Warning: This article contains spoilers.
When books are turned into movies, there is often the question of which is better. Regretting You by Colleen Hoover was adapted into a movie, which was released in theaters worldwide on Oct. 24. In my opinion, the movie does a good job of bringing the characters and emotions from the book to life.
The story follows Morgan, a stay-at-home mom who dropped out of college to raise her daughter, whom she had at 17, and Clara, Morgan’s 16-year-old daughter. When there is an accident involving some of their family members, they have to navigate through the grief with each other, which puts a strain on their relationship, causing a lot of tension between them. They learn to find comfort in unexpected places as they uncover more secrets and betrayals.
The Book
Colleen Hoover is a New York Times bestselling author of many books, most of which are in the young adult and romance genres. Regretting You is a book about romance, but it is also a story about loss, grief, forgiveness, regret, guilt, and a mother-daughter relationship. The book alternates between Morgan’s and Clara’s perspectives, switching each chapter. The book starts from Morgan’s point of view when she was in high school. We are introduced to Jenny, her sister, and Jonah, who is Jenny’s boyfriend. We are also introduced to Chris, Morgan’s boyfriend and future husband.
This first chapter shows what Morgan’s life was like when she was younger, and also shows us what her thoughts and feelings were when she first realized she was pregnant with Chris’s child. The book then jumps 17 years later to Clara’s point of view, and we are introduced to Miller Adams and her best friend Lexie. The chapter’s switching perspectives helped me understand each character more, and I liked knowing what both characters were thinking. When Chris and Jenny die in a car crash, Morgan and Clara are consumed with the grief of losing two of the most important people in their lives. When Morgan and Jonah find out that Chris and Jenny were having an affair, the betrayal makes their resentment take over. As in most of Hoover’s books, romance was a key part. Morgan had to learn to let herself love someone else after only ev er being with Chris, and what made it particularly hard was not only that she was falling in love with her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Jonah, but she also had to find a way for Clara to be okay with it.
From Clara’s perspective, we learn that she thinks Morgan and Jonah must have been having an affair since before her dad and Jenny died, and it makes her lash out at her mother all the time. Clara falls in love with Miller Adams, even though her parents told her to stay away from him. Miller and Clara have a lot of ups and downs in their relationship, as they are both young and still learning how to be in a relationship, and they are both going through hard times in their lives. They partner up for a film contest together and spend a lot of time working on it. Miller and Clara have similar interests in what they want to do when they are older, and this helps them become friends and bond even further. I loved reading the book, and I thought it excellently captures each character’s emotions and the difficulties they face. It also showed that having someone to lean on in hard times can help you get through them.
The Movie
The actors who played the main characters were: Mckenna Grace (Clara Grant), Mason Thames (Miller Adams), Allison Williams (Morgan Grant), Dave Franco (Jonah Sullivan), Scott Eastwood (Chris Grant), Willa Fitzgerald (Jenny Davidson), Sam Morelos (Lexie), and it was directed by Josh Boone. Hoover was one of the executive producers, but her involvement in the film was minimal. The movie closely follows the book’s storyline and sequence of events. One thing I really enjoyed about the movie was that even though it is about a serious topic, I found myself laughing a lot while watching it and I also feel like the characters showed less emotion in the movie. One major difference is that in the movie, even though the film competition is mentioned, Clara and Miller decide not to do it, but in the book, they do. In my opinion, deciding not to have them do the film contest didn’t really take away from the plot, because they still showed Miller’s video asking Clara to prom, and that was the main part that stood out to me from the book as well. When Jonah and Morgan find Chris’s car at the hotel, in the book, Morgan leaves it there, but in the movie, she takes it home with her. Adding to this, in the book, Jonah tells Morgan she needs to take the car because they need it. This was because Morgan was struggling financially, and that was mentioned a lot, but in the movie, they did not include it. The movie was still very good, and it is definitely one I would watch again. Even though it does differ from the book in multiple ways, the themes were kept the same.
Different perspectives
I watched the movie and read the book after. While reading the book, even though I already knew most of what was going to happen, I was still surprised by new details. Going into reading, I already liked all the characters, but in my opinion, the book made me dislike Morgan more than the movie did. I say this because in the book I was able to see more of what Morgan was thinking and feeling than in the movie, and even though I enjoyed this aspect of the book, I disagreed with some of the decisions she was making regarding Clara.
Sophomore Lyla Anantharam read the book and then watched the movie. She explained to me that she liked the order she did it in because, going into watching the movie, she already knew what was going to happen, so if some things were not clear in the movie, she could figure it out because she had already read the book. She also agreed that Morgan was more likable in the movie rather than the book. “I liked Miller in both, but I think I liked Clara more in the book,” she said. “Lexie was hilarious in the movie,” Anantharam added. She noted that she was happy they gave her a bigger part in the movie. In retrospect, reading the book first would have allowed me to spot the differences while watching the movie, which I think I would’ve enjoyed.
Despite the common belief that books surpass their movies, I found the movie version more enjoyable. In my opinion, it was funnier and made the characters more likable. Even though I loved the way the book was written, I found the movie more entertaining, and I would watch it again, whereas I don’t think I would read the book again. Anantharam disagreed with me and explained that she likes the book more because it was clearer on what was happening. “The movie was much funnier, though,” she added. Both the book and movie of Regretting You have their own aspects to enjoy, and even though I prefer the movie, I recommend them both.
