A couple weeks ago I finished reading the book You, by Caroline Kepnes. It's what the Lifetime-to-Netflix show of the same name, starring Penn Badgley (or Dan, of Gossip Girl fame), is based on. I've already watched both seasons of the show, so I already had an idea what I was getting into when starting the book. Of course, screen adaptations will always have their differences from the source material. I don't consider myself particularly snobby in this regard; sometimes scenes in books just don't translate well on screen. It happens, and that's ok. So with that said, I was not surprised to note a handful of differences between the two. But in this case, the more I thought about them, the more upset I got, because I realized all of the major differences had one big thing in common.
I think it goes without saying, but, past this point are HEAVY spoilers for the book You, season 1 of You, and a little bit of season 2 as well. Proceed with caution.
I think it's safe to say that our protagonist in You, Joe Goldberg, is a bad guy. He is a stalker, a liar, a thief, and, ah yes...a murderer. In the book the fact that he is a terrible person is not up for debate. And the fact that it's narrated by him even makes it more apparent, because you can literally hear his thoughts and realize how flawed his thinking and reasoning is. Then why, oh why, in the TV show do they seem hell bent on justifying his actions? Let's break down some of the larger differences and what (in my opinion) they're trying to say:
In the book, Benji did not drown a fraternity pledge. In both stories Benji is a tool; there's no arguing that. But on paper he was mostly a narcissist and a shitty boyfriend; Joe kills him simply because he's in the way of Joe getting close to Beck. I can't help but wonder if they added in this tidbit to try and justify Joe killing him. Another Benji-related book tidbit: while it's never said outright, Joe is very self conscious about the fact that he didn't go to college. Meanwhile Benji paid and cheated his way through an Ivy League. When Joe has Benji locked in the cage, he makes Benji take quizzes on books to prove that he lied about reading them or didn't fully appreciate them (Joe is practically the definition of a gatekeeper).
In the book, Paco, Claudia and Ron don't exist. There are no hospital visits or drug overdoses from Claudia for Joe to assist her with. There's no neglected Paco for Joe to befriend and look after. There's no abusive Ron for Joe to save them from. It feels like they were created for TV to show us that Joe does have some empathy (deep, deep down), because he rescues Claudia and Paco from who is framed as the "real" bad guy - Ron (and I mean, f*ck Ron, seriously, but you get what I'm trying to say). A recurring trait of Joe's in the show are his relationships with troubled children, so you might also find it interesting that Ellie, in season 2, doesn't exist either.
In the book, Peach doesn't have as much drama with Joe. She's still pretty snobby and she doesn't seem to like Joe simply because she wants to be spending time with Beck, but that's about it. She still believes she has a stalker, but as far as I could tell she doesn't believe it's Joe. She's still obsessed with Beck, which Joe knows, but she never finds out that he is as well. In the show he ends up killing Peach because she's on to his shit and she very may well have killed him, too. In the book he kills Peach because he doesn't like her and because she sucks up a lot of Beck's time.
Finally, my personal favorite.....
In the book, Candace is definitely dead and it was definitely intentional. So a BIG part of the show is that Candace is actually alive, and has come to wreck havoc on Joe's life. There seems to be some discourse on how/why she died in the show, so I'm going to summarize it real quick. Basically, Candace cheats on Joe and dumps him. In an attempt to win her back, Joe kidnaps her and takes her to a spot in the woods where one of their previous dates took place. He even packs them a stupid little picnic basket. When he lets her out of the van, she runs off. He chases after her and tries to restrain her so she doesn't get away, and as she struggles her head gets hit on a rock or something. He believes she's dead and it's pretty clear her "death" was an accident. In the book, her death is mostly glossed over, but what is clear as day is that he did it and he did it on purpose (also, he drowned her, if you were curious).
Do you see the theme I'm getting at here? Book Joe is a murderer, point blank, no questions asked. Show Joe has an excuse for everything. It was an accident! She broke my heart! But he killed someone first! He was hurting a woman and a child! In a way, we are supposed to root for him, because of all these terrible things that have happened to him and because the people he kills are arguably worse than he is. I'll call it the Walter White Effect. Or Dexter Effect. Whichever white, male, murdering protagonist you prefer.
But what gets to me the most is that this tactic actually works. If you're up for some cringe, take a dive through posts about You on reddit, or the comment section on a You related YouTube video. People LOVE Joe (I'm not really sure why), but they HATE Beck and Candace, because they treated Joe, a murderer, poorly. When really, we should be hating, well, just about everyone. Obviously Beck and Candace were not great people, either, but I really need us all the agree that lying and cheating on someone is on a very different level than KILLING SOMEONE. THERE IS NO DEBATE HERE!
Now, to lighten the mood, here's some more book/show differences that are interesting but not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things!
In the book, Joe's creepy memento box is hidden in a hole in his wall. He made the hole by throwing a type writer at the wall, then he covers the hole with a tapestry. In the show it's hidden in a ceiling tile in his bathroom.
The subplot with Beck's creepy professor doesn't exist in the book. We don't actually hear much about Beck's school life. She also doesn't seem to have a job aside from the brief stint of working at Joe's bookshop.
Since Claudia doesn't exist in the book, you're probably wondering about Karen Minty. She's still there, but obviously she has nothing to do with Claudia or any of Joe's neighbors. He meets her on the subway.
In the book, Beck's friend group works a bit differently. Her friends are Chana, Lynn and Peach. However Peach and the other two don't get along, so Beck mostly just hangs out with Peach on her own. And the influencer friend, Annika, doesn't exist.
Beck has brown hair in the book. In the show, she's blonde. Game changer, I know.
The story with Beck's therapist, Nicky, goes a lot more in depth in the book. You also get to see a pretty messed up side of Beck. She convinces Nicky to leave his wife and children for her, but once he does she tries to break it off with him. She later admits she just wanted the satisfaction of knowing he chose her over them. Yikes.
Book Joe thinks about sex ALL THE TIME. I'm not gonna get into detail about it, because I wrote a whole paragraph trying to explain but then I felt gross and deleted the whole thing. You'll just have to take my word for it.
So that's my rant for the day. If you've read the book I would love your thoughts on this. I know TV shows are just entertainment so I'm aware I'm taking some of this too seriously, I just don't understand the desire of wanting to make a "bad" character more desirable or vulnerable. IMO it changes the entire vibe of the story!
Now for the final question...do I want to read book two?
