If you love reading and watching movies, chances are you’re already familiar with the best novels that were made into movies, from classics like “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “Little Women”, and “The Shining” to newer releases like “The Hunger Games”, “The Help” and “Gone Girl”. But what about great books that were made into TV shows? Even if there are less shows out there that were adapted from novels, there is still a fantastic selection for you to choose from, and we highlighted five that we would absolutely recommend.
Among the most popular books that were made into TV shows are “Game of Thrones,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “His Dark Materials”, “Outlander”, and “Bridgerton”, but we tried to avoid the most obvious titles to give you something new to discover. Keep scrolling for a list of 5 great books made into TV shows, complete with the names of both novels and series, and where you can watch it. And If you’d like to read the books, this guide lists the top websites to buy cheap books! Without further ado, take a look at our picks below, in alphabetical order!
1. 3 Body Problem / “The Three-Body Problem”
Name of novel: “The Three-Body Problem” (2008)
Book series: “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” Trilogy
Author: Liu Cixin
Name of series: 3 Body Problem (2024)
Where to watch it: Netflix
Let’s start a popular novel that was made even more famous by the recently released Netflix adaptation. “The Three-Body Problem” is the first book in the “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy, from Chinese sci-fi author Liu Cixin. The first novel was initially released in a serialized format, in sci-fi magazine “Science Fiction World,” but it was so popular that it was then turned into a book.
Just like the series, the book is told with a nonlinear narrative that takes us to two timelines, with multiple characters trying to make sense of the oddities happening to them while being chased by oppressive authorities. It all begins in the 1960s, in China, when a young scientist makes a decision that will affect the entire world several decades later. Soon, we’re taken to the present-day, where all our best scientists seem to be taking their own lives for no reason. But how are these two eras connected? Why is this all happening? And is anything otherworldly involved?
Over the course of three novels, Liu Cixin’s takes this premise and develops it into an unexpected, fascinating journey that will absolutely have you hooked. Both the 2024 series and the books are fantastic, and since the Netflix show has just been renewed for two more seasons, now is the best time to read the entire trilogy before watching it come alive.
2. Black Bird / “In With the Devil”
Name of novel: “In with the Devil: a Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption” (2010)
Author: James Keene
Name of series: Black Bird (2022)
Where to watch it: Apple TV+
The Apple TV+ series was hugely popular when it was released, back in 2022, and for good reason. With fantastic performances from leads Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser and a slow-burning plot that gives you a puzzle to solve, this riveting prison drama remains one of the best shows Apple TV+ has to offer.
But what makes Black Bird even more compelling is that it was inspired by the true story of Jimmy Keene, which wrote a book about it titled “In with the Devil: a Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption”. The series was adapted to the screen by acclaimed crime novelist Dennis Lehane, who managed to stay true to Keene’s tale.
Both novel and series take us back to 1996, when a promising high school football player, son of a well-known policeman, is sentenced to serve ten years in prison after he makes a wrong decision. There, he is given another choice to make: serve his full sentence without parole, or be transferred to a maximum-security prison and befriend a man named Larry Hall, whom the police suspects to be a serial killer. If Keene gets Hall to confess to two murders, the former would be released from prison. But will he survive this mission?
Keene, who is one of the series’ executive producers, also published two sequels to his first memoir: “Black Bird: One Man’s Freedom Hides in Another Man’s Darkness” (2022) to coincide with the show’s release, and “The Chicago Phoenix: Jimmy Keene’s Untold Story” (2023), about his time as an FBI operative. If you liked the series and the first book, you’re sure to find the others captivating too!
3. The Handmaid’s Tale
Name of novel: “The Handmaid’s Tale” (1985)
Author: Margaret Atwood
Name of series: The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-2025)
Where to watchi t: Hulu/Disney+; Prime Video (VOD)
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you’ve already heard of the popular Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale which won multiple awards including 15 Primetime Emmys, and whose highly anticipated final season hit streaming platforms in April 2025.
Both series and novel start from the same premise: in a near-future, dystopian U.S.A., fertility rates are down and a totalitarian regime is forcing some women to become “handmaids” – that is, concubines of sorts that can give birth to children for higher class couples who want them but are unable to have them themselves. We follow Offred, who has just become a handmaid for a commander and her wide, but who’s in love with their chauffeur. In order to survive, Offred must find a way to get pregnant before their new “owners” send her to the wastelands.
If the Hulu show is as popular as it is, it’s mostly because of Elisabeth Moss’s fantastic central performance. But the novel from which it’s adapted, Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” was released in 1985, and there are so many themes that this modern adaptation doesn’t cover. Don’t forget to check out the 2019 sequel too: “The Testaments”.
4. Ripley / “The Talented Mr. Ripley”
Name of novel: “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1955)
Book series: The “Tom Ripley” series
Author: Patricia Highsmith
Name of series: Ripley (2024)
Where to watch it: Netflix
Andrew Scott is phenomenal in Netflix’s 2024 series Ripley, the rare case of a series that’s just as good as the novel from which it’s adapted. It all starts in 1960s New York, when an ordinary grifter named Tom Ripley (Scott) is hired by a wealthy businessman who thinks he’s a friend of his son’s, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn). The man hires our protagonist to go to Italy and get Dickie to come home, since he’s been away for too long, spending his father’s money and doing very little. Since Tom’s expenses are paid by Mr. Greenleaf, he leaves, but it’s when he meets Dickie and his girlfriend Marge (Dakota Fanning) that we realize that there’s a lot more to Tom Ripley than we thought.
The show, which should absolutely be on your watchlist, is adapted from Patricia Highsmith‘s bestselling novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1955), which is so popular that it has been made into several movies as well. Yet, whether you’ve seen Purple Noon (1960), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), or the Netflix series, we guarantee you still have so much to discover.
Highsmith’s book is part of a series, which gives you four sequels to read after you’ve checked out the first book: “Ripley Under Ground” (1970), “Ripley’s Game” (1974), “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” (1980), and “Ripley Under Water” (1991). In each of these novels, you’ll get to know Tom Ripley a little better, and you’ll ultimately understand why the book series is so beloved: this is a highly fascinating, psychologically compelling work, whose most interesting element is its amoral, yet not unlikable, protagonist.
5. Sharp Objects
Name of novel: “Sharp Objects” (2006)
Author: Gillian Flynn
Name of series: Sharp Objects (2018)
Where to watch it: HBO Max/Prime Video
Remember Gillian Flynn, author of 2012’s “Gone Girl”? The writer’s first book was “Sharp Objects” (2006), which contains many of the themes that would later make her work so acclaimed. The book is about a reporter named Camille Preaker, who has been released from a psychiatric hospital after taking a brief break from work. Upon her return, she is given a new assignment: she must go back to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri to cover a very unsettling murder, which led to an even more worrying disappearance.
But what worries Camille the most is that her trip will reunite her with her estranged family, including her neurotic mother and a thirteen years old half-sister who’s always troubled her, and who seems to have a strange hold on the whole town. As Camille starts looking into a case that holds similarities to her own life, demons from her past resurface.
With Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson and Eliza Scanlen as the leads, the eight-episode HBO series is a fantastic piece of slow-burning television that you should absolutely check out. But the writing is what truly elevates it, which makes Flynn’s novel a must-read. We guarantee you won’t be able to put it down.
So many fantastic, popular books have been made into series: think of classics like “Dracula”; young adult novels like “Normal People,” “Heartstopper”, “The Mortal Instruments”, and “Pretty Little Liars”; sci-fi gems like “Watchmen”; thrillers like “Big Little Lies”, “The Haunting of Hill House”, and “Sweetpea”; beloved Netflix series like You and The Queen’s Gambit. The five novels and shows listed above should give your plenty to read and watch if you’re looking for something you might not have heard of! Enjoy!
