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“My Life with the Walter Boys” aired on Netflix early December. The television show is based off the novel published in 2014.

“My Life with the Walter Boys” is a new television series that aired on Netflix on Dec, 7 2023. The show is based off the book, which was published back in 2014. It has quickly became a popular series across Netflix by hitting number one on charts in just the first day.

Ali Novak, author and publisher of the book in 2014, always dreamed that her novel would be made into a TV show. The book has always been fairly popular because of its unique and detailed storyline that reals readers in. The main story is about a love triangle between a family friend from New York and two brothers from Colorado. The main character Jackie has a hard time adjusting to her new living situation with the Walter Boys. Falling for two of the brothers does not seem to make her life any easier.

“‘My Life with the Walter Boys’ is the newest book-to-screen adaptation to take the internet by storm. It includes jaw-dropping scenery and a love triangle,” Julia Moore from People reported.

In comparison, both the show and the book have many unique characters who each all have their own storyline. However, since the novel was published in 2014, changes have been made to parts of the storyline to make more sense in a TV series. For example, the Walter family has 12 children in the novel and in the show the family has 10. This is because having such a large cast for a TV show is expensive, it can be a struggle for the team of creators and organizers and it can be too confusing to the storyline.

“Throughout the first season of this teen drama, some of the Walter family members could have used more focus; there was not nearly enough of Katherine and George, to start, while [many of the children] were basically background players,” Jay Snow from Collider reported.

Fans and viewers have responded in many ways regarding the show being aired. “My Life with the Walter Boys” hit Netflix’s number one charts in just one day. In just four days, the new series has over 7.5 million views. This helped spread the word for others who had no idea about the show coming out. Many fans did not know that there was even a show being made since it had been over eight years since the novel was published to shelves. Reviews after watching the series have said that it has a similar story line to “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” which is a television series on Prime Video.

“‘The Summer I Turned Pretty” is a great show. I think there is room for two shows with this kind of theme [a love triangle]. I don’t think it’s a bad comparison at all,” Show-runner Melanie Halsall from “My Life with the Walter Boys” reported to Variety.

Since the TV show was based off the novel, fans were surprised when the show made changes to casting and plot lines. Though the ratings and reviews of the show are still high, these reasons are what would bring the scoring down. As mentioned, many characters from the book were not included in the show like Zack, Jack and Riley. This confused fans and made them wonder why the storyline changed. However, they were not big characters in the book and if they were to have been included in the series, the actors would probably not receive much screen time.

Additionally, the novel includes vast details and description that can real readers in. These descriptions were then shown more clearly in the TV series and made it easier for readers to visualize what Novak had in mind. For example, the description of the house in the show matched closely with how the house was described in the novel.

Both the television series and the book have a descriptive language all with a dramatic storyline. Both elements capture the main idea and are very detailed to help the readers imagination soar. I would definitely recommend this drama series to people who enjoy rom-coms, strong diction, and family TV and have watched “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series.