my favorite book to show changes in Shelter
*obviously spoilers for the first season of Shelter, as well as the trilogy, though I will be putting anything that relates to plots they may do in later possible seasons below a cut.
The Friendship Group - I really, really like the way they updated the friendship dynamics for the show. This is probably my absolute favorite change. In the books, Ema & Mickey are very much besties and the center of the story, while Spoon often feels like an addition, and Rachel doesn't have much content. While they do technically end up as a group by the end, there are very few scenes with the 4 of them and the main dynamic focused on is Mickey & Ema's.
Shira Bolitar - in the books, Mickey goes to live with his uncle Myron, and Shira doesn't exist. Myron is fine in the books (and he clearly exists in the show, even though we don't meet him), but I like the added focus on Shira (and Hannah, who also isn't a character in the books). They do give Shira some of Myron's material from the books, but she also has a lot of new stuff for the show. I guess some audiences might not think her added material is necessary, but I liked her being a more fleshed out character (I mean, Myron has his own books, which I haven't read, so he's probably very fleshed out in those, but he doesn't have much going on in these books).
Spoon - I think they nailed Spoons characterization, like he feels very much like his book counterpart (aside from a couple of repeated jokes/comments in the books that I didn't love and I'm glad that they didn't use in the show), but there's so much more of him in the show. He honestly does not have enough scenes in the books. I'm glad they recognized his potential in the show.
Dylan Shakes (spelled Shaykes in the books) - This one isn't that big of a deal, but I like that they threaded that mystery into the main plot of the show. This character has a (less fleshed out) very similar plot in the books, but it's very background and his disappearance doesn't feel that important to the town.
Ema's Romantic Arc - Whitney doesn't exist in the books. Ema has other stuff going on romantically in the books, I'll go a little more into this in the more spoilery section of the post.
One thing I think the books did better than the show is that Ashley and Mickey know each other for several weeks before she goes missing, as opposed to literally one day. While I understand that the show addresses that there's some transference going on with Mickey and his desire to save Ashley when he couldn't save his father, his fixation feels weirder in the show than in the books, where he'd gotten to know her a little bit better and they were tentatively dating.
*****spoilers for some book plots that could come into play in additional seasons of the show below!!*****
omg this. haven't finished the books yet cuz i'm bz but i've noticed from the very beginning that there are a few things that was different from the show. thank u for this actually ^^
