Book Vs. Movie: The Kissing Booth

Whenever a book is turned into a movie, I usually read a book and forget about the movie. Case in point, The Sun Is Also A Star. However, here’s an instance when I actually watched the movie prior to reading the book. Actually, I watched the movie while reading the book – not at the same time, but you know what I mean.

This book is The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles. Last year, it was made into a movie onto Netflix, and I decided to give it a try. I decided to post about this one, because the sequel of the book is about to come out and I’m super excited to read it.

Summary:

The Kissing Booth is about Rochelle “Elle” who harbors a crush on her best friend’s brother, Noah aka Flynn to their high school crowd. Flynn is the typical bad boy – you know, the type to get into fights, and has a reputation for being a bit of a player. He is forbidden for Elle to date.

However, Elle soon learns that her crush is not one sided at the school’s carnival’s kissing booth, where they share a dynamic kiss. They soon enter in a relationship that they keep a secret from everyone that they know – including Elle’s best friend Lee.

Once the cat gets out of the bag, the two have to figure out whether the risk of being criticized is worth it.

Differences:

So, the biggest one is that the relationship is more forbidden in the movie than in the book. In the movie, there was a list of rules that Lee and Elle created. One of the biggest? The whole dating Noah thing. Once Lee did find out, he was much more upset about it in the movie than in the book.

Furthermore, another big difference is that you can see how Noah is more of a violent person in the book. He gets into a lot of fights, and the scenes are actually shown in the book. The movie doesn’t show it as much. You can also see how Noah is protective of Elle more in the book as well, especially as she goes out on several dates with different guys – something that isn’t shown in the movie.

In addition, the book and movie have a few differences in the smaller details department. One of them. Is how Elle’s mom died. In the movie, she died of cancer. In the book, she died in a car crash.

Overall:

So, which one did I like better? I definitely enjoyed the book. While I thought the movie was really well done, and I did enjoy it, the book’s many different sub plots that weren’t in the movie were definitely more interesting and wasn’t just a romantic moment after another.

I also liked some of the scenes in the book that weren’t featured in the movie, such as when Noah takes Elle to a candy shop as part of her birthday present. I loved that scene in the book, because it really shows how much Noah loves Elle. I definitely wish that was something that was in the movie.

Finally, what I loved about the story was the ending. So many romance novels – especially teen ones – show a couple with an endless happy ending. In this book (spoiler), Elle isn’t sure about her future with Noah. I think that is more realistic than many of the other novels on the market. This is something that I liked, because it doesn’t have the standard cookie cutter happy ending that you see in many novels.

Therefore, if you are looking for a swoon worthy book or movie, be sure to check this one out.