TOP FIVE WEDNESDAY: Top five books that should be TV shows

(Top Five Wednesday was created by GingerReadsLainey. Find out more at the Goodreads group!)

I love watching TV. I love reading. And the thing I love most is when a book is made into a TV show and it's completely accurate. Everything you loved in the book happens on the screen, and all of the characters look exactly how they're described.

"Alyce, I can't think of any examples of that happening..."

Well, dear reader, you're wrong! There was... Wait, no, that character wasn't in the books. Ooh, ooh, or! Nope, actually, everyone dies in the book but no one seems to be dying in the TV show.
*frantic thinking*
Maybe Game of Thrones?

"Have you read that yet?"

Uh... No...

"So how would you know?"

Uhm, uh...

Okay, okay, so book to TV adaptations are normally pretty sucky. People die willy nilly, beloved characters don't exist, new characters are randomly conjured out of the air, it's a mess. But if I was a director/producer/executive person in charge of TV, these are the five books that I would make into TV shows - and I would make them damn good while doing it.

5) The Spinster Club series by Holly Bourne

A lot of US YA gets made into films or TV shows, but I think we need more UKYA gracing the screen. The Spinster Club would be perfect: the sixth form environment offering more freedom than school-oriented shows like 'Waterloo Road', and the characters all so lovable that you wouldn't be able to resist seeing what they get up to each week.
It would also be a great way to teach young people about feminism. It can be difficult to understand at a young age, but Holly explains it simply but very effectively!

4) 'Half Bad' by Sally Green

The second brilliant UKYA series I'm choosing to be made into a TV show is Sally Green's Half Life trilogy. Again, I haven't read the other two books - I'm too nervous about what's going to happen to Nathan and Gabriel, and I love this first installment too much to continue - but 'Half Bad' would work really well as a show.

The debate about good and evil, the metaphors for racism, it's all so relevant to our current social climate that it would go down a storm. 

3) 'Paper Towns' by John Green

I haven't read enough road trip novels to be able to pick a different title, but I really want a road trip questing TV show. 

So, instead of Q and friends knowing exactly where Margo is, he picks paper towns from all across the country, and they travel far and wide - getting up to crazy hijinks in each location, and teaching American geography to thousands of teenagers - looking for her. 

In the vein of Skyrim and World of Warcraft, the gang would get to a new location, ask the locals if they'd seen Margo, and then end up helping out perfect strangers with their problems. Looking for their friend and being good samaritans. I'd watch the shit out of that show. (As long as it only lasted for one season, otherwise I think it would be too dragged out!). 

2) Harry Potter

Obviously this would rely on amazing casting of unknown actors - they'd become Harry and co. for the next generation - and it would risk alienating all of the fans so far, but the success of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' shows there's still a passion for this character that can be milked.

So much happens in the books (I'm assuming this based on the amount of events in the first few books, and the fact that the later books in the series get HUGE) that it could easily become a TV show, with each series dealing with the next book installment. The minor characters could take more of a starring role and the exact dialogue that Rowling wrote could be incorporated almost in its entirety.

The only problem is that because so many people already know the story, there wouldn't be any appeal in cliffhangers - getting people to return from week to week could be difficult, because if one episode was boring or inaccurate it could drive people away in floods. 

1) '99 Days' by Katie Cotugno

I imagine '99 Days' being like 'A to Z' (the short-lived romantic comedy featuring The Mother from 'How I Met Your Mother'): 30 minute episodes split into two 15 minute shorter stories, showing each day of Molly's summer.

The beginning of the first episode could be a fast montage, flashing through all the mistakes Molly made leading up to this endless summer, both effectively introducing the characters and setting up an enigma code. 

The romantic tension between Molly and the brothers would appeal to fans of 'The Vampire Diaries', and the fandoms split between shipping Molly and Gabe and Molly and Patrick would be ravenous. 

It would need to be handled well - dealing with infidelity, it could easily become trash TV that everyone detests - so they'd need to have a lovable, girl-next-door type playing Molly... I'm imagining Kaya Scodelario, or Sydney Seriota from Echosmith (if she decided to go into acting!). 

I hope you enjoyed this Top Five Wednesday! Are there any books you really want to see on the small screen?