The Best Books Coming Soon to a Screen Near You
1. The Lying Life of Adults (Netflix) - Out Now
For those who want to prolong their stay in Italy after the second season of White Lotus, check out this new show based on Elena Ferrante's novel of the same name. The six-episode series has kicked off with a global release in Italian with subtitle translations. It follows a young woman named Giovanna, who's forced to uncover family truths hidden by the lies her relatives tell.
"Anyone who weathered a calamitous adolescence as I did will immediately recognize in Elena Ferrante's The Lying Life of Adults @EuropaEditions the mercurial changes in thought and feeling of an intelligence coming into its own." —Judith Kalman, memoirist, via Twitter
2. Mayfair Witches (AMC) - Premieres January 8th
This eight-episode miniseries is a supernatural thriller drama based on Anne Rice's witch trilogy. Alexandra Daddario stars as the lead doctor, who soon discovers she comes from a long line of powerful witches.
"The world feels smaller and less magical without this extraordinary woman. THE WITCHING HOUR was the first novel I stayed up all night to read. She had an answering machine (!) for fan messages. Anne Rice was a force of nature in a deceptively small package. She will be missed. —Deb Harkness, historian and novelist, via Twitter
3. Wolf Pack (Paramount+) - Premieres January 26th
Sarah Michelle Gellar makes her return to the supernatural screen with this adaptation of Edo van Belkom's acclaimed YA horror fiction. The show follows two teenagers whose lives are changed when they discover a supernatural creature awakened by a California wildfire.
"Edo van Belkom has created unlikely but compelling heroes in a book that is by turns funny, frightening, and always entertaining." —FantasticFiction.com
4. Lockwood & Co. (Netflix) - Premieres January 27th
This British detective thriller is an eight-episode miniseries about teenagers working for a ghost-hunting agency in London. The show is based on Jonathan Stroud's five-book YA series starting with The Screaming Staircase.
"Ancient evil, unsolved murders, powerful ghosts and nefarious mortals -- this story will keep you reading late into the night, but you'll want to leave the lights on. Stroud is a genius at inventing an utterly believable world which is very much like ours, but so creepily different." —Rick Riordan, author, via RickRiordan.com.
5. Dear Edward (Apple TV+) - Premieres February 3rd
Ann Napolitano's New York Times Best Seller Dear Edward is becoming a series starring Connie Britton and Taylor Schilling. Similar to the heartbreaking novel, the series will follow a teenage boy who's the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed the rest of his family.
"I haven't cried reading a book in I don't know how many years and then last night I finished listening to Dear Edward by @napolitanoann and my streak was completely shattered. While on a run—outside—no less." —Chandler Baker, author, via Twitter
6. Not Dead Yet (ABC) - Premieres February 8th
Jane the Virgin's Gina Rodriguez is set to star in this new comedy series based on Alexandra Potter's Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up. The show is about a newly single woman who starts writing obituaries and soon realizes she can see ghosts.
"Rumours started circulating of a book that had “the publishing world in a frenzy.” People were calling it the Bridget Jones of the 2020s. After the intense bidding war but before the book’s publication, Hollywood had already come knocking, and contracts with a major studio are being exchanged as I write. The name of the book? Confessions of a Forty-something F##k Up..." — Celia Walden, journalist and novelist, via The Telegraph
7. Daisy Jones & The Six (Prime Video) - Premieres March 3rd
Taylor Jenkins Reid's best-selling novel is being adapted into a ten-episode miniseries about the rise and fall of a rock band in the 1970s, loosely based on Fleetwood Mac. Riley Keough, Sam Claflin and Suki Waterhouse star in the series produced by Reese Witherspoon's company, Hello Sunshine.
"This is hands down my favourite book of the year... It just made me want to be in some dirty club back in the 70s, where the air is thick with smoke, everyone just smells of liquor and the music is fab." -Dawn O'Porter, writer and director, via the Women's Prize for Fiction Podcast