hard to root for. Devon was hard to root for. The character development was so lackluster you almost left the movie liking Lars the most. They missed their shot to make a really good, rewatchable movie because the director got too self important and wanted to change a bunch of stuff. Honestly, I’d say watch it if you HAVEN’T read the book, and if you have, just trust me that it’s better to keep it that way.