Some stories refuse to stay on the page. The Hollywood Reporter’s Beyond the Book column explores what happens when books make the leap to screen and beyond — unpacking what changed, how it was done and why it matters with the creatives who made it.
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[Warning: This story contains major spoilers for Prime Video’s Every Year After.]
Celebrated author William Falkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead; it isn’t even past.” The Nobel Prize laureate likely didn’t intend for his now-famous phrase to describe a romance novel, which on June 10 debuted its highly anticipated TV adaptation, Every Year After, on Prime Video. But it’s a fitting description nonetheless for the kind of story that unfolds within author Carley Fortune’s 2022 book Every Summer After.
The New York Times best-selling second-chance romance traces how the relationship between best friends-turned-lovers Persephone “Percy” Fraser (Sadie Soverall) and Sam Florek (Matt Cornett) once fell apart. A love story deconstructed and reconstructed across alternating timelines, their past becomes present when Percy returns to Barry’s Bay, the lakeside town where she spent her summers as a teen, and first fell in love with Sam.
After Percy arrives in Barry’s Bay to attend the funeral of the Florek brothers’ mother, the two are forced to learn how to navigate each other again. Eventually, Percy’s overbearing guilt — and Sam’s interest in rekindling their past connection — leads her to finally confess the reason she put distance between them 10 years ago. After Sam left for college and they broke up, Percy slept with his older brother Charlie (Michael Bradway).
But not before she and Sam face a series of relationship hurdles, followed by him suggesting it’s best for them to put things on hold while he focuses on college. Vulnerable and heartbroken, Percy finds comfort in Charlie in a short-lived tryst, before an ashamed Percy leaves Sam, Charlie and Barry’s Bay behind.
Within a brief “Reader’s Guide” that follows Fortune’s book, the author admits that her central character’s betrayal might be hard to stomach. But in 2020 when she wrote the novel, she not only “knew I wanted it to have a happy ending,” but also wished to “write about people who screw up but ultimately try their best to do better.”
“For some readers, Percy’s betrayal will be unforgivable,” Fortune wrote. “The characters in this book are all flawed. I hope that makes them all the more compelling.”
“For Some Readers, Percy’s Betrayal Will Be Unforgivable.”
Like with the book, much of Prime Video’s series adaptation Every Year After explores a life shaped by the consequences of two people’s impulsive childhood choices. An aftermath riddled with guilt and shame after Percy loses the love of her life, both stories on page and screen demonstrate how a single decision can reverberate across more than a decade, affecting someone’s self-perception and relationships.
But in its own twist, Prime Video’s eight-episode adaptation alters a key aspect of Sam and Percy’s breakup and eventual makeup, specifically who knew about Percy’s betrayal and when. In the novel, it’s revealed that Sam was already aware of what had transpired between Percy and Charlie because Charlie confessed it to his brother years ago. In the series, helmed by showrunner Amy B. Harris, Charlie never reveals their secret and it’s Percy who comes clean to Sam. Upon learning the truth, Sam spirals, cutting both Percy and Charlie from his life.
Both Fortune and Harris express having great empathy for the protagonist, who was an insecure girl that had an irresolute boyfriend and made a grave mistake. “With Sam and Percy, their relationship as young people doesn’t feel safe to Percy, because he’s being a teenage boy, very wishy-washy. She’s really vulnerable. I think what I tried to do, and I think what the show does a good job of, is show [that] she makes a mistake. We’re very flawed, and we do make mistakes, but we are still worthy of good things, and love, and that’s the journey that Percy’s on,” Fortune tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The show also acknowledges that Percy’s pattern of emotional immaturity played a role in what happened between her, Sam and Charlie. “I think we made it pretty clear, she’s starting to understand that she lashes out at Sam when he hurts her. She would kiss other boys, she would throw a boyfriend in his face. … I think she’s learning these painful lessons, and I hope the way we told the story of how Charlie and Percy ended up hooking up, was [because] that relationship [between Sam and Percy] had become so hard and so difficult, and Charlie was fun and a breath of fresh air,” Harris says.
Fortune disagrees with fans who describe Percy’s behavior as cheating, saying she views it more as a betrayal. “To me, it doesn’t really matter, but I know to readers it does,” she tells THR. “People have used the word adultery, which I think is absolutely inappropriate when they’re 17. It’s a betrayal. It’s a betrayal of Sam, and it’s a betrayal of herself.”
While the author and showrunner are firm in their understanding of Percy’s decision and the fallout, the response to the betrayal has in the few years since the book’s release proved divisive among readers. While some fans question whether Percy truly cheated on Sam if they were broken up, others have charged that neither Percy nor Charlie are redeemable characters.
Fortune acknowledges that Percy gets “the most heat” from her readers compared to Sam and Charlie despite it being “foreshadowed from the first chapter,” adding it has been surprising to see Percy’s choice considered “worse than a murder.”
Harris welcomes the debates, and suggests that the criticism of Percy could be because the novel is told through her perspective. “Percy made a huge mistake in sleeping with Charlie, but Sam had been very inconsistent,” Harris tells THR. “You could say, ‘She’s too needy’ and ‘She needed too much from him,’ and that’s fine, but I don’t think that’s the case, actually. I think Sam, when things got hard, always pushed her away. When he got scared, he would be like, ‘We have our serious lives to take care of, and we have to pursue our own dreams, and we can’t be together.’ That was incredibly painful for Percy.”
In a departure from the novel, viewers are able to see Sam unravel, putting a spotlight on his flaws and journey towards taking accountability for the role he played in Percy and Charlie coming together. For Harris, the show was an opportunity to “be able to explore his realization [that] he threw himself into his med school and his life because he didn’t really know how to be fully emotionally intimate with Percy, even though he thought he did. I think he had a lot to learn,” she says.
“The Characters in This Book Are All Flawed. I Hope That Makes Them All the More Compelling.”
“I’ve done a lot of female characters who are very messy and make a lot of mistakes,” says Harris.
But Percy’s not the only one who made a summer mistake. Behind adult Charlie’s confident, fun and successful persona is a deep pain over his choice. “In the book and in the show, at that moment he is not living a life that is true to himself, and he has a lot of regrets. You really get to be on that journey with him in the show, and I think that’s where he was in my mind anyway. Percy coming back for the funeral brings a lot up for him,” Fortune says.
“Percy has actually done way more than what she set out to do when she came to Barry’s Bay. She has really owned her decisions, and Charlie is where I suspected he would be emotionally, which is not in a good place.”
Bradway notes that like Percy, Charlie too stayed away from Sam, even when their mom was sick because “Charlie’s biggest fear was losing” his brother.
“Charlie really felt like if he could make all of this money, he could make his problems go away, and if he supported Sam from afar and paid for his medical school, that eventually Sam would forgive him. If the truth did come out, Charlie would be able to have all of this evidence of him being a good brother,” Bradway says. “So I did understand his reasoning. Would I have done the same thing? Probably not, but I completely understand where he’s coming from and why he did [what he did].”
Among readers, Charlie telling Sam the truth may have made them more empathetic to him. “After Every Summer After, there were readers who really despised Charlie, but then I had way more readers who wanted him to have a love story, and I would get multiple messages a day for his love story. People would come up to me at my book events and pitch me ideas and demand justice for Charlie. So he had this fan club,” Fortune says.
But his silence in the series could change viewers’ perceptions of him, raising questions about where the line between empathy and excusal lies. In the show, after Sam becomes aware of his brother’s betrayal, he attacks Charlie’s character, accusing him of poisoning things and of being someone who isn’t capable of remorse. “I’m sure it will change some perspectives,” Fortune says. “Charlie gets a lot of credit for telling [Sam]. I think it was really important for me in the story that Charlie owned up to it. I think it’s really important in the show to see Sam react to the news. Does that make Charlie less empathetic? Maybe.”
Despite losing his brother, Charlie is still navigating how much he struggled over the years holding onto the secret. “I hope the audience is going to have a lot of empathy for both Charlie and Percy. In that shed scene in particular, they really talk about how heartbroken they are and how it changed the trajectory of their lives, and not necessarily in great ways emotionally for either of them,” Harris says.
Bradway argues that Charlie staying mum about the secret “only helps his journey” going forward. “I think the fact that Charlie really felt like they could keep this from Sam forever is crazy because it’s gonna come out. But I think that Charlie was thinking that’s a problem for later,” he says. “People’s perspectives are going to be this roller coaster of emotions. You’re gonna love them, you’re gonna hate them, and then you’re gonna love them again. And as an actor that’s so fun to play.”
“I Knew I Wanted to Tell a Love Story, and I Knew I Wanted It to Have a Happy Ending.”
Departing from the novel’s second twist not only upped the stakes for TV, but also set the foundation for a new kind of emotional reckoning for Fortune’s characters. “I wanted it to be a big dramatic thing that changed the trajectory of where all the characters are going. It allowed us in the later episodes to explore the aftermath of that in a really emotional and dramatic way, which was very exciting for me,” Harris tells THR.
It’s a choice that leaves Every Year After’s leading trio at a crossroads by season’s end. After revealing the secret and later having an emotional goodbye with Sam before she returns to Seattle, Percy is seen being able to move on with her life without the weight of guilt and shame hindering her. She begins writing again and attempts to live the life she’d been preventing herself from having, after finally achieving the forgiveness she’d felt was undeserved. She later returns to Barry’s Bay given she now owns the tavern once owned by Sue Florek, via an inheritance from the family matriarch’s will. Sam, working as a cardiologist, also returns to Barry’s Bay, where he finds Percy in the revamped tavern’s kitchen. “You came home,” she tells him, in an ending scene that mirrors their first reunion.
Meanwhile, Charlie is left to grapple with the loss of his brother — his only family left given their parents have both died — his friendship with Percy and himself. His season ends with a heart attack, mirroring his father’s cause of death — and a major tease for his story continuation in the One Golden Summer novel.
Should the show return for a season two, Every Year After will once again ask the audience to examine their level of empathy for an ensemble of flawed characters. “These are real things that happen, and audiences are allowed to be ticked off,” Harris says. “I hope for every person who has judgment, who is angry at them about that betrayal, that the show will provide some understanding of why they’re worthy of empathy.”
In terms of the season finale, Harris was intent on treating that betrayal not as an obstacle quickly overcome, but that would set the stage for a new beginning for the characters. “I think this season was about will they-won’t they, and next season will be about how will they. I think that’s something that isn’t explored as much as I would like in TV shows. Although I hope the audience feels like they’re coming to a happy ending at the beginning of season one, to me, it’s just the beginning.”
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Every Year After is currently streaming on Prime Video.
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