Laura Miller at Slate wrote a great article outlining some key differences between The Shining Girls adaptation and the book. Lovely to be reminded why we originally loved the book. I love how in-depth this article is, Miller challenges the adaptation a bit for shifting its focus on other bits which differ from the book. It was not an easy job to adapt the story to work for the screen, after thousands of video calls spent talking pre-production with showrunner Silka Luisa, we’re all super happy with how it turned out.
“Real-life serial killers are sordid figures, typically social isolates with low IQs, but in the fantasyland of fiction, they’re freaky, sadistic geniuses like Hannibal Lecter, suitable opponents for the improbably clever detectives who chase them.”
Silka Luisa transformed the narrative into a clever commentary on trauma. So cool to hear that readers got exactly what I was going for in the novel.
The adaptation is a completely different animal which remains true to the bloody heart of the book.
Here’s an extract:
“Real-life serial killers are sordid figures, typically social isolates with low IQs, but in the fantasyland of fiction, they’re freaky, sadistic geniuses like Hannibal Lecter, suitable opponents for the improbably clever detectives who chase them. A long-standing complaint about the cultural obsession with these murderers is that the attention they attract overshadows their victims—often women—who serve as anonymous props for the killer’s terrifying satanic glamour.”
Another great still image from the adaptation of Elisabeth Moss as Kirby , supplied by Apple TV+