✨🍿 Hey! Hi! Hello!
Ever wondered how your favorite books make the leap from paperback to popcorn? In this episode of Chickling Chronicles, we’re pulling back the curtain on the messy, magical, and sometimes maddening world of book-to-screen adaptations.

We’ll dig into:
🎬 What actually counts as an adaptation (spoiler: not everything you think does!)
📖 The behind-the-scenes business of optioning—and why so many books get stuck in “development hell”
👀 The genres Hollywood loves (fantasy, thrillers, and romance/romantasy) and the ones that struggle to survive the pitch room
⚡ The Percy Jackson saga—from Rick Riordan’s heartbreak over the movies to his redemption arc as executive producer of the Disney+ series
📱 How social media is shaping which books studios choose (yes, BookTok is basically a talent scout now)

So whether you’re a writer secretly manifesting your Netflix call-up, or a reader who can’t stop saying “the book was better,” this one’s for you.

🖤 At the end of the day, adaptations aren’t just about business—they’re about stories powerful enough to be retold again and again.

💌 Links & Extras
Curious about The Missing Reflection—my own eerie, twisty thriller? Head to ⁠⁠linktr.ee/chicklingchronicles⁠⁠ for the book, my socials, and all the behind-the-scenes extras.

💬 Let’s make this interactive: drop a 🎬 emoji in your review or the comments if you’ve got a book-to-movie win… or flop… that you’ll never stop talking about.

📚 Sources I Used & Further Reading/Watching

Books & Authors Mentioned
• Thomas Harris – The Silence of the Lambs (1988)
• Liane Moriarty – Big Little Lies (2014)
• Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman – Good Omens (1990)
• Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl (2012); Sharp Objects (2006)
• Delia Owens – Where the Crawdads Sing (2018)
• Erin Morgenstern – The Night Circus (2011)
• Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)
• Diana Gabaldon – Outlander series (1991– )
• Walter Tevis – The Queen’s Gambit (1983)
• Renée Ahdieh – The Wrath & the Dawn (2015)
• Caroline Kepnes – You (2014)
• Julia Quinn – The Bridgerton series (2000– )
• Sarah J. Maas – A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015) [announced at Hulu]
• Holly Jackson – A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (2019)
• Leigh Bardugo – Shadow and Bone (2012) & Six of Crows (2015)
• Celeste Ng – Little Fires Everywhere (2017)
• George R.R. Martin – A Song of Ice and Fire (1996– )
• Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2005–2009)
• Michael Crichton – Jurassic Park (1990)

Film/TV Examples
• Game of Thrones (2011–2019, HBO)
• The Handmaid’s Tale (2017– , Hulu)
• Big Little Lies (2017–2019, HBO)
• Outlander (2014– , Starz)
• You (2018– , Netflix)
• Bridgerton (2020– , Netflix)
• Sharp Objects (2018, HBO)
• The Queen’s Gambit (2020, Netflix)
• Shadow and Bone (2021–2023, Netflix)
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023– , Disney+)
• Daisy Jones & The Six (2023, Amazon Prime)
• Jurassic Park (1993, Universal Pictures)

Author Quotes & Commentary Sources
• Rick Riordan on Percy Jackson movies: “life’s work through a meat grinder” – Read Riordan Blog / Tumblr Posts, 2020• Rick Riordan on not watching the films: Variety interview, May 2020• Rick Riordan on Disney+ reboot: “We’re going to do it right. Or not at all.” – Entertainment Weekly, Dec 2020• Neil Gaiman on adaptations: “You don’t have to do it the way I did. You just have to do it well.” – The Guardian, 2017• Margaret Atwood on The Handmaid’s Tale: “You don’t get to be the boss of your book once it’s out there.” – The New York Times, 2017• Gillian Flynn on adapting Gone Girl: Vanity Fair interview, 2014