Now I know what it feels like to read a very popular book and be that one person that didn’t love it. Annoyed.
Play this and read further.
All The Light We Cannot See was written by Anthony Doerr and published in 2014. The book (published in Romania by Humanitas Fiction) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and it’s loved and appreciated by many people. I liked the short chapters that make you read one more and one more. However, after reading half of the book (about 250 out of >500 pages), I started to get tired and had to use the audiobook on top of keeping my eyes on the words. I found it harder to keep interested and concentrated as I felt the story was dragging.
Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.
The main characters, though, are nicely developed and written. Marie-Laure is a French girl that goes blind at the age of 6 and Werner is an exceptionally bright orphan boy, both living through the Second World War.
Whilst the less enjoyable part of the book for me was the lengh and the pace of it, I was really looking forward to watch the Netflix limited series and I think I had my expectations maybe slightly higher than I should’ve. That being said, the series is still very nicely done, but it isn’t perfect.
Directed by Shawn Levy, All The Light We Cannot See (4-part limited series) follows almost its own storyline with only the major events reflecting Anthony Doerr’s book. I did like the ending in the book more than how the series ended, although the ending was not entirely happy either way. I just feel that it made more sense to end in Doerr’s words than in the way Steven Knight (creator) imagined it. It was obvious that any trace of romance was pushed to the maximum which was not necesarry in my opinion, and it’s safe to say he dramatized the drama – bit too much and not for the best, unfortunately. I fell more in love with the slow burn attraction between Marie-Laure and Werner from the book than with that forced kiss shown in the last episode of the series.
No one’s going to give us a ride because kindness is dead, and all the people of the world have become evil at the same time.
I won’t even write down the differences between the book and the limited series because, like I said, they are almost two different stories. The way people die, who dies, when they die, the small actions, the big plots, etc., almost every single aspect from the book is changed to some degree. If you are someone who loves the book, you will probably be quite annoyed with this adaptation.
Starring Aria Mia Loberti in her acting debut, a blind actress that is not only beautiful, but very talented. Despite not having any acting experience, she beat out thousands of actresses in the casting process. Louis Hofmann, Hugh Laurie, and Mark Ruffalo are also playing key roles, but neither of them shines as bright as Aria.
I liked the book and I liked the limited series both for different reasons, both made me cry, so I am going to consider myself pleased enough.
Trailer:
All The Light We Cannot See is available on Netflix.
