Book VS. movie: Love, Simon

SPOILERS AHEAD

As you might, or might not know, I also like to read books. Most of the books I own are made into movies, which means that I like to compare them. This blogpost will compare my newest book, Simon vs. The homosapiens agenda, with Love, Simon. Don’t worry, it’s the same story, the title’s just changed!

In my very first blogpost, I’ve briefly talked about this movie. I summarized the story as follows:
“Simon’s gay and nobody knows it: Even his best friends don’t. He’s going to a school were nobody’s openly gay, so it’s a pretty big deal when a message appears on a schoolsite about Blue, another gay boy at the school. Simon sends the boy a message – anonymously – and they start a conversation. Simon wants to know who this boy is, but Blue doesn’t want to know who Simon is. They both remain anonymous, but Simon’s getting blackmailed. A boy at his school threatens him to out him, and he does… Simons secret isn’t a secret anymore, but Blues secret stays secret. Simon’s desperate to find out who Blue is.”

So let’s make a list between some of the differences I’ve found:

The musical

Not the biggest of differences I’ve found but still notable: In the movie, the musical they perform is Cabaret while in the book the musical is Oliver!.

The friendship lovetriangle
This really stupid move from Simon in the movie, doesn’t excist in the book. Simon’s getting blackmailed by Martin because Martin like’s Abby. In the movie, Simon tries to get Leah and Nick dating so that Abby stays alone so thay Martins way to her is free. In the book, this really isn’t the case as Leah’s got a crush on Nick (book) instead of Simon (movie).

Simons Sisters
In the movie, Simon has one sister: The really sweet younger sister, Nora. In the book however, Simon has two sisters: Nora, who’s really into piercing her ears and Alice, who’s in college and doesn’t come home often. It’s a pretty big deal in the book that Alice has got a boyfriend and they get to meet in the end.

The band
Speaking of the end: This one isn’t at all in the movie. The book ends with Leah in a band with Nora, with Simon not knowing that they both played musical instruments. The talentshow is the place where Simon gets to meet Theo, Alice’s boyfriend.

Nick’s house as hangout
Also, not the biggest of differences, but a missed out moment. In the movie, it is showed that they have a pretty okay friendgroup, with Leah, Nick, Abby and Simon. However: The #friendshipgoals are better in the book, where they often hang out at Nicks basement to play games and talk. The only thing we see them doing in the movie, as a group of friends, is riding to school together and eating their schoollunches together.

Gaybar
Yet again a missed out moment in the movie: The gaybar that Leah, Nick and Simon go to in the book. The group of friends got into a fight with Simon when they found out what he did (see The friendship love-triangle) and they only forgive him after the musical. In the book they decide to take Simon to a gaybar where Simon gets drunk and gets more comfortable around ‘people like him’.

First contact
In the book, Simon comments on Blues Tumblr post with “THIS” and leaves his e-mailadress, so thay Blue can e-mail him. It takes him a week to get a mail from him and from this, they start to send each other really cute e-mails. In the book however, Simon’s the first to e-mail Blue after his Tumblr post.

Mails
Blue’s this person who’s really great at English and they really have deep-going e-mail about tons of personal stuff. The book mostly focusses on these e-mails, while the movie mentions them but only a few of them. They left the absolute love for Oreos out of the movie (allright, Bram mentioned the Oreos at school when Simon ate them) where as in the book the Oreos are a pretty big deal.

The game love coming out thing
This really cringy moment in the movie didn’t excist at all in the book. Maybe for the best though. So in the book, Martin talks to Abby in person and tells her he likes her, she tells him she doesn’t and Martin gets mad at Simon and outs him later on through the Tumblr. Not that big of a deal, while in the movie it’s a really, really big deal. Martin’s the school mascotte and at the game he interrupts the national anthem and starts this speach where he confesses his love for Abby and Abby tells him he doesn’t see him this way. The whole school watches this confession and Martin in devastated and outs him on Tumblr later on.

The shirt
WHY DID THEY LEAVE THIS ONE OUT OF THE MOVIE? Oh my god, this was my favorite moment from the book. So Simon’s fan of Elliott Smith and tells Blue that he could never wear a t-shirt from him without attending a concert. When Blue found out who ‘Jaqcues’ was, he gave Simon a shirt from Elliott Smith with his phone-number attached. Simon didn’t found out about the note with the phone-number and only discovers it when he’s going to the carnival and decided to wear it as he hopes to meet Blue for the first time. About the phone-number thing: Simon asked Blue multiple times for his number, but Blue didn’t want to give it to Simon because he might recognize the number and know who Blue is. They left this really sweet gift out of the movie and I really missed it.

Conclusion: Yeah, there were a few diffences, but both the book and the movie were perfect. The story stays the same, as it mostly isn’t the case (I.E. Paper Towns).