The Movie
It all started with another recommendation from Netflix. I saw the title in the Coming Soon list. I got intrigued upon reading the synopsis, and so I tapped that bell button so I'll get notified when the title becomes available for streaming. Well it was perfect timing that it dropped on a weekend. With the rain heavily splattering outside, I began playing the movie on our TV.

I don't know but I was feeling a bit cheesy that day so I was really in the mood to watch something romantic that day, and I have to admit that the premise of this movie kind of reminded me of Twilight. The guy who played as Daniel was gorgeous. I immediately followed him on Instagram after seeing the movie. I realized he was also that actor who caught my eye in that Mama Mia movie. Hello Jeremy, we meet again. 😍

Well honestly the movie felt a bit half-baked to me, and it kind of threw me off guard when the credits started to roll in. I was like "That was it?" I think there were a lot of things that the movie did not get to explain. And so a few googling led me to the book where this movie was based on. There might be some information that the movie missed (or chose to skip) and because I still wanted to learn more about the story, I decided to read the book as well.

The Book
And so we go to the novel. Apparently this is just the first book of a six-part novel series, and I guess that partly explains the lack of conclusive tone the ending of the movie had. It took me a week to finish reading the book. The first few chapters were okay. Apparently the movie was loyal to the details of the book overall. When I got around the middle (clue: fire), that's when things got a bit different... and it all went downhill after that. 😓

I was disappointed. I think I highly expected the book to fill me in with the details that I felt was missing from the movie. But still, I'm glad I read the book. I liked the book Cam because he had more interactions with Luce. I just wasn't sure if his motives were as sincere as the movie portrayed it to be (especially after the "battle" in the book). Daniel was more aloof in the book, so I really got to appreciate the portrayal of his character in the movie. I was happy that the movie version had this alone time between him and Luce wherein Luce saw his drawings. I really hated it in the book when Daniel left Luce in the forest, not just once, but twice. Meanwhile, I both liked the movie and book portrayal of Penn. I also liked how Todd's role was played out in the movie. He was more involved with Penn and Luce and it was clear also in the film that there's something going on between Penn and him. That made his (spoiler!) death have a heavier impact to the two girls in the movie, compared  to how it was in the book.