DAMSEL: Movie vs. Book

Why the novel and Netflix film are so similar, yet so very different

Hi friends,

Recently, we ran an excellent piece by

Evelyn Skye

about writing the Damsel novel for Netflix. If you’ve read my Dragon Strife series, then you know I have a special place in my heart for subverting the “virgin sacrifice” narrative. So, I read the book immediately. When the movie dropped, I watched it with excitement, thinking I knew what would happen. After all, I literally read the book Evelyn wrote based on the screenplay, right?

ZOMG, I was so wrong. Even though I recognized most of the movie, it was like watching a completely different story. So, I emailed Evelyn and asked WTF was going on here, and she very graciously agreed to do a follow-up piece for me.

Before we get to it, I want to clarify that I am aware that movies based on books often change almost everything about them. However, this wasn’t a movie based on a book. It was a book based on a movie, and I wasn’t aware that translation worked both ways.

I loved them both, by the way, and highly recommend them at least as a study on how to successfully do translation work since they are both so fun and accessible.

I’ll turn it over to Evelyn now. Make sure to subscribe to her publication if you haven’t yet.

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Hi everyone! I’m in Paris right now for the French leg of the Damsel book tour, but I am thrilled to also be here on Author Stack with you again.

Now that Damsel the movie has finally hit Netflix, viewers and readers are starting to talk about the differences between the film’s story and the book’s. Sure, they were both based on the same source material, but keen observers have noted that although the core story is similar, the details of the book and movie are… not.

How can this be?

I explained this literary and filmmaking collaboration in my interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

“The easiest way to think about it is this: Dan Mazeau wrote the original screenplay. I was able to read an early draft and was given free rein to write my own version of the story, which ultimately became the novel. Both the novel and the movie may stem from the same origin, but they are also each their own unique works of art.

“I got to read drafts of the screenplay, and the filmmakers got to read drafts of my manuscript. We could riff off each other’s ideas, building details from the novel into the movie and vice versa, while also preserving our own versions of the story in our respective mediums.”

One of the best things about working with Netflix is that their team had so much respect for books as a different form of storytelling. All of us—at my publisher, Random House Worlds, and the Netflix filmmakers—understood that some things work better on the written page, whereas others are better shown on the big screen.

Netflix was also eager to let me expand the worldbuilding and the characters’ backstories in the novel. Clocking in at just under 400 pages, I had a lot more room for expansive storytelling and getting into the heads of the characters.

The Setting

In the movie, viewers only get a glimpse of where Elodie came from before she arrives in Aurea. But in Damsel the novel, I got to create an entire duchy that didn’t exist in the movie. It’s called Inophe, and it’s a parched, drought-plagued land that Elodie will one day inherit as the duchess. I had the page space to show Elodie working hard on the land, just as her people do, and interacting with them—helping them arrange bartering, building solar stills, and visiting everyone alongside her father, Lord Bayford.

I also expanded on the Kingdom of Aurea. In Damsel, the novel, Elodie and Prince Henry ride through the countryside and meet merchants and farmers. She immerses herself in the land and learns about its valuable crops.

Furthermore, there are additional characters who were not in the movie. By getting to know some of the other citizens of Aurea besides the royal family, the book is able to flesh out the world a little more.

The Characters

In the movie, Queen Isabelle is cruel, Prince Henry is conflicted, and the king has only one line.

In the book, Prince Henry is the one hardened by duty, Queen Isabelle is the one who is conflicted, and King Rodrick has PTSD from the burden of sacrificing so many innocent women’s lives.

Within the novel, I had the opportunity—and more time than the film—to explore each of these characters’ backstories. When I did that, I realized that in my version of the stories, the queen and Prince Henry were different than the movie versions.

In the book, I could explore where Queen Isabelle originally came from, and that explained why she felt awful about what she was doing, yet had to carry on. (See my annotated page about the queen here.)

I could show you why Prince Henry had become a cruel slave to duty (because he had an older brother who forced this upon him at too young an age).

And I could show the realistic effects of what would happen to a king who had to make the horrible, impossible choice of killing three women every year in exchange for protecting the peace and stability for his own people.

Of course, I got much deeper into Elodie’s character, too.

Plus, as I mentioned above, there are additional, new characters—Aureans—in the book that the movie did not have room for, including Lieutenant Alexandra Ravella, the scout whose job it is to scour the world looking for the poor, innocent women to bring home to Aurea as dragon sacrifices.

Dragon Language

There is an entire language for the dragon in the book, complete with a grammar guide, verb conjugation tables, and an abridged dictionary.

It was too complicated of a storyline to weave into the film (the language plays a part in the plot of the book). But fans have already written me to say they are studying and learning Khaevis Ventvis, the dragon language.

The Ending

I won’t say too much here, because I don’t want to put any spoilers out there, but since the internet is already buzzing about the ending of the movie, let me just tell you this: The book’s ending is different.

There are some similarities, because again, this was a collaborative storytelling project and I was able to take things from the draft screenplay and put them in the novel, and Netflix’s filmmaking team was able to take things from the book and include them in the movie, as we each felt was beneficial for that form of storytelling.

So I’ll just put it out there that it’s worth reading the book for the ending and then comparing it to the movie’s finale. They’re different in significant ways, but I think they work well for their respective formats.

Got more questions about how I wrote Damsel?

Don’t miss all this Damsel Bonus Content.

And then please support my writing and pick up the book today!

For more of Evelyn Skye’s writing, you can find her at WORDPLAY with Evelyn Skye, a warm and uplifting community for readers and writers where she shares author interviews and behind-the-scenes peeks at a New York Times bestselling novelist’s life, and runsthe very fun WORDPLAY Book Club for Writers and Curious Readers(where you not only share your thoughts on the book of the month but also get to listen to writers analyze what did and didn’t work in the story, and why.)

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Get your copy of DAMSEL!

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So what did you think?

• Did you already know how this worked?

• Did you learn anything new here?

• Is there anything that you can bring back to your own writing?

Let us know in the comments.

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