The book adaptation has been growing steadily in Hollywood for the last few years and more and more of them are trending toward being great.
2025 was a great year for book adaptations. From the final season of Prime Video’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” to a slew of hits adapting a number of Stephen King’s stories, the year flexed a broad range of options for book lovers to see their favorite stories on the big screen. Whether the chosen route is a TV series or a movie, this year seemed to be one where adaptations got a lot more right than they did wrong.
These are the best book adaptations of the year.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty”
Another show this year that dominated the cultural conversation, and encouraged midnight viewing parties to avoid social media spoilers, was the third and final season of Jenny Han’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” While the YA series has long drawn a loyal audience of Han’s biggest fans, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” attracted a staggering number of viewers as the love triangle between Belly, Conrad and Jeremiah finally came to a close.
Much of the anticipation was hand-crafted by Han, who strayed from her book trilogy to bring Belly on a Parisian adventure that fans couldn’t be sure would conclude with the book’s endgame. Han also deserves a special shoutout for her directorial debut in Conrad-narrated Episode 5, which gave fans the most dreamy, female-gaze POV to their love story, as beautifully seen in that peach scene. — Loree Seitz
“The Wheel of Time”
“The Wheel of Time” is a rare show that improved every season across its three-season run on Prime Video. While the first was rocky for both fans of Robert Jordan’s sprawling book series and TV viewers looking for the next “Game of Thrones,” the third – and unfortunately final – season found its footing and stands as one of the best shows of 2025.
Adapting the fourth book in the series – “The Shadow Rising,” considered by many the high point of Jordan’s epic – “The Wheel of Time” Season 3 managed to finally find the balance of ramping up for big action set pieces and slowing down to give the individual characters quieter moments to grow within. After two seasons of heavy world-building and plot placing, the Prime Video series found a groove in Season 3 that fantasy TV had not struck since peak “Thrones.” – Jacob Bryant
“The Long Walk”
As a lifelong fan of Stephen King’s books, I’ve always felt that “The Long Walk” was underappreciated, and it’s the title I recommend to readers who want to try King but are intimidated by the doorstop nature of some of his classics, like “It” or “The Stand.” So there was some hand-wringing when an adaptation was announced, but Francis Lawrence’s version knocked it out of the park and even improved on the book in some ways.
The film does not shy away from the brutality of what these games are, in ways Lawrence’s PG-13 “Hunger Games” films can’t fully capture. Despite the carnage of these boys dying, it’s the quiet moments — as the competitors talk, form bonds and unburden themselves, knowing they’ll likely be dead a few miles down the road — that make the movie sing. Know that if 2025 weren’t a stacked year for the Best Actor category, I’d be stumping for David Jonsson’s performance in “The Long Walk” — and I still might anyway. – Jacob Bryant
“All Her Fault”
The limited thriller series, based on Andrea Mara’s book of the same name, features plenty of twists and turns in the kidnapping saga of Marissa Irvine’s (Sarah Snook) son, Milo. But even more than its twisty plot, it’s the show’s investigation of the invisible labor placed on women in any heterosexual marriage or family structure that has drawn audiences in since its November release.
It’s a fate even a high-achieving businesswoman like Marissa can’t escape, and she’s exasperated when Milo goes missing and she must hold what’s left of her family together in spite of her husband’s aloofness. As Marissa makes shocking discoveries about her husband (Jake Lacy) and others close to her, bringing her to a heightened emotional state played beautifully by Snook, “All Her Fault” lets Snook fall back on her blossoming friendship with Jenny (Dakota Fanning). — Loree Seitz
“The Life of Chuck”
“The Life of Chuck” may have been a bit too saccharine-sweet for some when the credits finally rolled, but for me, it worked great. Mike Flanagan’s latest Stephen King adaptation tells the story of average tax accountant Chuck Krantz’s life in reverse. From the apocalyptic destruction of the world in his head burning out on his deathbed, to dance classes as an awkward teen, “The Life of Chuck” captures the beauty in the mundanity, and that a life well lived often boils down to simply the people you choose to let in – whether you know you’re doing it or not. – Jacob Bryant
“It: Welcome to Derry”
Stephen King’s “It” is such a gargantuan project to adapt that much of it ended up on the cutting-room floor, even after Andy Muschietti spread the story across two films. Lucky for HBO, and King’s Constant Readers, the hunger for more stories in Derry was almost as vast as Pennywise’s hunger for kids. “It: Welcome to Derry” examined the town in an earlier cycle of cosmic killers’ hunting and haunting.
The HBO series continues the solid jump scares and storytelling the films flaunted and Bill Skarsgård remains deeply captivating as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. If you’re looking for solid horror on the small screen, then “Welcome to Derry” represented some of the best in 2025. – Jacob Bryant
“Train Dreams”
One year after Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar released “Sing Sing,” a cinematic adaptation of an Esquire article by John H. Richardson, the duo has returned for another emotional and life-affirming adaptation: “Train Dreams.” This time, Bentley sits in the director’s chair with Kwedar (who directed “Sing Sing”) as his co-writer, adapting a Denis Johnson novella of the same name. “Train Dreams” has been praised for its deep well of emotion, sweeping cinematography and a host of good performances. Joel Edgerton has long been a phenomenal (perhaps underrated) actor, but it’s hard to say when he was last this good. – Casey Loving
“One Battle After Another”
Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece (at least, his most recent one) adapts Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland” in thrilling ways. Rather than sticking too closely to the book, Anderson uses the story as a jumping-off point for his own tale of revolution and family set in the sanctuary city of Baktan Cross, California. The film features a slew of stellar performances from the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Regina Hall and newcomer Chase Infiniti in her feature film debut. “One Battle After Another” is a raucous, invigorating film that benefits from being seen on the biggest screen possible. It’s truly one of the year’s best movies — adaptation or not. – Casey Loving
“Hamnet”
“Hamnet” comes hot on the heels of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name, a big hit of the early 2020s. O’Farrell co-wrote the screenplay for “Hamnet” alongside director Chloé Zhao, who returns to small-scale filmmaking after following her Best Picture winner “Nomadland” with Marvel’s “Eternals.” The result is a gorgeous and deeply emotional film about a tragedy that befell the Shakespeare family and yielded the iconic play “Hamlet.” Paul Mescal plays a charming and raw William Shakespeare opposite a stunning child performance from Jacobi Jupe, who plays the titular Hamnet. But it’s Jessie Buckley, starring in the film as Hamnet’s mother Agnes, whose wonderful performance will likely be met with the most awards love — and deservingly so. – Casey Loving
“Heated Rivalry”
Stephen King may dominate in sheer volume, “One Battle After Another” may dominate in awards cred, but “Heated Rivalry” is a contender for the biggest adaptation triumph of 2025. Not just as an underdog — though, as an explicit Canadian-produced queer romance based on a BL (“boys’ love”) BookTok breakout, it absolutely was. The fact that it has somehow still dominated the conversation every week since its premiere (the same premiere week as the long-awaited final season of “Stranger Things,” no less) is a testament to how successful showrunner Jacob Tierney has been at the task of adaptation, launching a bona fide viral hit that delights fans and newcomers alike.
Because it’s not just sexy and addictive, though it’s both of those things in great measure. “Heated Rivalry” is a show that’s unafraid to let sex and intimacy be a critical component of its storytelling. It never treats its eroticism as an adornment or cheap hook, but as communication and character in action. And to really talk about the show’s fearlessness, we have to talk about the extraordinarily cast Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, who are giving some of the most generous, bold performances of the year as the hockey rivals with a magnetic attraction who can’t help falling for each other over the years. It’s brave, faithful, unflinching adaptation work and a total triumph for being so. — Haleigh Foutch
“Frankenstein”
Guillermo del Toro’s labor-of-love “Frankenstein” adaptation is, as the best adaptations tend to be, more a marriage of creative instincts than a 1:1 faithful retelling. But oh, how GDT clearly reveres the source material; a sacred text for any monster-lover, and nobody loves them harder or more beautifully than he does.
“Frankenstein” has all the reliable highlights of a del Toro film — sweeping ambition, gorgeous production, the tenderest and coldest hearts beating side-by-side, and such love for the classics. He’s a master at fusing literature with the cinematic craft, a true enthusiast of storytelling in its many forms. “Frankenstein” is no different, a reminder of how enduring individual creative voice and hand-crafted artistry are in an era when tech tries to convince us it’s all the same. Mary Shelly’s timeless work still moves him, and he moves us with his vision of it in return. It’s the beautiful cycle of adaptation when done right, and with “Frankenstein,” del Toro did it right. – Haleigh Foutch
“Forever”
There are plenty of romance shows, there are plenty of teen dramas, but nothing tugged our heartstrings this year like Netflix’s “Forever.” And as soon as we saw Mara Brock Akil’s name attached, we knew it would be an instant hit. The series follows the fiery first love story of two Black teens, Justin and Keisha. As they sort through their unique social backgrounds and ideas of what a relationship looks like, while juggling the real-life challenges Black people face daily, their love takes viewers on an emotional journey and leaves you on the edge of your seat by the show’s end.
“Forever,” based on Judy Blume’s beloved teen romance novel of the same name, marked the “Girlfriends” creator and mega-producer’s debut at Netflix after establishing her Story27 production banner with the streamer and signing a multi-year agreement to write and produce scripted content and other creative projects for Netflix. – Raquel Calhoun
