Have you ever read a book and thought to yourself “this would make a great movie or TV show”? If Hollywood studios wanted to actually make money instead of canceling stuff for the tax credits and consolidating down into a monopoly, these are some of the books they should pick to adapt. We’re in an IP-driven world, so let’s do something interesting with it, shall we?
Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells
(Emilie #1 — Strange Chemistry, 2013) This should be an easy choice for studios, but alas, no one makes stuff for teens anymore. (The WB is dead, long live the WB!) Wells already had one of her book series successfully adapted—hello Murderbot—and the Emilie series is a great next step. The first book in this swashbuckling steampunk adventure duology opens with Emilie running away from home. Her guardians want to consign her to a boring life, and she wants something more for herself. A series of accidents land her on an airship led by Lady Marlende who is on the hunt for her missing father. The ship uses “aether currents” to travel into other worlds, which is how they end up with Kenar on the crew. He is a human-shaped being with dark blue skin covered in fur and scales. Kenar is Cirathi and from the land where their airship is headed. In this strange, new world, Emilie encounters sunken cities, frightening monsters, and a power-hungry mermaid queen. But the worst dangers come from her fellow humans, especially the greedy Lord Ivers. The story has almost no romance, so it’ll appeal to both middle grade audiences and teens who want more variety in their media offerings than All Romance All the Time. And despite the fanciful locations, I think it would be fun to take a 90s era low budget sets approach to give it a crunchy charm.
Everfair by Nisi Shawl
(Everfair #1 — Tor Books, 2016) Speaking of steampunk, this alternate history series imagines what would’ve happened if King Leopold II of Belgium was driven out of the Congo and the residents adopted fancy new technology. The result is Everfair, a Wakanda-like nation populated by Black Africans and settlers—including Black American missionaries, East Asians, and members of the Fabian Society, a real group out of Britain given the alt-history treatment here. The story sprawls across decades and tells a thorny tale about colonization, what independence means, and conflicting political ideologies, making it ideal for a TV show in this particular moment in time.
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole
(William Morrow Paperbacks, 2020) I need this as a movie immediately. Described as Rear Window meets Get Out, this thriller also has some romance and a science fiction twist at the end. It’s gentrification with a social horror spin. Sydney has spent her whole life in Brooklyn, but recently her neighborhood has been changing. Black homeowners are selling their homes and vanishing off the face of the earth. Meanwhile, affluent white people are moving in, people like Theo, our other main character. Both Theo and Sydney are dealing with fractured relationships. Sydney is recovering from a divorce from a partner who gaslit her all the time and Theo’s girlfriend has little time or patience for him (not that Theo is an innocent victim or hapless bystander in all this). As Sydney (and Theo, sort of) investigates the mystery of what is happening to her neighbors, the conspiracy tightens around her. It’s a taut thriller with a lot to say about white supremacy and white tears.
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan
(Viking, 2024) I’d love a miniseries of this gorgeous novel. The bulk of the novel takes place on the Akbar Mazil estate on the eastern coast of South Africa. Grieving the death of his wife, Bilal relocates with his young daughter Sana to a crumbling mansion overlooking the city of Durban. They share the house with a caretaker who is losing his memory, three women who can’t seem to get along, and a maid who talks to herself. And a djinn, but none of them know that part. While exploring the house, Sana discovers a secret room with a treasure trove of journals from one of the former occupants. Decades before, Meena was brought to the estate as the second wife of a rich Indian man, Akbar Ali Khan. She’s almost immediately miserable. Grief permeates the lives of everyone at Akbar Mazil, past and present, as does the consequences of colonization. It’s a quietly stunning novel.
Rest in Peaches by Alex Brown
(Page Street YA, 2024) No, I’m not recommending my own book; this is a different Alex Brown. Since we’re in a new golden age of horror, since people are eating up diverse casts and stories like it’s a drought and we just found an oasis, and since there is a dearth of media aimed specifically at young adults, adapting Rest in Peaches into a movie would be a guaranteed moneymaker. It also has a ton of pop culture references, including a plot loosely inspired by the first Scream movie, to appeal to older folks’ nostalgia. The story is told from two perspectives. Quinn is a student who secretly performs as Peaches the Parrot, the mascot at Olivia Newton-John High, until she’s blamed for a frightening act of sabotage. Tessa is the popular daughter of the head of the PTA and also Quinn’s former crush. When people connected to the two girls end up as targets of a mysterious villain, they have to set aside their bickering and work together to save their lives. Horror is also in an upswing in young adult fiction, but very little of it is of the horror comedy variety, which is one of the reasons I love this and Brown’s other book Damned If You Do so much.
Neat list!
I suspect that When No One Is Watching is meant to be a “taut” thriller.
Typo fixed, thanks!
Everfair has been my number 1 most desired adaptation for TV ever since I first read the book. It seemed absolutely perfect as an alternate to the god-awful Confederate show that the Game of Thrones folks were pitching at the same time. There would be so much cool stuff to do in the show, with the right budget.
I was glad to see it on this list.
There seems to be at least three different Alex Browns writing fiction, with digital bookstores often failing to distinguish between them. A plenty of potential awkwardness!
There are quite a few of us!
We should try to get all 3 of them on the same panel at a con.
I just recently read Emilie and the Hollow World and its sequel, and I would love to see them both adapted.
Whenever this topic comes up, I have to make a pitch for Cherie Priest’s “A Family Plot” —sorry, I don’t make the rules.
This is a a terrific spooky book—think “Salvage Hunters” but make it haunted—and it is PERFECT for a low-budget indie film adaptation. Small ensemble cast with lots of opportunity for good character work, one primary location. Limited (mostly if not entirely practical) effects would suit the vibe best.
Agreed. It would be a great story to adapt. I can see it being akin to something like the Oculus movies in production style.
Camelot 3000, a graphic novel by Mike Barr & Brian Bolland, has been crying out to be made into a movie or tv series for decades now.
Meanwhile, I’m still crossing my fingers for The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher, which has been option a couple times now. It’s all about secret society of bikers and long-haul truckers who protect America’s highways from unearthly threats. Think Supernatural meets Sons of Anarchy.
(Full disclosures: I edited that series for Tor back in the day.)
One more: I remain amazed that Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin remains unfilmed. Vampires on steamboats — by the creator of Game of Thrones?
It practically pitches itself!