Top 10 Differences Between YOU Book & TV Show
#10: Joe’s Neighbors
Top 10 Differences Between Conversations with Friends Book & TV Show
In the show, Joe Goldberg has neighbors who feature as prominent figures in his story. Ron, Claudia, and their son Paco become intertwined with Joe’s world in a variety of ways, with Joe’s relationship with Paco giving the audience a glimmer of sympathy for him and making him a bit more relatable. Fans might be surprised to learn however that this family isn’t present in the book at all. Considering what a compelling storyline this is, we’re impressed that the writers were able to conceive of it without any source material. Because they don’t exist, they also don’t introduce him to Karen, who does appear in the book but not in exactly the same role.
#9: Mr. Mooney
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In both the book and the TV show, Mr. Mooney is the owner of Mooney’s bookstore where Joe works as a manager. He’s also something of a father figure to Joe. In the show, we see (via a series of flashbacks) that Mr. Mooney has psychologically abused Joe in the past, which gives the audience some insight into Joe’s personal history, planting the idea that this trauma may have played a role in shaping the man he is today. The thing is, for the first eight episodes, Mr. Mooney appears only via flashback in the series, making him something of a mystery. In the book, Joe visits him much more casually, borrowing Joe’s car in order to stalk Beck when she goes to Bridgeport.
#8: Benji
Benji appears in both the book and on the show as Beck’s boyfriend who definitely isn’t a great guy and doesn’t treat her well. In both mediums, he is the owner of an artisanal soda company, though in the book the author adds that his company “symbolizes everything bad about right now." Joe murders Benji in both the book and on the show, but the show’s writers made that killing slightly more justifiable by making Benji a killer as well. He reveals to Joe that he killed one of his friends in a frat hazing incident, which seemingly adds to Joe’s decision to take him out.
#7: Beck’s Death
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In the book, Joe’s ultimate killing of Beck is a gruesome and grueling event that takes place over two chapters and leaves readers horrified. It’s violent, and involves Beck trying to save her own life by pretending to be dead so she can escape from Joe. The setting is different as well. In the book, she dies in the shop itself, while in the show the scene takes place in the basement. On the show we get a glimmer of hope that Paco might be able to save her from this untimely end, but of course since Paco doesn’t exist in the book... there’s no one to help her.
#6: Peach’s Suspicion
Peach is Beck’s friend who happens to be quite wealthy, and who plays a significant role in Joe and Beck’s story in both mediums. In the book, however, Peach isn’t nearly as suspicious of Joe from the start like she is on the show. She doesn’t have a confrontation with Joe about his relationship with Beck; she does still think that someone is stalking her, but she never explicitly says that it’s Joe. In the book, Peach is also more possessive of Beck, and often stops her from spending time with her other friends.
#5: Annika
Though Beck’s social media influencer friend Annika is pretty important on the show, she actually doesn’t exist in the book at all. Beck instead has a friend named Chana with a much less significant role. It makes sense that the writers of the show would need to give Beck more friends to talk to so that we can hear what she’s thinking and understand her perspective. In fact, Beck’s entire friend group is much more cohesive on the show, with her friends playing major roles and spending time with Peach, even though this was something that really didn’t take place in the book.
#4: Beck’s Suspicion
One of the major differences between the novel and the TV series that displays itself in many ways throughout the story is Beck’s attitude towards Joe. In the book, she’s relatively naive and isn’t particularly suspicious of him despite all the crazy stuff that is going on behind her back. In the show, however, she’s more clued in to his questionable actions. The best example of this when she catches him following her in Central Park and calls him out for stalking her. So while in the show Beck breaks up with Joe because she’s worried he doesn’t have faith in her, no so such exchange occurs in the source material.
#3: Beck Finding Joe’s “Collection”
In both the book and the show, Beck eventually finds Joe’s extremely creepy “collection”: a box containing things like her old cell phone and some other unsettling mementos that he has kept, but only in the show does this include some pretty incriminating evidence of past crimes. This discovery spurs on the action that eventually leads to Beck’s death. On the show, Beck is tipped off by Paco and finds the box in the ceiling above the toilet in Joe’s apartment, but in the book it’s found in a hole in the wall that Joe made when he threw a typewriter at it.
#2: Candace’s Involvement
The show ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, with Candace showing up at Joe’s bookstore and telling him that they have “unfinished business”, leading seamlessly into an inevitable second season for the show. In the book however, it’s incredibly clear that Candace is dead, so there’s no chance of her coming back and seeking retribution on Joe. Perhaps more importantly, Candace’s story is somewhat of a footnote in the book, showing that Joe has killed one of his exes and telling the reader how dangerous he is. On the show she actually gets a fleshed out story, which makes things much more interesting. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. The Festival Took Place on a Boat In the Book, Beck Isn’t So Broke The Way Joe Deals With Benji’s Body Beck Never Meets the Literary Agent Beck Never Has a Book Deal
#1: Peach’s Death
Perhaps the most significant difference between the book and its adaptation is the manner in which Peach dies at Joe’s hands. To be clear, he kills her in both versions of the story, but in the book he hits her in the head with a rock and then fakes her suicide by filling her pockets with rocks and putting her body in the water. He fakes her suicide on the show too, but only after the two have a skirmish over a gun . . . which she loses. He types up a suicide note, but it doesn’t convince everyone that her death wasn’t a suspicious one. In the book, her disappearance and death draws relatively little attention of scrutiny.
