Books have a way of creating magic with their beautiful stories. Even more fascinating is the fact that some of these stories have managed to create the same magic on screen as well. Netflix Original movies are the movies made by Netflix exclusive for their platform. They won’t be available on any other OTTs. However, some movies usually have limited theatre releases before coming to their platform. So, here is a list of the best Netflix original movies based on books that you can enjoy watching.
Best Books Made Into Netflix Original Movies
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
This story is set in an apocalyptic world where a mysterious creature wreaks havoc on the population on a large scale. Those who come face to face with the creature become deadly violent, causing harm to others and themselves. Five years since it all started, only a handful of survivors remain, avoiding the mysterious entity that seems to take the form of their worst fears. Among the survivors are Malorie and her two children. Upon learning of a safe haven, they will have to embark on a perilous boat journey of 20 miles downriver while being blindfolded, with nothing to guide them except for their own trained ears and senses.
They must stay highly focused as the entity tries to infiltrate their minds. Will they escape the evil that chases them? Will they make it to safety? With actors like Sandra Bullock, John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, and Trevante Rhodes in the cast, the film undoubtedly transmits a raw emotion of fear and panic to the audience through the screen. If you enjoy the thriller/horror genre, this movie is right up your alley. With the story moving quickly, it will surely keep you on the edge of your seat. You can get the book here! 📖
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
The hit teenage romantic comedy is about Lara Jean, a junior in high school who has a habit of writing love letters to boys she has a crush on but keeps the letters locked away in her closet. One day she discovers that someone has mailed all of the letters out, and her crushes begin to confront her one by one. One of her former crushes happens to be her sister’s ex, who receives a letter as well. Lara Jean panics as she watches him approach her on the track field. To diffuse the situation, she kisses Peter Kavinsky, another of her crushes, confronting her.
Lara later confesses to Peter about the whole letter fiasco and that she kissed him to avoid her sister’s ex. Word of Lara and Peter being in a possible relationship gets out. Peter proposes that he and Lara Jean fake date to make his ex-girlfriend jealous, who happens to be Lara’s former best friend. When they continue to fake date, feelings begin to grow between Lara and Peter, but Lara tries to subside it as their entire fake relationship was only to make Peter’s ex jealous.
Will Peter and Lara acknowledge their true feelings? Will Peter confess before things are more misunderstood? The cast includes Lana Condor and Noah Centineo as the leads. Noah won the hearts of many girls with his charms. Lana represented many teenagers who have difficulty keeping up with the popular kids. This movie is a happy-to-go rom-com you could watch with your friends on a movie night! You can get the book here! 📖
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
This coming-of-age movie is based on the book written by Sarah Dessen. Auden West, a recent high school graduate, decides to spend the summer with her father and his new family in a small beachside town. She has not had proper sleep in a long time, ever since her parent’s divorce. Having been brought up in a strict household by her mother, she did not get to have the typical teenage life. During her time in the town, when everyone is fast asleep, loner Auden explores the streets.
On one such night, she meets Eli, a fellow insomniac who shows her the small town’s nightlife. They decide to set off on their own missions, where Auden gets to experience a carefree teenage life that she had never experienced, and Eli gets over the guilt of losing his friend. The cast includes actors Emma Pasarow, Belmont Cameli, and Kate Bosworth. With the plot, this movie is definitely more than just a teenage love story. It is about discovering one’s true self and moving on healthily. You can get the book here! 📖
Purple Hearts by Tess Wakefield
This story is an “enemies to lovers” trope. Cassie Salazar, a singer and songwriter with type 1 diabetes struggles to afford her expensive medical bills and works multiple jobs to make ends meet. Luke Morrow, a marine trainee, has a troubled past of his own. As a reformed drug addict, he still owes his dealer a huge amount. Luke meets Cassie at a bar where she works, and they start off on the wrong foot. One day, he overhears Cassie proposing the idea of a fake marriage to one of his fellow marine trainees, who is also Cassie’s best friend.
Although Luke is against a fraudulent marriage, he realizes that both their financial difficulties could be solved by getting married for military benefits and getting divorced after a year of marriage. Eventually, Cassie and Luke get married before he is deployed. What started as a fake marriage grows into something more, especially when things go downhill after Luke suffers an injury. Sticking by each other’s side, they open their hearts to one another. Starring Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galitzine, this movie is a heartwarming, romantic drama. You can get the book here! 📖
The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
This story follows the love story of two couples from two different times. It is the mid-1960s when wealthy socialite Jennifer Sterling gets into a car crash, leading to memory loss. Jennifer is married to Laurence Sterling, a wealthy businessman. Before the crash, the couple had gone to France for a vacation, where they met Anthony O’Hare, who was there to interview Laurence on his success in the business world. That is when Jennifer and Anthony feel a spark between them, eventually leading them to write letters to each other under pen names.
In the early 2000s, Ellie Haworth discovers a strange, misfiled letter in one of the archives at her workplace. The letter seems to be between two lovers, from a person named “Boot,” addressed to “J”. Ellie recently broke up with her longtime boyfriend, so she becomes curious about this couple’s love story and how it ended. Ellie and her coworker Rory find more letters from the archive and become closer to it.
They discover that both Jennifer and Anthony are still alive. Did Jennifer regain her lost memories of Anthony? Did Jennifer rekindle her romance with Laurence? Did Ellie give love another chance and find it in Rory? With a stellar cast including Felicity Jones, Callum Turner, Joe Alwyn, Shaine Woodley, and Nabhaan Rizwan, the movie delivers a bittersweet love story. The film has managed to merge two timelines seamlessly together throughout the film. You can get the book here! 📖
The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber
This book depicts the chilling events of the murders that took place at a hospital in New Jersey. Amy Loughren is a nurse with a heart disease who works night shifts taking care of ICU patients. The hospital recruits an experienced nurse named Charles Cullen to help Amy cover the night shifts. Over time, the two of them form a friendship. When the detectives investigate the mysterious death of an elderly patient, who was looked after by Amy and Charles, the hospital’s risk manager dismisses the possibility of foul play.
The detectives, however, remain cautious of the situation as the death was alerted seven weeks later, and on further private investigation, they found past charges on Charles. They find doses of insulin given to the deceased patient despite being non-diabetic. When another ICU patient dies, Amy also discovers insulin being given to this patient. She contacted her nurse friend who had previously worked with Charles and found many sudden deaths in that hospital when he was employed.
Amy quickly alerts the detectives, and the serial murderer is caught. Charles was given 11 consecutive life sentences after being found guilty of 29 murders in 2006. Many experts believe that he is responsible for nearly 400 patient deaths. Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain are phenomenal in this film. Although being a slow burn, this movie captivates the audience like no other. The issues with the US healthcare system are also highlighted in this film. You can get the book here! 📖
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Theodore Finch is a loner, often called a “freak” by the other students. Sick to being alive, he finds ways to kill himself, but something small stops him every time. Violet Markey is counting the days until graduation when she can escape this small town that took her sister away from her. Burdened by the survivor’s guilt on her sister’s birthday, Violet finds herself standing on the ledge of a bridge (bell tower by the book). She meets Theodore, who convinces her to get down safely. Later, they work together on a school project that requires them to explore the state of Indiana together.
They begin to see the beauty in places when they never expected to see it. They develop a friendship, and Violet learns to live through her days with a guy who intends to die. One’s horizon widens as the other’s world shrinks. The cast includes Elle Fanning and Justice Smith, who were terrific in this film. They acted out the sensitive emotions in a way that resonated with many young audiences. Based on the book by Jennifer Niven, this is a growth story that touches on topics like depression, suicide, and death. It shows the complex emotions of grief and pain combined with the will to move forward in life. You can get the book here! 📖
1922 (from “Full Dark, No Stars”) by Stephen King
Wilfred James, a farmer in a small village in Nebraska, is against his wife’s wishes to sell their farmland and move to the city. He hatches a plan to kill his wife and forces their young son – Henry – to help him with the murder. Wilfred dumps the body in a dry well, soon infested with rats feeding upon the dead. Henry runs away to Omaha with his pregnant girlfriend. Wilfred is left all alone and is harassed by the rats increasingly. The picture-perfect world that he had imagined for himself starts to crumble. This is a tale of deception, greed, betrayal, revenge, and rats. Thomas Jane has portrayed the emotional turbulence of Wilfred beautifully. His performance in this movie is stellar. “1922” is one of the four novellas in Stephen King’s “Full Dark, No Stars” book. You can get the book here! 📖
Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
Vivian is tired of her small-town high school’s sexism towards female students. Her school holds the football team on a pedestal, defending them even when they are wrong. Fed up with all the casual sexism and perversion, she takes inspiration from her mother, who used to be punk rock riot grrrl in the 90s. She distributes feminist zines called “Moxie” anonymously to her classmates. With this zine, she forms many friendships across the popularity ranks. Slowly, this zine becomes a revolutionary statement among the students. Based on the book by Jennifer Mathieu, the movie stars Hadley Robinson, Alycia Pascual-Peña, and Lauren Tsai. This story shows how guys, with no consequences for their actions, get away with just a slap on their wrist. It portrays how the girls would be labeled “dramatic” when casual sexism is called out. You can get the book here! 📖
The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn
Anna Fox, a child psychologist, is agoraphobic. She stays holed up in her Manhattan brownstone building, spending days drinking wine, watching old thrillers, and spying on her neighbors through the windows. She starts spying on the Russells that just moved next door—Alistair Russell, his wife Jane Russell, and their teenage son Ethan Russell. They seem to have the perfect little family until she witnesses Jane Russell getting stabbed in the living room.
She immediately alerts the detectives, who assure her that the family is just fine. The next day, Alistair visits Anna along with Jane, and to her shock, the woman named Jane is a different person than the one who had visited her once they had gotten settled into their new place. With her drinking problem and medication, she second-guesses her memories. Even if she is confident of what she saw, there is no way the detectives would believe her with all the hallucinations the medication might cause.
Things get even more sinister around her, and she cannot rely on herself to save herself. Was it all a hallucination? Was she having fabricated memories of all the thrillers she had watched? Was she in danger? The psychology thriller film is based on the book written by A.J. Finn. Starring Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, and Wyatt Russell, the movie delivered the perfect non-reliable narrator keeping the audience on their toes. You can get the book here! 📖
Here are the best books made into Netflix Originals (Movies) that you should check out. We know books are always better than movies, but it’s also good to visually experience them. Let us know which is your favorite book or Netflix Original movie in the comments below. Happy reading/watching!