Book vs. Movie: Love, Simon

Love Simon book movie differences

The hype is real for Love, Simon the movie based off of Becky Albertalli’s novel, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and I am so glad that I read the book and saw the movie this past week—both of which are fantastic!

Becky Albertalli describes Love, Simon as the fraternal twin to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda on her tumblr, which is a great way of looking at it. While not an absolutely perfect scene-by-scene adaptation, it is a faithful adaptation that stays true to the story, characters, and message.

Now onto the differences! First, the book starts off right in the middle of Martin blackmailing Simon whereas the movie sets the background and lets the story unfold before jumping into the blackmail portion. While the reason behind the blackmail is the same, the way Martin outs Simon is different. He also does it because he is embarrassed after Abby rejects him in front of the entire school after his grand gesture gone wrong. After this, Blue actually sees the post and ends communication with Simon—a major difference from the book. Lastly, instead of meeting on the Tilt-a-Whirl, Blue finally reveals his identity to Simon on the Ferris Wheel.

In the book, Simon and his gang of friends are originally juniors, but age up to seniors in the movie. Also, Leah plays a bigger role in the movie, which I loved. The movie transfers Leah’s crush from Nick onto Simon so there’s not so much Abby hate and the friend group is together more often. In the book, Simon has an older sister Alice in college and a younger sister Nora in high school. In the movie, it’s just Nora and she’s significantly younger. She’s also obsessed with cooking. A small difference but instead of performing Oliver!, the drama club performs Cabaret. There are several other minor differences, including a few new characters, but that’s really all the main stuff.

While these difference may seem major, I enjoyed the adaptation and found it to be true to the book. It was just so sweet and endearing and perfect. The actors did such a wonderful job portraying the characters we’ve come to fall in love with. Their chemistry really is off the charts! Also, the soundtrack is on point. It’s amazing and just fits perfectly since music is so important to Simon. Overall, Love, Simon is one book-to-movie adaptation you do not want to miss!

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  • I haven’t watched the movie (or read the book, for that matter) so I skimmed over all the spoilery-ish parts from this post… but I’ve heard SUCH AMAZING things about the movie; all of my friends absolutely adored it!! Needless to say, it’s pretty high on my TBR right now <33

  • I just saw this movie today and LOVED it!! <3 I agree that the changes were a bit major, but the overall book to movie adaptation was still amazing that it didn't even matter. I also agree that it's great that Leah plays a bigger role in the movie. I can't wait to see this movie again and again!

    • Right? When I started writing out the differences it seemed like a lot, but the movie was still so good and true to the book!

  • I think they did an incredible job with the movie! I actually enjoyed it more than I am enjoying the book. But I agree that they kept the feel and the important messages in place.

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