I am starting to get a bit frustrated with all these mediocre thrillers that I’ve been reading lately. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I was happy to find Wilderness as an ebook for a small price; however, that small price was actually not worth the read. I liked the first couple of chapters a lot, they got me intrigued and wanting to know more, I really liked the premise, but the execution was quite poor.
Written by B. E. Jones and published in 2020, Wilderness is one of the crime novels that made me think constantly of You be Caroline Kepnes and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, but after a few chapters I started to get bored and realized it was not going to come even close to the aforementioned books. I felt like the author just came up with ideas as she went along with the writing, because there wasn’t much depth to the story or the characters after a while, especially in the second part of the book.
The book has been adapted by Amazon as a 6 part limited series, starring Jenna Coleman (with whom I fell in love a few years back watching Victoria) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and it was released in October 2023. After I’ve finished reading the book I was a bit meh, not disappointed by the ending, but not impressed either. I actually found it cool, because sometimes I love an open ending; it can give the book a bit more life. So when I’ve started watching the series, I was expecting that the main plot lines and the ending were going to be the same. Somehow, the screenwriters decided it was a good idea to change not only a lot of the main plot lines, but also create a very annoying feminist ending that was anything but necessary. I have noted all the big changes down below, but let me tell you this: I was not happy. Because changes aside, there were a lot of plot holes that made parts of the show just ridiculous.
The part that I truly liked about the adaptation was the cinematography, very beautiful landscapes, very good acting especially from Jenna Coleman, and a cool soundtrack, starting with the main theme song which was Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift – really fitting the narative here 🙂
Everyone makes mistakes.
(spoiler alert) Main difference between the book and the tv series:
- the affair video is in his laptop and not on a memory card like it is in the book
- the trip was Olivia’s idea in the book, but in the series is his idea to try and get her back
- Will is afraid of heights in the series which I thought was such a dumb thing to add to his character
- Olivia is taking photos everywhere like a proper millennial, but I don’t remember that being a thing in the book
- in the book, Will doesn’t speak with the mistress while he is on holiday, but he does in the series
- Garth/Cara – different names for these key characters from the book
- Will knows that Cara is in another relationship, but in the book he doesn’t
- Will doesn’t get hurt in the book, but in the series he tripped and fell in the woods because he was distracted by Cara’s body in a bikini (COME ON!)
- in the book, Will and Olivia don’t get a lift from Cara; they don’t lose the rental car and their stuff
- Will spends that eventful night a bit with an older couple in the book, but in the series he is at the bar, alone
- Cara doesn’t die initially, she loses her memory and then she dies; however, in the book she dies on scene because she falls from a mountain (DUH!)
- Olivia doesn’t break and doesn’t call her mother when Cara finally dies, but she does all this in the series and it’s pathetic for this kind of show, that scene doesn’t add anything to the plot
- Olivia doesn’t think twice about being present at the wake, but she initially says no in the series
- Will doesn’t give Cara a key in the book
- Cara doesn’t write a draft email in the book, but in the series she confeses her love to Will in a draft email she never gets to send
- Olivia and Will don’t break into Garth’s home in the book
- the detectives names/genders are different from the book, too
- Olivia and Will are always interviewed in their apartament in the book, but in the series almost all interview/encounters with the police happen at the police station
- Olivia and her neighbour are not having an intimate relationship or anything like that in the book; the neighbour plays a small part and she is in a relationship herself, but in the series they made the neighbour lesbian and decided to make them kiss and have sex because that makes total sense (?!)
- Olivia’s mother doesn’t fly over to New York, in the book she is barely mentioned, and I think this changed annoyed me the most – the storyline of the mother getting involved and being worried for her estranged daughter was SO artificial (like you barely talk to your daughter, your relationship is almost non-existent, but all of a sudden you get worried enough to fly across the Atlantic just to check up on her – okay, sure -_-)
- Will never asks Olivia to try for a baby in the book, and this just made me laugh, like where are you even going with this story?! I felt like after this scene nothing made sense anymore…
- Olivia doesn’t confess to anybody in the book, but in the series she tells her mother that she killed her husband’s mistress – the mother starts crying, tells Olivia “there is no darkness in you” and then rushes into the taxi trying to catch her plane back to Wales (wait, what?!)
- Will only sleeps with another woman in the book, but there are two in the series – just add anything to the storyline at this point, who cares anymore?
- Garth’s character was written by mixing up two different characters from the book
- Olivia doesn’t ask for a divorce in the book, but she does in the series because feminism and all that (this was supposed to be an entertaining thriller and a few hours of fun/popcorn TV, not a lesson on feminism and strong female characters – like, hello, she killed two people and she sure as hell won’t be anybody’s example of a heroine so stop trying)
- Olivia writes a book in the series, based on her experiences, but this part is not in B. E. Jones’ book
- Will ends up in prison just in the series, because in the book they move back to the UK together and there is an open ending that gave me Joe Goldberg vibes which was cool; what happened at the end of the final episode? Olivia has a moment of rage when a stranger approaches her (maybe a bit stupid, but an innocent one nonetheless) and she delivers the ending speech which is all about females and how women are being seen and treated in society (because that was the entire point of the show…. NO!)
Some things are so unforgivable you never stop paying for them.
And with that, there isn’t really anything else to add. I was not disappointed by this book/series, but I was a bit annoyed and somehow I think that’s worse. Proceed with caution if you decide to read the book or watch the show, you’ve been warned.
Trailer:
