Read vs Reel: The Kissing Booth

BEWARE -SPOILERS ABOUND. With this being a comparison between the novel and the film adaptation, there will be lots of spoilers in this review under the section "Where the Movies Differs". Read at your own risk. The other sections should be essentially spoiler-free.

In all honesty, I almost didn't finish this review. No, that isn't any reflection on the source material, I just had so many roadblocks come up with this post that I didn't really have the heart to continue. So, better late than never, here it finally is!

goodreads.com

The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles started as a story on Wattpad before being picked up by publishers in 2012. The Netflix movie adaptation was released in 2018, instantly garnering hoards of fans. It stars Joey King, Jacob Elordi, and Joel Courtney, with Molly Ringwald in the supporting cast. A companion novella, The Beach House was released in 2011 and can be read on Wattpad.

What It's About

Two best friends give birth to their babies on the same day. Their children, Lee and Elle, are inseparable from that moment on. They can count on the other for everything, no matter what. But when Elle and Lee plan a kissing booth as part of the school's carnival fundraiser, they never could have guessed what would happen - her first kiss is with none other than Lee's older brother Noah. Noah seems like a dream: straight A student, football player, and completely gorgeous...until you factor in his motorcycle, womanizing, and tendency to get into fights. Elle is torn between wanting bad boy Noah, and running the other way. What's a girl to do?

Worth a Watch? Worth a Read?

Whether the book or the movie is the better choice for you will highly depend on what kind of story you want. Although the basic storyline is the same, and there are some shared lines, there are a lot of subtle differences throughout which make a big impact on the traits of the characters. I did enjoy both of them, but for different reasons.

Both the book and the movie are rather cheesy and cliché, but are fun nonetheless if you are looking for a mindless diversion. The book lacks a bit of focus, where the movie does a better job at keeping everything on track and making character feelings and motivations clear. My biggest complaint with the book is its repetitive nature. The same words are used many times over to describe things (such as "smirk") which after a while made me want to throw a thesaurus at the author. The movie's main faults however, were a lack of realism in certain situations (locker room, anyone?) and some situations feeling cheesy/forced.

For me personally, I found the movie to have captured my interest more than the book. The film has some absolutely adorable moments, and the chemistry between the two leads (who are dating in real life) makes it all really click.

Next up is a discussion on where the book and movie differ from each other. That being said, there are tons of spoilers from this point on, so if you haven't at least read or watched The Kissing Booth, you might want to wait until you've experienced at least one before coming back to read below. Or maybe you like spoilers and want to keep reading - totally up to you, but you have been warned!

--------------------- SPOILERS BELOW---------------------------------

Where the Movie Differs

1. Cody's name is Tuppen and they are completely different in looks and storyline. So although this isn't really a major change, it's still kind of weird and unnecessary. Perhaps the casting director couldn't find anyone who fit Cody's description and therefore decided to change everything about his character. The only real similarity is that both Cody and Tuppen ask Elle on a date. Elle's relationship with Cody is sweeter, but her relationship with Tuppen is more humorous and therefore more suited to a movie environment.
2. The start of Lee and Rachel's relationship. In the movie it occurs after a cute moment at the kissing booth, but in the book they just start dating like any normal couple - Lee asks Rachel to see a movie. This just happens to take place at the scene of the carnival when they are setting everything up for the booth.
3. Arcade DDR is their favourite thing. Although a love for dance plays a small part in the book (they wanted to plan the school dances and therefore be on the dance committee), that's about as far as it goes for Lee and Elle. In the movie, this is the major way the best friends bond and have fun together.
4. Elle is not terrified of motorcycles. Book Elle completely hates Noah's motorcycles and is freaked out to all hell when she has to ride on the back of it. It's so awful that she refuses to ever do it again, and is a bit traumatized by the whole experience. In the movie, although she resists at first, eventually comes to enjoy it.
5. Friendship rules. In the movie, Elle and Lee developed a series of friendship rules as children that they were not allowed to break. Number 9 is the big one - "relatives of your best friend are totally off-limits". This makes it clear right from the start that Elle and Noah being together wouldn't be okay for Lee, but the book gives a little more ambiguity with this until later on.
6. Elle adamant she doesn't love Noah. In the movie it is pretty clear that the two are crazy about each other, but in the book Elle is much more unsure about her feelings, and passes the whole thing off as just a fling for an absurdly long time. She is rather adamant she doesn't love him.
7. Noah is a lot less possessive. Rather than just be a control freak like in the book, the Noah we get to see in the movie is a hell of a lot more lovable. Honestly, he's adorable. He just makes some poor decisions about how he handles his emotions.
8. Elle's friend group is almost non-existent. Movie Elle really just seems to hang out with Lee, but in the book she has a lot of guy friends and several girl friends. There is also a group of popular girls called the OMG Girls who work in the movie to progress Elle's plot with Noah.
9. A bunch of completely random changes. Including where they kiss for the first time after the booth, when the dance is and what Elle wears, what Noah calls Elle, and what actually happens in the locker room when she is covered in paint.

---------------

Have you watched the movie and/or read the book? What did you think about the changes? A sequel will be coming out on Netflix in 2020, so if you loved the movie, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that one!