When I finished The Maze Runner, I felt an excitement in my body that couldn’t be contained at the thought of finally being able to watch the movie. Nothing sounded better to me than spending my Friday night watching Dylan O’Brien act out Thomas, one of the bravest and most interesting boys I’ve read about. Thirty minutes in, the only good thing about the movie was the fact that Dylan O’Brien was on my screen. Suddenly, the magic of the book was lost in the movie. Plots were taken out, iconic quotes were stripped from the characters, and compared to the book, it felt rushed.  It is almost impossible to carry on the intimacy and magic of books onto movies. Because of this epidemic, Hollywood needs to stop turning amazing books into movies.

“The book will always be better than the movie,” said many book lovers across the world. Take the movie Perks of Being a Wallflower, for example, a book about a 15-year-old. Charlie, as he takes on the scary and harsh world that is high school. On Goodreads, the book carries a 4.19 rating out of 5. As for the movie, on Letterboxd it has a 3.9 out of 5. Student Julia Godinez (‘28), who both watched and read, said, “ The movie is great, yet it felt like I didn’t know Charlie. But in the book, I was able to know his thoughts and feelings; it’s not the same with the movie, almost.” When people read a book, they get to feel for the character and almost feel like they know them personally, but since a movie isn’t able to properly convey those feelings and truly build that connection, it tends to fall short.  

In the end, a movie is something we watch, but a book is something we feel and live. A movie could have the most expensive sets, the most popular actors, and the best visuals, but nothing will be able to make you feel more than the book that came before. If you want to see Thomas or Charlie turn on the TV, but if you want to know them, open the book.