Lauren Oliver on ‘Panic’: Seeing different dimensions

The YA author, who adapted her novel for the show, likens the process to origami. While in the novel there is just the shape, in the series, you get to pull apart the folds for a closer look

After Lauren Oliver’s 2010 novel, Before I Fall, was adapted into a film starring Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, and Jennifer Beals, her 2014 novel, Panic has been adapted into a television show. Lauren is also the executive producer and has written the 10-episode show, which tells the story of teenagers competing in dangerous challenges for a grand cash prize. While the show follows the broad outlines of the novel, there have been some rather radical changes as well. How close an adaptation should be to the source material depends on the adaptation itself, Lauren says over a call from Indiana, USA. “Adaptations are like translations, and a good translation makes adjustments in terms of grammar and syntax in order to preserve the important elements of theme and style. The writer should be willing to sit apart from an adaptation.”