Have you ever watched a TV adaptation of a book you loved and found yourself deeply and personally disappointed? Because that is exactly what happened to me with Every Year After on Amazon Prime.

I did not even make it through the entire season. I quit after episode four.

That is especially unfortunate because I loved Every Summer After by Carley Fortune. I loved it enough to also read One Golden Summer, which follows Charlie’s story and features the iconic yellow boat.

Maybe the boat appeared later in the series. I will never know because I could not be bothered to stick around long enough to find out.

Before we get into everything that went wrong, consider this your official warning: Spoilers ahead for both the book and the television series.

Why Did They Change the Title?

First, can somebody explain why the title changed from Every Summer After to Every Year After?

The original title was perfectly fine. Nobody was confused. Nothing needed fixing. Why are we changing things that are not broken?

The book already had a recognizable title, an established fan base, and plenty of attention online. Renaming the adaptation felt unnecessary before the show had even started.

Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of the changes.

The Casting Wasn’t Terrible

I will give the show credit where it is due because some of the casting was excellent.

Young Percy and present-day Percy look like the same person at different ages. The resemblance is almost creepy.

The casting of young Delilah and adult Delilah was equally convincing.

Then Elisha Cuthbert appeared as Sam’s mom. I’m sorry, what year is it? Seeing her was such a fun surprise for millennials, and I loved that a Canadian actress was appearing in a show set in Canada. That part felt right.

Now we need to discuss the crime committed against young Sam. Who approved that haircut? Young Sam deserved better.

Some of the Book Moments Worked

A few of the scenes pulled directly from the book were handled really well.

The horror movie scenes were perfect.

The anatomy book scene was perfect.

The ice cream cone scene was memorable, too, although it felt much more awkward and overdone on screen. I remembered the moment from the book, but the television version crossed the line into full-body cringe.

The setting also worked. The lakeside town looked almost exactly as I pictured it while reading. Full disclosure: Lakes gross me out. I do not know what is lurking underneath that water, and I do not wish to find out. Visually, though, it was lovely.

The tavern was great, and the scenery was beautiful.

The soundtrack may have been the strongest part of the entire series. The music choices were fantastic.

The Book Changes Started Losing Me

This is where the series began to fall apart for me.

It has been a few years since I read Every Summer After, so there may be details I am forgetting. However, I generally hate when adaptations make a long list of unnecessary changes.

The book became popular for a reason.

When a television adaptation starts rewriting characters, adding side plots, and changing major scenes, I always wonder why the creators did not simply make an entirely new show.

These were some of the changes I noticed within the first four episodes:

• Did Sam’s motel-owner best friend have a significant storyline?
• I do not remember Percy’s lawyer friend having this much going on.
• Charlie and Delilah hooking up… Was that a thing?
• I do not remember the girls breaking into Percy’s old house and getting caught.
• Did Percy get the Tavern in the book?

Even some of the major moments seemed different.

As I remembered it, Sam discovered Percy was back in town when he saw her at the restaurant. In the show, somebody runs over and spills the news beforehand.

That may sound like a small change, but these changes kept piling up until the story no longer felt like the book I remembered loving.

Then there is Delilah. Look, Delilah sucks in the book, and she sucks in the show.

At least they remained faithful to the source material there. Consistency matters.

Present-Day Charlie Was Not Working for Me

Let’s talk about present-day Charlie. He looks like somebody combined James Marsden and Scott Wolf, which is obviously great news for him.

I know people love Charlie. I have read One Golden Summer. I know his full story, and I loved his character in that book.

I understand that we are supposed to love him eventually. But in this show? He annoyed me.

Please do not come for me, but the whole arrogant act was not working. He came across as irritating rather than charming, and knowing that I was supposed to eventually root for him did not make the experience any easier.

The Acting Sometimes Felt Like a Soap Opera

I had also recently watched Off Campus, which may have contributed to my disappointment.

Perhaps I watched the two adaptations too close together.

Off Campus raised the bar for the acting, pacing, and chemistry. By comparison, parts of Every Year After felt like a soap opera.

Percy was the exception. I liked her performance. She gave me major Rachel McAdams in The Notebook vibes, which made sense for this kind of nostalgic, emotional summer romance.

She was one of the few reasons I made it as far as I did.

The Three Timelines Were Confusing

Another issue was the timeline.

The show moves between three different periods, and two of those timelines use the same actors.

Normally, that would not be a major problem. However, when the show constantly jumps through time, the visual differences need to be extremely clear.

There were moments when I could not tell whether we were in the past or the present.

Give me a different color palette.

Give me a dramatically different hairstyle.

Give me a giant flashing sign.

The series occasionally included labels, but the transitions were not consistently obvious enough for me.

To be fair, I was also bored, so perhaps I was not paying as close attention as I should have been.

Still, when viewers need to work that hard to figure out which year they are watching, something is not clicking.

Sam’s Behavior Still Makes No Sense

Finally, we need to revisit something that annoyed me in the book and somehow annoyed me even more in the show.

Sam, buddy. Make it make sense. You do not want Percy to be your girlfriend, but you also do not want her to date anybody else.

What exactly is your plan here? That is not how relationships work. That is not how any of this works.

Watching this dynamic play out on screen made it even more frustrating because the indecision and jealousy felt more obvious and more irritating.

Why I Stopped Watching Every Year After

Initially, I thought I would finish the season because I had already made it halfway through.

Then I realized continuing would require approximately four more hours of my life.

That is four hours of precious reading time. That is four hours I could spend watching a new series I actually enjoy. So I gave up.

I know what happens, or at least I think I know what happens based on the book. I have also heard that the series makes even more changes later.

Maybe I will eventually finish it. Maybe.

For now, I am going back to books.

Have you watched Every Year After on Amazon Prime? Did you love the adaptation, or were you disappointed by the changes? Tell me in the comments because I need to know whether I am alone on this.