Ep. 60 Lisey's Story by Stephen King vs. Lisey's Story (2021)

Grief can make a world feel unreal and sometimes, in Stephen King’s universe, it literally is. I dive into Lisey’s Story and its Apple TV+ adaptation to unpack how a marriage haunted by memory, fame, and a lurking monster transforms once it leaves the page. I trace why the novel centers Lisey’s private mourning and intimate bond with Scott while the series leans into a thriller frame, giving Jim Dooley’s obsession more oxygen and turning the “bool hunt” into a narrative engine with tangible stakes.

Along the way, I chart the biggest shifts that change how the story lands: the Long Boy’s evolution from whispered menace to driving force, Booya moon’s travel rules moving from pure will to water-bound ritual, and the starkly different accounts of Scott’s death. I also look at how consolidating Lisey’s sisters sharpens the emotional core, why the miniseries’ closure scene resonates even if its cosmology stays hazy, and how sustained tension makes Dooley’s downfall feel earned. If you’ve ever wondered whether clarity beats ambiguity in supernatural storytelling, this comparison offers a rare side-by-side test.

I share the exact moments that swung my verdict, the beats that stumbled (hello, pacing), and the choices that sang, plus a few filming-location Easter eggs (Wave Hill, Journal Square, and the stunning United Palace) for fellow New Yorkers and cinephiles. By the end, you’ll know where each version soars, where it strains, and why the screen adaptation edges out the book for me. Hit play, then tell me your pick: novel or series? If you enjoy these deep dives into book-to-screen changes and how they reshape theme, character, and payoff, follow the show, leave a quick review, and share this episode with a friend who loves a good literary scare.

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Transcript

Setting Up Lisey’s Story

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Welcome to Books vs. Movies, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question, is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Juvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City, and today I will be discussing Lisey's story by Stephen King and it's 2021 adaptation, Lisey's Story. This is a weird one. This is just such a weird premise. I don't I don't even like after I read slash slash watch with the adaptation. I was like, I don't even know how I'm gonna bring this to the podcast because it is such a weird premise and just concepts and everything about it. But you know what? I did it and I'm looking forward to discussing it, all things considered. So let's go ahead and get started. Lisi's story by Stephen King was first published in 2006. It follows Lisi Debutcher Landon, who lost her husband Scott two years ago after a 25-year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott Landon was an award-winning best-selling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship before they married, Lisi had to learn from him about blood, books, and bulls. Later she understood that there was a place Scott went. A place that both terrified and healed him, that could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it's Lisey's turn to face Scott's demons. Lisa's Lisey's turn to go to Buyamun. And what begins as a widow's efforts to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited. Now Stephen King has said that this is perhaps his most personal novel, and it is one of his favorite novels that he's ever written. And the re what makes it so personal is that Lisi is based on his wife, Tabitha King, and Stephen King himself had a near-death experience. He went to the hospital, and while he was in the hospital, his wife decided to organize and clean out his office so that it would be nice and ready for him when he got back. When he got back, his wife wasn't done reorganizing, and so he came back to like this empty office, and he kind of just got this vision of like, wow, this is what my wife's life would look like if I died. Like she would have to clean out my office and sort out my stuff and everything. So my affairs, not my stuff. She would need to sort out my affairs and everything. So that's what inspired this story. And so, yeah, so he considers it his most personal, and it is one of his favorite books that he's ever written, if not his favorite book, and he had been waiting for years to make it into an adaptation. So the 2021 Apple TV series adaptation, Lisey's story follows a widow who becomes the object of a dangerous stalker obsessed with her husband's work. Yeah. Um it's so it is very different. The adaptation is very different from the book, as the book definitely focuses more on Lisi and her relationship with Scott and her mourning and her grief. And the the stalker is an element to the story, but the main story is Lisey and Scott's story. And the mini-series definitely does focus more on the stalker, but and and her mourning and her love story with Scott is important, but those are like those do kind of take like a backseat to it. It's kind of interesting what each one decides to focus on. Now, because it is a TV adaptation and it I believe it's eight episodes long, it's able to include the love story for sure. But yeah, the stalker plays a much more prevalent role in the adaptation. The adaptation stars Julianne Moore, Dane de Haas, and Clive Owen, and it's all eight episodes are directed by Pablo Larrain. So let's go ahead and get started. So I will say I am surprised considering the book does focus more on the relationship between Lisi and Ska. I'm surprised that the bull hunt plays a bigger role in the mini-series than it did in the book. There's, I think, only two clues total in the book, and then she discovers the prize at the end. And in the miniseries, I would say every single episode has a clue for the bull hunt. So the bull hunt is a scavenger hunt. What is a bull? I don't really know. I but I still don't really understand it. From what I can tell, a bull is like something evil that it's just like something evil that you need to get out of your system. It uh if if you don't, it it overtakes you and you become evil and you don't realize that you become possessed essentially and you can lash out at your loved ones. And yeah, I don't really understand. I'm gonna be fairly honest. Even after reading the book and watching the series, can I tell you what a bull is? Not really. But um, it's called a bull hunt because Scott, as a child, his older brother, who was more or less his primary caretaker, would give him these scavenger hunts and he called it bull hunts. And so after Scott passes, the um the bull hunt, after Scott passes, he creates this bull hunt for Lisi. And in the miniseries, as I said, the bull hunt plays a much bigger role, and so it all ties in at the end. How he kind of every single clue, every single aspect of the bull hunt was a way to help her prepare for the stalker and just her sister's catatonic state. Yeah, and in the in the book, it's it really just leads her to her story, and she's able to discover another part of Scott's past that she didn't know. But yeah, I was just I was surprised that the bull hunt played a much bigger role in the miniseries. But I do like that it all ended up tying to all the events we had seen thus far, which we didn't really see in the book. It kind of just led to the story, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It it's just it just wasn't as tied together in a bow, which in this case I liked. I don't always need everything to to come to a reasonable conclusion. But in this, in the in this instance, since it's such a weird story and premise and everything, it was nice to have everything just come together. And it's like, okay, all of this other things that I didn't realize were related to each other, it's nice to know that they were all related. In the book, Lisi has four sisters, and in the miniseries, she has two. And I think this is an easy explanation. I if I'm not mistaken, Tabitha King has four sisters, and so since Lisi is is based on Tabitha, he Stephen King gave her four sisters as well in the book. Honestly, only two of them are important, and the other two are mentioned, but they're not like you could have gotten rid of them and you wouldn't have missed them, which is exactly what happens in the miniseries. She only has two sisters in the miniseries, and they're the ones that play a larger role in the book. So, yes, she has four sisters in the book, but only two in the miniseries. But you only need the two in the miniseries, honestly. So the stalker is named Jim Dooley, and the very first time he threatens Lisi, he leaves a note for her, and in the book, he also leaves a dead cat in her mailbox that he if he thinks it's her cat, and it turns out it's someone else's cat. So I would hate to be the cat owner. So yeah, um Lisi discovers this cat in the mailbox, and she's like, I don't know, this is like terrifying. I don't know who this cat is, and then she reads in the note that Dooley was like, I killed your cat, so you know I'm serious, and she's kind of like, Well, that sucks for whoever owns this cat. But in the mini-series, he kills a bird. So it's still not very nice. Don't kill innocent little animals, but at least it's the bird, like a random bird as opposed to like a pet, you know. Still not nice that he killed a bird, but at least it no one's gonna miss it at the end of the day. And as I mentioned in the pre or in the the summaries of both, Dooley plays a much larger role in the mini-series than he does in the book. In the book, he he has like two interactions with Lisey before their final interaction. And in the mini-series, he's in I want to say every single episode, if not almost every single episode, and even if he doesn't have an in like an interaction with Lisi, he is somewhere in the background and you know he's still a threat, he's still a menace to her. He's in the background watching her, he breaks into her sister's house and stays there while she's stuck at the while her sister's stuck at a mental institution. And yeah, so you always his presence is always constant. And in the book, even though like he tortures her in the book in a way that he doesn't torture her in the miniseries. And so he he does that, and like I said, he leaves the threatening note in the cat and everything, but the focus always goes back to Lisi and Scott and their relationship and the things she's remembering that she might have suppressed, um, because there's some things about his past that are like unpleasant to remember. Just these are just things that she suppressed, and they're coming back as she remembers Scott and and reminisces on the relationship and everything. So you he's so Dooley is there, but he's not like a constant presence and threat in the book the way he is in the mini-series. The long, there's also a so we're starting to get into spoiler territory. I mean, there's always spoiler territory in this podcast. I can't avoid it, I'm sorry. So, um, but if you don't want any more details, now's the time to stop listening. But there is also a character called The Long Boy, and he's also much more prevalent in the miniseries, and I did like that he was a lot more prevalent. He's mentioned a few times in the book, and I but not enough for The Long Boy to really stick with you. And in the the mini-series, he has mentioned in the very first episode the um older sister Amanda, who's the one that's in the mental institution, brings like mentions that he's someone the sisters knew, and it it's in at this moment you think it's just like this imaginary monster that the sisters all dreamt up, and then you end up finding out that he's real. And so he's like mentioned, and then he's not mentioned for a few episodes, and then he's brought back as we get closer and closer to the finale, and we also get we also see what the long boy looks like before the climax. There's just a lot. Um, the long boy also plays a much bigger presence in Scott's story, which we will get into that when we get to how Scott dies. So the long boy is just a a much more present character in the miniseries in a way that he's not in the book. And again, I did like that. So the I'll get into more detail, but Dooley ultimately means his demise at the hands of the Longboy. And so in the TV series, it's a lot more terrifying and yet satisfying because we've been building up to how dangerous the long boy is. And in the book, he's mentioned a few times, but not not frequently enough for us to remember. So when Dooley passes um at the hands of the long boy, it's kind of just like, oh, okay, I really I wish that like Lisi had dealt the final blow because she's been dealing with this stalker for a while. But so so I did like that the long boy like is built up a lot more in the mini-series. And so when Dooley meets his demise, like it's this much more I I don't like, I'm calling him scary, it's not actually a scary creature, or I don't know, it it's does it the rendering of it ended up not being as scary as maybe they were going for it. I don't know, but it's it it's just not as it's just a lot more satisfying to have Dooley die at the hands of the Longboy in the miniseries because we've heard stories of the long boy and we've seen the long boy wreak havoc in certain moments along the way. So, and we've seen how scared all the other characters are of the long boy, and in the book we don't really get that buildup. There is a moment in the book in which Scott explains part of his backstory, well, in the book and the miniseries, part of his backstory, and that is that again, he's very, very close to his older brother. For all intents and purposes, his older brother is like his primary caretaker, despite only being three years older than Scott. Um, their father's kind of absent and they don't have a mother, and their father's also very volatile. So, like Paul, Scott's brother, is the only constant and the only source of sweet love that Scott has growing up. That is until Scott, uh a bull enters uh Paul, and so he becomes evil and possessed, and eventually his father does have to kill Paul because he's too far gone. So in the book, when Paul is possessed by the bull, and he has to be kept chained up and away from the rest of the family, or else he'll he'll kill them, he's kept chain he is kept chained up in the basement, but in the TV series, he's kept chained up outside. I'm not really sure why they made this change. Maybe it was just, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know why they made this change, but he's kept chained up in the basement versus being chained up outside. In the mini-series, after Amanda, the elder sister, is able to be taken out of her catatonic state and they take her out of the mental institution. She and their other sister, Darla, help Lisi um ambush Dooley so then she can take Dooley to Buyamun. And Buyamun, again, is also not really explained what it is. It's some sort of other world where Scott and Paul would go as children, and then Scott teaches Lisi how to go to Buyamoon. And yeah, it's is it another dimension? Is it another world? I don't know. I can't really tell you. I don't really understand. But Buyamun is like this other world, and anytime they get so as I said, if a bull enters you, you have to cut it out of you. So Scott like injures himself, like self-harms himself to get the bulls out, and then he goes to Buyamun because there is a spring of water that like if he gets into the water, he's healed immediately or almost immediately. So this that's Buyamon. That's all I can tell you. Otherwise, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, really know what it is. Kind of like the bull, but anyway, so Lisi drinks from the spring water, and then she ends up regurgitating the spring water into Amanda's mouth, and that takes her out of the catatonic state, and then they're able to take her out of the mental institution. And in the mini-series, they go back to Lisi's house and they set up a an ambush for Dooley, as I mentioned. So it's Darla, the other sister, Amanda and Lisi, and they go back to Lisi's house and they set up this ambush for Dooley. And then Lisi goes to once they ambush Dooley, she takes Dooley back to Buyamun and she calls the Longboy, and the Longboy kills Dooley for her. In the book, Darla is visiting one of their other sisters. So Lisi by herself gets Amanda out of the katectonic state, breaks her out of the mental hospital, and then the two of them go back to Lisi's house and they both fight Dooley. And they both end up going to Buyamuna and they continue fighting Dooley there until the long boy finishes the job. So yeah, I think that makes sense since Darla does play such a big role in the mini-series, and she does in the book as well, but for whatever reason, she's not she goes to visit one of the other not important sisters, and that prevents her from being part of the action. But I do like that they incorporated Darla into it because she Amanda she and Amanda are the two sisters we spent the most amount of time with in the book, so it feels nice to have the three of them together in the miniseries since we spend so much time with the three of them. So we so yeah, as I said, Lisi goes by herself in the miniseries to to Buyamun, and and in the book it's her and Amanda. Um there's also in in the book, from what I understood, you can go to Buyamoon whenever you want. You just need to envision it really, really well, and then you'll wake up that like you'll close your eyes, envision it very, very well, and then when you open your eyes, you're there. In the mini-series, you need some sort of water. It doesn't need to be like a body of water necessarily. Like Scott will always turn on the faucet in the bathroom and then use that to travel to Buyamun. I don't know why that change was made. Stephen King wrote the the adaptation, so these are all changes that he wanted to make. Maybe he just felt it made more sense or he wanted water in general since the spring water at Buyamun plays such an important role. Maybe he just wanted water in general to play a bigger role and kind of tie the two together. So I don't know, I'm not really sure, but these are Stephen King approved changes since he wrote the adaptation himself. But yeah, so in the book, you you just all you need to do is close your eyes and envision Buyamun in your head and you're there. And then in the the mini-series, you need some sort of water, running water, I should say, in order to get to Buyamun. But yeah, it in the Sky in the book, I understood he died of pneumonia. I believe, I think I'm pretty sure he dies of pneumonia. And the only reason I'm confused is because when Lisi goes to the to the hospital, like they they call her and they tell her like he's in the hospital right now because he's he's doing a book tour. And so she's not with him on this particular tour. So they call her up and they say, Hey, your husband's in the hospital, he's not doing well, like you need to get here now because he's not gonna hold on for much longer. And so she flies to where he is, she goes to the hospital, and he's having like a hard time talking to her, and there's like tubes attached to his lungs. Um, not attached to his lungs, there's like a tube draining something from his lungs, and there's like um like chunks of flesh, which is I don't I'm not sure pneumonia works like that, but it could be wrong. Like I thought that was more tuberculosis, but I don't know. I'm pretty sure I I saw the word pneumonia mentioned a few times when referring to Scott's death. But when I got to that scene, like they didn't meant like they didn't mention at that time what he passed away of. Like it was mentioned before we reach this moment, and then when she gets to the hospital to say goodbye to him, it doesn't say at that point, and I don't think it said any um after that. So it was just like the chunks of like the flesh and the blood that's getting drained out that confused me. Um, but I'm pretty sure it's pneumonia. Um, it's nothing otherworldly the way it is in the mini-series. In the miniseries, what ends up so Scott in the past, and and this happens in the book as well. Scott during one of his book tours, and Lisey was with him and during that book tour, was shot at by a crazed fan. And Lisi ended up saving his life because she um sorry, this wasn't a book tour. They were opening a new library at a university in Tennessee, and Scott was kind of like the one that that did the ceremonial first dig at the site that at what was going to be the site of this new library. And while there, he was shot by a crazed fan and Lisey and ends up hitting the crazed fan with the shovel that Scott had just used to to make that that ceremonial first hole. And so he's sent to the hospital. While he's at the hospital, he goes to Bu Yamun, he heal, he heals himself, and then he goes on with his life. This is one thing I didn't really understand in the in the miniseries, and that is that the long boy for some reason has it out for Scott and like wants Scott to um want Scott for himself. I don't like I said, I don't really understand why the long boy wanted Scott, but like he has it out for Scott. And um, so in the miniseries, during The book tour that Lisi is not with him. He's on this book tour and he's about to do a book talk and at this auditorium and his wounds start opening up. Like the gunshot wounds start opening up. And so Scott goes tries to go to Bu Yamun, but the long boy like blocks his ability to go to Boo Yamoon. And so Scott is desperately trying, and then like he gets called to the stage, so he's not able to go to Boo Yam Moon to heal heal himself. And then his wounds like completely reopen while he's on stage trying to give this talk. And he collapses and he goes to the hospital. And then he dies from his reopened wounds. So in the book, he dies of pneumonia question mark. And like I said, because I I still had this vision from the the adaptation of his wounds reopening. And I was like, does flesh like if your lungs need to be drained from pneumonia, is there really like blood and flesh coming out of it? I don't know. I don't know too much about pneumonia. Like I know yeah, I don't know too much about pneumonia. And I like when I think about like hacking up a lung, I think more of tuberculosis, but it wasn't tuberculosis. So anyway, um, yeah, so something with Scott's lungs, they get drained, they need to get drained, and it ends up killing him in the book. But in the adaptation, his wounds reopen, and everyone's kind of like, I've never seen wounds like five-year-old wounds reopen this way. And so he ends up like there's nothing, there's they're not able to close it, his wounds back up. The long boy is involved with them not being able to close the wounds back up. Again, I don't really know why the long boy has it out for Scott, um, other than the long boy is just evil. Um, so yeah, he he ends up dying in in the TV series after his wounds reopen. In the um book after the long boy kills Dooley, um, Dooley is he's killed, he's killed by the long boy, and then so in the um book, after the long boy destroys Dooley, Dooley is buried there in Buyamu. In the mini-series, the remains of Dooley end up coming back to the real world with Lisi after she after she comes back. And so she ends up throwing his remains into the river, and Dooley is kind of marked as missing for like the the police find like his car and things like that, and then he's he's marked as a missing person at that point. But in the book, he is he does remain missing in the book as well, but his remains are buried in Buyamun as opposed to Lisi having to dispose of him, um, dispose of his body by throwing it into the river. So yeah. And in the in the mini-series, so Lisi goes to sorry, in the book, Lisi goes back to Buyamoun to claim her hunt from the bull, her to claim her prize in the bull hunt, and it is Lisi's story. It's the last thing Scott ever wrote, and he's telling her another part of his childhood. So I'm not really sure why he called it Lisi's story. That's not the point. Anyway, so it's called Lacy's Story, and Lisi's story is about Scott's father and with Scott, the final thing he did to his father. Anyway, um, so that is she reads it and then she's kind of able to move on from her grief after that, after reading this and and having the ability to go to Bu Yamun and everything, that kind of heals her, and she's able to move on at that point. In the mini-series, we get a proper goodbye between or another proper goodbye, because Lisi and Scott did say bye to each other at the hospital before he passes away. But in the mini-series, um, at the spring where you can heal yourself, there's like stadium seating that looks into the spring, and then there's like people that sit there. And Lisi learns through Amanda that sometimes the people that sit there are have already passed away, but they're waiting to move on. So Lisi goes to Buyamun, and now that the long boy is satisfied because he has Scott and he's killed Dooley, whatever, he the long boy gives Lisi permission to say goodbye to Scott, and at that point they walk into the water together and they say their goodbyes. And that's when Lisey's able to move on. So, yeah, very different endings. I'm not sure which one I like, but like I do like that there's that Lisi gets a sense of closure from saying goodbye to Scott one more time, and he's able to tell her, like, oh, the bull hunt was to help you move on from your grief, and it was to help you prepare for duly the stucker, and it was able to help you prepare for the catatonic state Amanda was about to go in. But it's also like, how did you know this was gonna happen? Like, did the long boy tell you all this? I don't understand how, like, you can't say into the future, but so that didn't really make sense to me in the miniseries because in the in in the um book, the bull hunt ends with her prize, which is Lisi's story, and there's no indication that he had anything to do with like preparing her for duly or preparing her to get Amanda out of her catatonic state. So yeah, that was that was just one thing that kind of bugged me from the adaptation, is just like so Scott is like all magical, all-knowing, like that. I don't know, it's not there was no indication of this other than anyway, it doesn't matter. So yeah, didn't really like that. But I I mean I think all of us, even if we got to say goodbye to a loved one, we would, we would all have like probably wish we had another opportunity to say goodbye again. I don't think any of us would say no to one more chance to be with our loved ones. So I did like that the adaptation had that aspect to it. So before I move on to who the winner was, I just want to talk about some of the locations where this was shot because I recognized three of them. And yeah, so this, I mean, it's a Stephen King story, so obviously it takes place in Maine, as all of Stephen King's stories do. But this was shot in the New Jersey. It was primarily shot in New Jersey, but there were two locations that were shot in New York, and I know exactly where those are because I've been there. So, and it's not that it matters, but I was like, one of them I was really, really excited to see, and the other one I was like second guessing myself. I was like, is it? Is it not? And then I was like, no, it is. So I'm just really proud of myself. But it's also, I also just want to shout out these places because I love them. And then the third one is in Jersey, and I've only been to that part of Jersey once for an audition, but I still recognized it. So, anyway, so the first location that I recognized is Wave Hill, and Wave Hill is another garden, so I don't think it counts as a botanical garden. I don't know what something needs to be needs to include in order to be classified as a botanical garden. So it's not a botanical garden, but it is still a garden. It's not as well known, obviously, as the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx or the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in Brooklyn, and it is much more affordable than either of those. And it's not as well known. It is smaller, but there's it's cuter, and the views are just gorgeous. It's like really close to the Hudson River, and one of the you see it in in the the mini-series, but there's a like on top of the hill or on on top of one of the hills added like a gazebo and a balcony, and it's just a really beautiful spot to take a picture in. I actually have a picture where I took in that exact location. So yeah, shout out to Wave Hill. Not a lot of people know that it exists. There's two ways you can, well, there's several ways you can get there, not including like Uber. But one of the more expensive way, but probably more direct, is taking the Metro North to the Wave Hill. And I think it's called the Wave Hill station. So you take it there. It is more expensive because is it is the Metro North, but you get dropped off like right underneath it. So all you need to do is go up to it. So it's a lot more direct to get there. When we went, it we took the train up to the Bronx and then the bus as far as it could take us, and then we walked the rest of the way through a really bougie residential area. Like it's one of those things that the Bronx has such a reputation for being like the poorest borough, um, the most dangerous borough. And then you get to like the wealthy part of the Bronx, and there is a very wealthy part of the Bronx with like mansions and million-dollar homes. And then you it's like it's it's just one of those weird juxtapositions. I we can we can all find those no matter what city, no matter how dangerous it's categorized, like you're always gonna find the wealthy areas somewhere in there. But anyway, it just just juxtaposition of those. Anyway, um, so yeah, so you walk through like this really bougie residential area, and then you go to Wade Hill. And again, even though it's in this really bougie residential area, like it is much more affordable to go there than it is to go to any of the other botanical gardens. Admission is only, well, mind you, it's been a while since we've gone, so admission prices could have gone up, but at the time it was only$10 for adults, and that's so affordable. But it's absolutely beautiful and it's worth the visit. There is a section that is that they left like pretty intact woods-wise, so you can take a nice walk through the woods, and it's it's just one of those magical things about New York City. Like anytime you enter an area that's like woods, you forget that you're in like one of the biggest cities of the world, and you just enter this environmental getaway and oasis and everything. So anyway, just wanted to shout out Wave Hill because it did take me a while to trust that it was Wave Hill because I saw it and I was like, that looks like Wave Hill, but I don't think it is. And then I was like, no, it's definitely Wave Hill because I recognize that as gazebo and little balcony photo opportunity moment. So the Wave Hill is at least the exterior locations for the mental hospital that Amanda is staying in. There is a building, I don't remember the building as well. Um, there's like a few buildings, but like the big one where I imagine they might have shot, if they shot the interior of the hospital at all in Wave Hill, it would be um where downstairs is the cafeteria area, and then there's an upstairs area that that's off limits to visitors. That would be the only location I could imagine. So I'm not exactly sure if the interior of the hospital was shot at Wave Hill, but the exterior is definitely Wave Hill. So yeah, so that was really cool. The exterior of the theater where Paul does is going to do his book talk right before his wounds reopen. The outside of the theater is in a uh a theater in Journal Square in Jersey City. Like I said, I've only been in Journal Square once for an audition. Um, but it's like as soon as you get off the pathway in journal square, like you see, like it's it's just a like an arts hub. There's like a theater venue, there's like a concert venue. So that's where the exterior of that was shot. But the interior was shot at the United Palace. And the United Palace is this absolutely gorgeous theater up in my neck of the woods in Washington Heights. And they have like when the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra came to New York City, that's where they played, and that's the first time I ever went to the United Palace, and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite theaters in New York City, and it's not as well known because it's so high up, and but they do have all sorts of different events there. Um, my roommate saw an event there, it was a premiere of one of Gail Garcia Vernal's movies, and Gail Garcia Vernal was there to do a talk. Um, we saw the Vampire Circus there on Halloween. We saw It's a Wonderful Life, one of my favorite Christmas films there. It's a really beautiful theater, and I think it's definitely worth the visit. It's like humongous, and like the once you go inside, like the architecture, it's it's just absolutely gorgeous. It is one of my favorite places in Washington Heights, and it's just an absolute gorgeous theater. And so I got I got so excited that that's where they decided to film the interior of the theater where Scott is giving his book talk. And yeah, it's yeah, like I saw it and I was like, oh my gosh, that's United Palace. It's it's very distinctive. Like you once you've been to United Palace, you can't confuse it with any other theater, I don't think. Because it's it is so different, in my opinion, looking than a lot of other theaters. But now that I've gone off on my little tangent, and I'm sorry, I just had to because I got so excited to see Wave Hill and United Palace, and I think both of those deserve much more love. They're not, as I said, as well known as other like tourist traps in New York City, and I think they're both worth a visit. So just want to give those a shout out, and I just want to give a shout-out to journal square because I recognized it. But anyway, I don't know too much about journal square. I don't really go to Jersey that much. And while I lived there, I didn't go to Jersey City. I think I went once and it wasn't to journal square, but anyway, so I rated the book three stars and I rated the adaptation three stars as well. I had issues with both of them. Like I said, I think the premise is is very wild, and there's nothing wrong with like wild premises, but like it kind of just bothered me that like bulls were never really explained and Boo Yamun was never really explained as to and it and with the existence of those, it was hard for me to just accept them as like I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to accept them as just a part of this world. Like these were things that required more explanation, in my opinion. And just go into more detail of what they are, what they do, all that stuff, other than just having the ability to heal yourself. And yeah, like I I wish I knew for sure what bulls were and how and the point of Boo Yamoon. So yeah, I I wasn't like a huge fan of either one, if I'm being honest. But if I had to choose, I think I would go for the miniseries. Just because I think the mini-series just has more of a payoff, like I said, when it comes to the long boy, the more magical elements make a little bit more sense in the adaptation, I thought, than than than they did in the book. So yeah, my so the winner is the miniseries. Yeah, the mini-series I I just prefer the mini-series in this round. And Stephen King's books, I do enjoy reading them, but they are hit or miss for me. Like I'm not a hardcore Stephen King fan where I'm always gonna love everything he writes, but I wanted, but I I didn't, so this was more of a miss for me. And so in this case, I think I preferred the adaptation. Although I do feel that the adaptation did have pacing issues at moments. It felt a little too bogged down in certain episodes. I thought certain moments could go faster. So yeah, there were issues with both, but I stand by the winner being the miniseries. So that is it for this episode of Books versus Movies. If you liked what you heard, please leave it a rating and a review. Tell your friends all about it, and tune in next week when I will be talking about The Idea of You by Robin Lee and its Amazon original adaptation, The Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galatine. See you next time. Bye.