From the bisexuality of a character to the increased prominence of adults, these are the main changes that Jenny Han’s story has undergone in her transition from paper to the small screen.
Fans of teen romance have a date on Amazon Prime Video with ‘The Summer I Fell In Love’, the series that adapts Jenny Han’s novel and promises summer love triangles, family dramas and an adorable coming-of-age. Now, in his passage from paper to the small screen, the story has undergone some changes: here we collect the main main differences between the book and the series of ‘The summer I fell in love’.
Based on the first installment of Han’s ‘Summer’ trilogy (whom we know from the success of the adaptation of ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’, which has become one of the best Netflix original movies), this first season of the series follows a young woman named Belly (Lola Tung), who goes to her usual vacation spot about to turn sixteen. and with a very changed physique. That change is noticeable among the boys around her, especially among the brothers Conrad and Jeremiah, with whom she has shared the summer months since they were children and who have now become potential romantic interests. This is a story about first love, but also about the changing relationships between mothers and children and the lasting power of a strong female friendship, as the plot between Belly’s mother, Laurel, and the brothers’ mother, will demonstrate. Susannah.
“My priority has always been that the fans of the book feel really satisfied with the story that we are telling, but also that they know that it is an adaptation in a new medium, so it is not going to be exactly the same”assured Jenny Han in an interview with Variety. “One of the joys of adapting this story for television was that we were able to expand Belly’s point of view, where in the books, it’s really inside because you’re literally in her head. For the series, we were able to expand our world and spend time with other characters”. Hence, we find many changes between the series and the novel. If you have already read our review of ‘The summer I fell in love’, it’s time to review the differences.
AND BEWARE! There are spoilers for the first season of the series starting here.
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1 – Jeremiah is bisexual
As we verified in the first episodes, Jeremiah is attracted to both girls and boys, something that was not so in the novel. Han justified it this way in Variety: “I was looking at this adaptation and thinking: if I had to write this book today, how would I write these characters? They are all the same characters, but I think the culture has moved in many ways and i think this younger generation is much more label free and more open minded and less binary. So I felt like, for Jeremiah, it really made sense because I think he’s a character that’s very comfortable with himself. I think it was a very natural choice.”
2 – The dance of the debutantes
In the novel there were moments of partying and celebration, like the week of the 4th of July, but of course there was no debutante ball. It’s hard to believe when watching the series, as this aspect of the plot is integral to everything that happens: somehow marks the gap between Belly and her mother, symbolizes the internal and external changes that Belly is going through going from a girl to a young woman, adds an element of tension about who the protagonist will take as a companion to the final dance… What I said , is so integrated into the story that it is surprising that it has not always been this way, but no: in the novel there is no trace of any debutante ball.
3 – Jeremiah and Belly start a relationship
Many fans will have been surprised to see how Jeremiah and Belly kiss and start a relationship of sorts in this first installment of the story. Both confess their feelings during a meeting in the pool, although Belly has always been in love with her brother Conrad of her. Now, faced with this possibility, how is she going to say no to a boy who is crazy about her and who she considers her best friend? It’s amazing because, in the literary saga, this does not happen until the second bookwhere both discover their feelings during a road trip.
4 – Adults also have lives
There is no doubt that adults take center stage in this adaptation with respect to the original novel. In the novel, the narrative is told from Belly’s perspective, whereby the teenager was the center of everything. In the series, however, there is more room for other perspectives, especially the friendship between Laurel and Susannah. Han says in Variety: “It was important to me that these two women have their own stories that are separate from the roles of mother or wife, that they have their own internal worlds”. She continues, “I really wanted to show the breadth of female friendships and the intensity and intimacy of it and really celebrate how these two women chose each other, and have been choosing each other for decades.”
5 – Laurel is a writer
Speaking of adults: Belly’s mother, Laurel, has a very different life in the book and in the series. On the one hand, the series tells us that the divorce from her ex-husband (father of Belly and Steven) has been very recent and the wounds are still a little open, while in the novels that divorce is something that happened a long time ago. On the other hand, there is her profession: unlike in the book, Laurel is a writer in the series, and in fact one of the main aspects of her plot is a creative block that has her somewhat distressed. Of course, her somewhat strict and decidedly feminist personality remains the same in both formats.
6 – Cleveland falls in love with Laurel and helps Conrad
Cleveland Castillo quickly becomes a pivotal character in The Summer I Fell in Love story, especially for Laurel as her romantic interest and Conrad as her mentor. But… Cleveland doesn’t exist in the novels! He’s a character created entirely for the small screen, and it’s hard to believe given the significant role he plays for various characters.
7 – Steven gains more prominence
We can’t forget about Steven! Belly’s brother lives his own life beyond the dramas of the protagonist in the series, something that will be a novelty for Jenny Han readers.. As was the case with the adults in the story, Steven was in the background (or third) since the main narrator is his sister. In the Amazon Prime Video series, Steven not only has a love affair with a girl that drives him crazy, but he also has a summer job at the country house and finds himself in financial difficulties that make him reflect on his status as a class.
8 – Belly discovers Conrad’s necklace
For Belly’s birthday, Conrad claimed not to have bought anything, but we see him put something in his pocket. Readers already know what it is: it is a necklace with a pendant with the symbol of infinity that will become a very interesting element of the plot. Now, he will do it differently in the series and in the book. In the series, Belly discovers the necklace in Conrad’s room and, during a drunken spree, tells him about it, asking if it was for her. In the novel, the necklace does not appear until the second installment, in which Belly finds the necklace when Conrad is missing and, upon meeting again, she is wearing it and he is surprised.
9 – Susannah agrees to undergo experimental treatments
One of the most dramatic aspects of the story, also in the book, is the cancer suffered by Susannah, the mother of Conrad and Jeremiah, which makes her think that this will be the last summer they all spend together. If something is clear to the woman, it is that she does not want to undergo experimental treatments that could save her life, because he has already gone through those chemotherapy sessions in the past and does not want to repeat the experience. Now, at the end of the first season of the series, her children convince her to try it, to try to survive for them. In her book, however, she is never convinced of such a thing and, in fact, her Susannah dies between the first and second books. Does this decision change in the series mean that he could survive cancer?
10 – The ending leaves no room for doubt about Belly’s decision
The weight of ‘The summer I fell in love’ falls on the love triangle formed by Belly, Conrad and Jeremiah, from which a question arises that needs an answer: who will Belly choose? And that is a question that is not answered at the end of the first book of the trilogy, which leaves us in doubt with an ambiguity: Belly has met someone, a boy, but we are not told who. In the series, there is no doubt: Belly has chosen Conrad, and they both kiss on the beach. Long live love… For now!
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Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
