The Best Books Being Adapted for TV in 2023: Sci-fi, Fantasy, Historical and Crime

Posted by Jenniffer Sheldon on Wednesday, May 1, 2024

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Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (Prime Video, tbc)

Neil Gaiman channeled West African folklore and Jamaican myth in 2005 to tell this modern-day story of gods, brothers, and tricksters. It’s the humorous, imaginative UK-set fantasy story of Fat Charlie and Spider, the sons of the slippery Mr Nancy (also a character in Gaiman’s American Gods), who have to negotiate their mystical inheritance. The TV adaptation, which is due to arrive on Prime Video after the second series of Gaiman’s and Terry Pratchett’s fantasy Good Omens, will star Small Axe and Roots’ Malachi Kirby, alongside Delroy Lindo, Whoopi Goldberg and more.

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One Day – David Nicholls (Netflix, tbc)

David Nicholls’ 2009 best-selling relationship drama One Day is a lot of people’s favourite book, so when the much-trimmed 2011 film adaptation came out featuring American actor Anne Hathaway as Yorkshirewoman Emma Morley, a lot of people were left disappointed. Now, Emma and Dexter’s story has another chance on screen, and this one looks promising. This is Going to Hurt’s Ambika Mod and The White Lotus’ Leo Woodall will play Emma and Dexter, who hook up at university on St Swithin’s Day, and whose lives we check in on every 15th of July for the next 20 years. 

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The Burning Girls – C.J. Tudor (Paramount+)

When The Richard and Judy Book Club says yes, who is anyone to say no? 2021 horror thriller The Burning Girls was picked for the popular accolade and is currently being adapted for Paramount+ with a stunning cast led by Harlots and The Walking Dead‘s Samantha Morton and Lockwood & Co. and Bridgerton‘s Ruby Stokes. It’s the story of Jack and Flo, a reverend (Morton) and her daughter (Stokes), who move to a new town that’s haunted by the historical disappearance of two teenage girls. Further back in their new home’s spooky history is the burning of Protestant martyrs, whose story becomes intertwined with the present day, resulting in a psychological horror/small town mystery described as gripping.

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