The popularity of YA literature is undeniable. One piece of proof: the amount of YA novels being optioned for movies. One other, possibly stronger piece of proof: how many of those options actually make it to the silver screen. This year alone we’ve had Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, and If I Stay. The next few months will bring even more adaptations. Be sure you read the books first!
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The Maze Runner by James Dashner / The Maze Runner movie opens on September 19 (this Friday!)
Thomas wakes up with no memories other than his name. In that regard, he’s like all the other boys in the glade, the garden area in the middle of the maze. No one has ever made it out of the glade, no one has ever gotten through the maze. But soon a girl arrives, the first girl ever to be there, and she remembers more than her name. She remembers things that are terrifying.
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Dracula by Bram Stoker / Dracula Untold opens October 10
Everyone thinks they know vampires now. But Bram Stoker’s original version of the monster is very different from the glamorous, glittery vampires of the twenty first century. In 1897, a vampire was a terrifying creature of enormous power who not only killed humans for their blood, but could damn their souls to hell. And it is all told in quite a modern-seeming epistolary style.
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The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks / The Best of Me movie opens October 17
High schools loves from opposite sides of the tracks grow apart after graduation. More than two decades later, they both go home to their small Southern town for the funeral of a man who was a mentor to both of them. This meeting brings out memories and feelings neither one has dealt with in years.
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Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern / Love, Rosie movie opens October 24
Alex and Rosie have been there for each other from childhood through turbulent adolescence. There has always been a connection, although maybe not always a romantic one. When Alex’s family moves to America, and the inseparable duo look to become separate, how will they cope after spending their entire lives together?
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Horns by Joe Hill / Horns movie opens October 31
Ignatius had a charmed life: wealth, a great family, good friends, and true love. But his love was murdered, and Ig was the prime suspect. He was never charged, but he also never had his name cleared. In a downward spiral, Ig awakens one morning with a hangover and a pair of horns growing from his head. The hangover eventually leaves, the horns stay. So Ig thinks that maybe he should live up to his new look.
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Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins / Mockingjay Part 1 movie opens November 21
Katniss was rescued from the Quarter Quell arena by the people from District 13. Her family is safe, but Peeta has been captured by the Capitol, and Katniss discovers she has been an unwitting pawn in District 13’s rebellion. Will she knowingly join in now and become an active symbol for those fighting for freedom? No one except movie director Francis Lawrence knows exactly where in the novel’s story his movie will break, but be prepared for a cliffhanger!
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Wild by Cheryl Strayed / Wild movie opens December 5
By her mid-twenties, Cheryl Strayed had lost her mother and was divorced. She knew she needed to shake herself up and recreate her life. To do this, she impulsively decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from California to Oregon…alone, and having no prior solo hiking experience. This book is her memoir of making that impulsive, life-changing trip. It tells of the people and wildlife (hello bears!) she met on the way and how the entire experience helped her grow strong.
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The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien / The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies movie opens December 17
Although JRR Tolkien’s book is a not-very-long story about a small person who goes on an enormous journey with thirteen dwarves, faces down a dragon, and survives a battle, filmmaker Peter Jackson has somehow made it into three movies. The final one will come out this December, and if the title is to be believed, it will focus on the final part of the book.
Insurgent by Veronica Roth / Insurgent movie opens March 20, 2015
There is no movie poster yet for this second part of the Divergent trilogy. Tris’ story picks up shortly after her initiation day, a day that should have been celebratory, but was instead violent and horrific. The different factions are preparing for war, and while Tris knows that her Divergence should allow her to do something, she struggles with just what that action should be.
* OK, so I took some liberties with the idea of YA literature here. Why don’t we say this is a list of upcoming movies from books that have strong YA appeal?
The release dates for the various films were taken from Pop Sugar and Early Word, both usually reliable sources for this kind of information. But please know that the movie business is fickle and dates may change.
~Geri Diorio currently reading The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (in development to be a movie starring Emma Watson)