“I could write a book about what a horrible job they did with this movie but I’m afraid they would try to turn that book into a movie and butcher it too.”
The Percy Jackson series (2010, 2013)
“A goddamn travesty, especially compared to the source material. They changed so much, including the characters’ ages and the fact that the gods couldn’t talk to their demigod children for…reasons? So much dumb shit happened, especially at the end, that my brain just kind of shut down to protect itself from the stupidity.” —Aniela Krajewska, Facebook
20th Century Fox
Columbia Pictures
The Girl on the Train (2016)
“They didn’t do a good job of just explaining anything. If I hadn’t read the book it would have flown right over me that Rachel got cheated on, and that Anna was the other woman. I could write a book about what a horrible job they did with this movie but I’m afraid they would try to turn that book into a movie and butcher it too.” —amandan4979829b3
Universal Pictures
The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
“The novel was dark, often quite bleak, fairly sexy, with characters who are written to be a little bit ‘alternative’. The film adaptation captured none of that and ended up being a very boring, straightforward romance/drama.” —primavolta
“Instead of a beautiful love story that existed outside of normal space and time, we got a steaming pile of garbage.” —e493bebd14
New Line Cinema
Paper Towns (2015)
“They managed to take all the deep and serious parts out and turned it into a cheerful road-trip movie. In the book the group was in a rush to get to New York because they thought Margo was going to kill herself, not because they didn’t want to miss prom! It makes the whole thing seem like a silly teen movie.” —halseydelrey
20th Century Fox
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
“It’s been five years and I am still suppressing my rage. First of all, instead of featuring the two strong, powerful WOC characters from the book, Amma and Marian, the movie condensed them into one person! Not to mention that the rest of the characters were barely recognizable and the plot seemed to use the book as a light suggestion. So. Much. RAGE!” —emilybatsont
Warner Bros.
Eragon (2006)
“They took the main points of the story — boy finds dragon egg, goes on adventure, meets people, fights battles — and kept nothing else. They changed so much of the plot that it barely resembled the book, draining all of the emotion and wonder out of the story.” —emilyk81
20th Century Fox
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
“No S.P.E.W., no school uniforms, and they changed the entire layout of the school grounds (Hagrid’s hut, as an example). I still skip it when I have a HP marathon.” —katief4f35922ac
Warner Bros.
The Lovely Bones (2009)
“That book means so much to me and helped me understand my beliefs — and they changed damn near everything!” —snl8387
Paramount Pictures
Ella Enchanted (2004)
“The book was about an amazing young girl who refuses to be anything but herself, who doesn’t need a handsome prince to save her — she actually ends up saving him on multiple occasions. The book taught me to love my weirdness and be brave. The movie teaches you that if you are in trouble, just wait and a MAN will come save you. Not exactly the message I was hoping to share with my niece.” —colleeno4542d5e7f
Miramax
My Sister’s Keeper (2009)
“The whole point of the book is how fragile life is, so you go through the book thinking, ‘ok the sister with cancer will die’ — but the HEALTHY sister dies and then the sister with cancer lives for many more years. In the movie, nah — the sister with cancer just dies, making the movie just another run-of-the-mill, only-made-to-make-you-cry movie. So upsetting because it’s probably one of the best books I’ve ever read, but they ruined it.” —cs613
New Line Cinema
Vampire Academy (2014)
“The book series deals with really complex mental health issues and touches on inequality and racism and some really complicated issues, and this just made it another bad teen movie. It infuriates me.” —meganmariec3
The Weinstein Company
The Maze Runner (2014)
“They changed so much about the core details of the book. I know you can’t expect every detail of a book to make it into the movie, but even the most important things — like the maze itself, and how the two main characters interact with one another — were changed and were nothing like they were in the book.” —rebecca0815
20th Century Fox
The Hobbit (2012, 2013, 2014)
“Talk about a piece-of-shit movie. To see the way they destroyed the story was absolutely shocking and saddening. The over-the-top CGI, the addition of unnecessary characters, and the fact that they made it into three films all contributed to its horrendous shittiness.” —mrsh810
New Line Cinema
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
“Everything about the Tri-wizard Tournament was so wrong. Incredibly frustrating.” —sarad489fb8598
Warner Bros.
A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
“Cramming three books into one movie? They completely changed the ending to the first book. Prepubescent me was very disappointed, and very glad they never finished it up.” —allysonrutledger
Paramount Pictures
Inferno (2016)
“The book was amazing and thought provoking, and the movie took everything good out of it. This was the worst book-to-movie adaptation I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something.” —nataliem43ff5cd3e
Columbia Pictures
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)
“It still makes me want to cry over how badly they handled the death of Voldemort. The entire point of destroying the Horcruxes was to ensure that he died a normal, boring, HUMAN death. It was also important that many of the most powerful people in the wizarding world witnessed his death. But no, it was not to be. It is just horrible.” —micheller464323ed8
Warner Bros.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
“They switched all the kids’ ages and powers around to force unnecessary romantic subplots on us and basically made Emma, the most badass in the book, rely on Jacob for safety. They had great potential for a franchise and totally blew it.” —kendallboj
20th Century Fox
The Shining (1980)
“I felt it completely missed the point of the book. There are some really moving moments in the book where Jack struggles against the hotel trying to get him to kill his son so the hotel can have him. Instead we get crazy Jack, deleting those wonderful moments with his son, and that fucking maze scene.” —marthaj9
Warner Bros.
The Notebook (2004)
“The constant fighting between Allie and Noah in the movie is not even close to how it went down in the book. Just typing this makes me so angry about the movie.” —meganm4d0ba64ef
New Line Cinema
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.