Bridge To Terabithia - NOT A KIDS MOVIE

For this episode, we're diving into Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, comparing the beloved novel, the 2007 film adaptation starring Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb, and the audiobook narrated by Richard Armitage.

Why does the Bridge to Terabithia book hit so much harder than the film? Does the movie's visual depiction of Terabithia enhance the story or take away some of the magic? And why is Richard Armitage's audiobook performance one of the best ways to experience this modern children's classic?

We discuss the deeper exploration of Jess Aarons' character, the powerful father-son relationship, the themes of friendship, grief, imagination and growing up, and why the novel's portrayal of loss remains one of the most emotionally devastating moments in children's literature.

We'll also break down the strengths of the Bridge to Terabithia movie adaptation, including the fantastic performances from Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb and Zooey Deschanel, and discuss the heartbreaking museum scene that continues to affect audiences years after release.

In this episode:

📚 Bridge to Terabithia book review
🎬 Bridge to Terabithia movie review
🎧 Richard Armitage audiobook review
📖 Katherine Paterson's writing and themes
💔 Why Leslie Burke's death hits harder in the novel
👨‍👦 The father-son relationship between Jess and his dad
🌳 The importance of imagination and Terabithia itself
🤔 Is the book really better than the movie?

Whether you're revisiting a childhood favourite, looking for your next family read, or searching for an honest Bridge to Terabithia book vs movie comparison, this episode explores why this story continues to resonate with readers and viewers of all ages.

If you enjoy book reviews, movie adaptations, children's literature, young adult fiction, audiobook discussions, and conversations about classic novels that leave a lasting emotional impact, this episode is for you.

The Dad Book Club Podcast releases new episodes every Monday evening, helping you start the week with great books, thoughtful discussions, and a few laughs along the way.

#BridgeToTerabithia #BridgeToTerabithiaBook #BridgeToTerabithiaMovie #KatherinePaterson #JoshHutcherson #AnnaSophiaRobb #RichardArmitage #BookVsMovie #BookReview #MovieReview #AudiobookReview #ChildrensLiterature #YoungAdultBooks #TheDadBookClubPodcast #IsTheBookBetter

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back to Is the Book Better with me, Jay Martini. If this is your first time, you've chosen quite the one to jump in on. It's a sad one. It's a very sad one. So there are happy ones out there, so if you want to listen to a different one to start with, this one's going to be a little bit more sombre than some of the others. But I've decided from now on these are going to be released every other Monday evening. I could release them in the morning still, but from the comments I've had, a lot of people have said, and I've not taken it as an insult, but I've had quite a few comments saying that my voice is very calm, very soothing, and so maybe it lends itself more to being an evening podcast. So my aim really is to pop up on your phone about seven o'clock once you've finished with work, and then you can give it a listen. And I can be your screenless time, I guess. Everyone's trying to get off their phones these days, so maybe I can just be your cooking dinner podcast. And you can put me on the background and you can find out what you've been really wanting to find out whether the book of Bridge to Terabithia is better than the film of Bridge to Terabithia. Don't know why I said that, they've got the same name. But so I decided to go with that. And so if you are listening on a Monday evening, congratulations for getting through Monday. Hopefully the meetings weren't too painful and you had a nice coffee to start the day or tea. My mum's big into matcha right now, so that's all I'm hearing about. And hopefully you can have a nice, relaxing Monday evening, and your kids haven't come to you saying what they need for tomorrow morning for school, and you've got to do a panic run around Morrison's or wherever you choose to shop. So whether are you listening, whether on a dog walk in the car or hiding from your family, uh the toilet is the main place I do that. Um which my wife very much knows about, but she does the same. So if you are listening on the toilet, uh thank you, I guess. That's an intimate spot to be listening to me from, but glad to join you. So the reason this is the episode tonight is because it popped up on Netflix, and my daughter said, What's that? And I said, Hmm, I'm not I'm not sure I've heard of it, but I've never seen it. And so what I'm gonna have to do, Bob, because we've had too many uh near misses with my daughter watching film she shouldn't have, or at least starting a film shouldn't have, and those going, Oh no no no no no, let's turn this off. Um so I thought I'm gonna have to watch this first, and it just so happens it's a book as well. So I thought, well, you know, I can't just do something for my daughter without also making it into a podcast, so here we are. I watched the film and I thought why not I'll read the book as well. Well, I'll listen to the audiobook, and I tell you what, my daughter's not watching it. So let's get stuck in to the book first, shall we? Okay, actually no, let's get stuck into the story in general, because that's the way I've ordered my notes, and imagine if I looked at my notes and actually followed them. So what? What have I written here? So what makes this story of Bridge to Terabithia special? Because all I remember knowing about it was that I'm pretty sure it's got a sad ending. That's all I remember. I didn't see it as a kid, I never read the book, so all I remember just from like you know be it being in the cultural zeitgeist is that it's meant to be sad, but you know, kids' films are sad all the time, so I thought I've still got to watch my daughter just in case. Well, how sad is it? Is it something because she cried at a dog's a dog film the other day? Like, not just cry because you know a dog looks sad, but she was actually following along. So right now my daughter's in the time where she's actually really starting to understand things, so I'm like, I don't really want to show her something that's really sad. So what is it really about? And if I was to summarise it, really, it's not about the fact that something sad happens. Like plenty of books kill off characters, that happens all the time, plenty of kids' films kill off characters, but it's how much time it spends making order in life interesting, how much it how much time it spends on friendship, on loneliness, on growing up, on family, on feeling different, feeling overlooked. It's got everything you need of a coming-of-age um story, but sadly, one of the characters doesn't ever come of age. That's wasn't meant to sound as weird as that, but you know what I mean? It's a coming-of-age book that one of them doesn't quite make it, which is devastating. But I still think that if Leslie hadn't died, the book would still be good. And I realised once again, in my terrible admin, I have not said that there's going to be spoilers in this, and I only remember that there's going to be spoilers in this after I give the biggest spoiler. So I'm sorry about that if you are listening and you haven't seen or read British Terabrithia. There are spoilers ahead. Like I said before, I'm sure there's many different ways that you can tell and compare a book to a film without giving anything away, but I haven't worked out how. So until then, there will be spoilers. But anyway, the tragedy of the book works because of the story beforehand. Catherine Peterson Catherine Catherine Peterson, Catherine Patterson doesn't spend 150 pages setting up a plot twist, she spends 150 pages building this friendship, so it really puts you in there, and I think that's what makes it so devastating. But I also think it would have been devastating if she'd just moved away. You know, the whole the whole point is that theoretically Terabithia won't be anymore without it. So if she were to move away, that would still be devastating for Jess. Obviously, not as devastating, of course. So my biggest advantage for the book is Jess. We know Jess, like we really get to know him. The entire novel is in his head, so we understand his frustrations about his how how his sisters are, how his dad is with him, how his mum is with him, like how he feels like he's different in his own family. Like he like he doesn't feel like he's wanted because he's what is he one he's one boy in a group of with other with four sisters, so he feels like he's on the outs anyway, and none of his sisters really like him except the one closer to him in age. And of course, being a boy, he doesn't want his younger sister to like him, really. He just keeps pushing her away, which is very sad. Um he's he's a bit sweeter in the book though than he is in the film with his sister. In the film he's just a bit of a dick to her throughout the whole thing, really. But we understand his dreams, his insecurities, his jealousy, his embarrassment, and it just captures how isolated young boys can feel. Like he isn't unpopular in the book, he's not constantly bullied, and he's not completely on the outs, but he's just alone. And obviously that he does have run-ins with a couple of kids, but it's nothing that you know the usual kid can't handle, really. And I think that's more relatable. It's not it's not the extremes of it, he's not like the things are being thrown at him every day, things that things are happening to him horrible every day. He's just kind of alone in his thoughts, feeling isolated from everybody else, because he just feels different to everybody else, and then they're not violent with that, they just kinda he just bobs along in the background, and I guess it is kind of sad, and he's not actively suffering in a way that they're being violent with him, he's just carrying everything within himself, and it makes him this very complex little kid, and they don't just do it by saying, like, oh yeah, I I you know I've I want to leave this two-horse town and I'm bigger than this town, that kind of thing, where he feels like he should be somewhere else. It's never that, he just has dreams that are different to what his dad's dreams are, and that's something that I think a lot of kids come across is that the passions that they have as a child are often ones that don't fit usually with you know the ideas that their parents have for them, and a lot of times when your parents have these dreams for you that you don't necessarily align with at first, you go one of two ways, you either double down on your own dreams or you leave those dreams behind and move forward with the path that your parents have set out, you know, or people around you have set out, you know, you take the path most travelled, and this is him really trying to push against that and realizing it's at the sacrifice of his and his dad's relationship, and the saddest thing about it all is that he just wants to be seen, he wants somebody to notice him, he sees the way that his sister runs up to his dad and gets a big hug, and he doesn't get that, and that's all he wants. The main gist of this is that this kid just wants someone's approval, he wants a connection, and so when Leslie comes along, he it's just exactly what he needs. Like the film can show us Josh Hutch's Josh Hutchison looking sad, but the book tells us already, we already understand why he's sad, and that's a huge difference for me. That's why the book really hit with me, and every emotional moment later becomes stronger because we spent so much time inside his mind, we already know what he's like and why he's like it. And like I've already mentioned briefly, the father-son relationship is the key here for me. The relationship he has with his sisters and his mum, I think that's more blatant, like his his older sisters just don't like him and they're dicks, really. You know, if anyone is also like me in the older sisters club, having one was bad enough, let alone two that gang up on you. Fuck that. No thank you. So his relationship with his dad is a lot more subtle because unfortunately, it's with a dad who's of a time that showing emotion isn't really a thing. Coming to your dad and being like, Listen, dad, I'm jealous that my uh sister gets a hug and I don't, you can't do that. You can't, because the dad will just be like, Well, that you're you're a you're gonna be man at a house soon, so grow up, uh your your little sister will get a hug, you don't move on. So I do feel like the father-son relationship is the most underrated part of the entire novel. Like when talk people talk about bridge terrapathy, they focus on Leslie, which who we will get to, obviously, but I think the most important relationship is between Jesse and his father at first. Like his dad's not cruel or abusive or exhausted, like he so easily could have been just um a down nose-look farmer who's not bringing in much money, who drinks and takes out on the kids. And I've seen the guy who plays the dad in the film, which I've forgotten that his name has just slipped away, which is very annoying. He was in Terminator 2, Peacemaker. He's played that guy before, he's played the belligerent drunk, but he's not that in the film. He's he's softer, but he's still distanced, he still keeps Jess at an arm's length. All he's trying to do though is his focus is keeping food on table. He's overwhelmed, and so since that's his focus, he's emotionally unavailable, which means Jess spends a lot of the novel seeking the approval of his dad. It's subtle, but it's always that. He wants his dad's attention. He wants his respect, but he doesn't often get it, and I don't think he doesn't I don't think he doesn't get it because the dad doesn't respect his son or doesn't have any affection for his son. I just think the dad doesn't show that he has respect and affection for his son. The dad would subtly show it by, you know, after Jess has done some work in the barn or he's milked the cows or something, the dad would just respect him by, you know, I don't know, giving a little nudge, giving a little nod, like going like, hmm, not bad, but not to Jess, not telling him, which I think is a problem for quite a few dads out there, they will be like, and I think this is parents in general, really, and this is this is what I've heard makes a good parent, is that they will well this it sounds terrible, but they will criticise you to your face and praise you behind your back, you know, is and it's not always like that, they will occasionally give you, you know, some praise to your face, but for the most part, parents kind of can push you on by saying, like, well, that was good, but you could do this better, but then behind your back will tell their friend like your mum will talk to the friend at the salon and be like, It's incredible that he's done this, this, and this, but you're not gonna hear about it, and maybe that's just my family, but it feels like that's how I was raised, so I kind of get it. So the whole emotional distance that is built up there in the film it's kind of it's a very small subplot that when it finally comes to a head, you don't really it it hits, but not as much as the book. Like if someone hugs you every day, another hug means very little, but if someone hasn't hugged you in years, and then they hug you when you're at your breaking point, I think it means everything. The film includes it, but the book really earns it. And speaking of the book, the audiobook, Richard Army. Richard Bloody Armytage. I thought, because I saw it, I said that narrated by Richard Armytage. I was like, isn't he not that Richard Armytage? Surely there's an American Richard Armytage, you know, not a very American name, but there must be because why would they get a British guy in? Pardon me, sorry. Why would they get a British guy in to do uh an all-American audiobook? But I tell you what, he's spot on in this. He he he properly performs this, you know, even when he's um what's the name? Oh my god, why uh Leslie? Jeez, even when he's Leslie, he's believable. He doesn't just put on like a like a little girly voice or something like that, but he's still believable. It it carries, like he he gets it, he nails everyone down, and I was so impressed. I was like, and I had to google, I was like, it's him, it really is, and obviously I shouldn't be that amazed because he is an actor, but I've read I've listened to other actors do their bit and eh, you know, Jake Gillenhall was pretty solid reading the great Gatsby, but was he the best? I don't know, I don't know, but um he captures Jess's uncertainty without making him sound weak, and he gives each character like enough distinction without turning him into a cartoon. So when Leslie arrives, there's this energy that he brings to it, and when Terry Terabithia appears, there's wonder. So he he has he's able to go across all these genres because obviously it starts as a very ordinary tale, but then this fantasy aspect comes into it, and he carries that, and obviously I know he's been Lord of the Rings and everything like that, so I don't know why it was so shocking to me, but I was just very impressed. So, Richard Armitage, you know, I think you've got a career there, pal. But yeah, let's get into the film. The story, they were the main the book, they were the main parts for me, but the main strength of the film, and I think we can all agree here, is the casting. Let's give the film its flowers because it nails this part. Like Josh Hutchison is brilliant, Anna Sophia Robb is brilliant, and both of them continue to be brilliant. I will say that Anna Sophia Robb I love her so much. Like I I don't think there's anything she's done that I haven't seen. Not in like a you know, I'm mailing her my hair kind of way, but like in a I really respect what she does. And what was Rebel Ridge is a film she did recently, and I I think it did pretty well on Netflix, but she was fantastic in that, she was so good, and obviously, you know, Child and Chuck Factory, and then this as well, but together these two are fantastic. You believe their friendship, like I genuinely think if one of them wasn't bringing, like wasn't buying into it, and wasn't you know putting the same effort into Terra Bity that the other one was, and you could tell, it would kill the whole thing. It's absolutely essential that we believe their relationship. If the audience doesn't love Leslie, and on paper, she might be quite she's har she's hard to do because you know she does say a few little corny things, and she is like she's her own person, and blah blah blah. She could it could have been played as someone quite not combative but someone quite affronting and divisive, but because we see her through Josh Hutchston's eyes, and because she's absolutely adorable, we all love her, we all do, and he's adorable too, and we just love them both, and so when they're friends, you're just so happy for them. She's funny, creative, confident, she's everything if he needs to be if he wants to pursue his career, and he comes out of himself the more he's with her, and he gets from her what he doesn't get at home. He gets this approval, he gets a girl who's telling him that he's you know king of this realm. You know, he's never been any more than you know, one of one of his siblings, that's all he's been, is like one of the kids at his house. Like he's never had a title, he's never had someone look at him the way that she does, with the respect that she does, and it he glowed from it. And if we've ever had a if you've ever had a good friendship like that where someone has seen the potential in you that you can't see yourself, you hold on to that friend because they truly do not come around often. And if you've got a friend that you know really hypes you up and really tells you what you're doing is good and you know, but still gives you hints on like and pointers on oh that was great, but you could do this as well to really and they really like yes and you that's a proper friend, and that's what he has here, and it's lovely to see, and in the book she's fantastic as well. But the true one that surprised me, because I knew those two were in it, the one who I didn't know was in it, I didn't know Zoe Dechanel was in this film, and of course, because I'm a man in my 30s, I love Zoe Deschanel. I fell in love with her during when Elf came out, and still to this day love her. So and I think that is the that is the general timeline of a 30-year-old man, because when did Elf come out? 2003 I would have been 10. So yeah, that sounds about right. So her singing in uh the shower I think was a formative experience for a lot of uh 10 to 12 year olds at the time, uh, when we were all just thought we were watching a Christmas film, and then a beautiful blonde Zoe Dechanel comes onto the screen and uh we didn't know what to do. So but but in this film, she pulls off this, you know, independent woman of the time, which was they focus on that a lot in the book that you know she wore trousers and people were like, fucking hell, she's wearing trousers, that's crazy. But she pulls that off. She's very warm, um, very zany, you know, like Zoe Deschanel does, and she's very effective in this film. And when you think this film's just gonna be about two friends, you don't really you expect like everyone else to kind of be like a minor character surrounding, but she really pulls through, and obviously, unfortunately, she is a huge part of probably the biggest regret of the film, obviously her taking him away to the museum, which nowadays I think might be misconstrued into something worse, but because we're watching a purely innocent kids' film, everything is fine and they have a lovely day, but she really represents the possibilities he has lying ahead of him if he continues to pursue his art and his talents. And she's also in the scene that got me. Obvious obviously, there's the main scene where he finds out that Leslie has died and he's in denial, and he runs off, and the dad hugs him. That got me. But when they're at the funeral Oh my god, it's getting me again. When they're at the funeral and Jess says to the uh Jess says to um the teacher, you know, we should invite Leslie next time, she would like that, ruined me. And because that was very much, you know, I've cried, the fight is over, we're winding down now, I'm recovering in the back room, and then the guy I was fighting has just come in and punched me in the face again. That's how that felt. I wasn't looking, I was having some water, and I've been punched in the face. So it was a sucker punch, I will say, from from the uh from the film, but he's talking like she's still alive, the denial is still there, even though the facts are all around him. I still think the magic that she brought to him is holding on. Like he can find something within himself that this whole thing is just something that she's created and it's not real, but she's just tricking him, it's all just a facade, and I don't know, there was something about that that just absolutely got me, and he just doesn't want to believe it. And it wasn't in like a really cheesy way that he said that, where um the one I would compare it to would be Four Wednesday and a funeral, where Andy McDowell says, Oh, it's raining, I didn't even notice. That's delivered like a proper movie line where it's not very well delivered, it's a bit cheesy, but this is kind of like that for me. It's of the same ilk, but this is done well, where he's in denial, I think he knows he's in denial, but part of him still believes she's still alive, and his brain hasn't caught up yet, and it's such a raw form of grief, and this is a what ten-year-old boy acting like this? Incredible, Josh Hutchison, uh your flowers are in the post, pal. Same with you, Anna Sphere, Rob, but you know you get them every week from me anyway. However, where the film loses something, it's terabythia itself for me. And this might be controversial, but I think the strength the book has is that you get to imagine terabythia yourself. And whether or not you choose to imagine something mythical or anything is up to you. I didn't. I imagined two kids just playing in a forest, like there wasn't any mythical creatures in their minds there were, but like I was like from the outside looking in of these two kids like throwing rocks at stuff and you know, having a great time just in their little hideout, you know. That's all that's all I was imagining, and that they were both neither of them could really see it, but because both were buying into it, they both like bounced off each other and would pretend things were happening, you know, very much like if you're watching an episode of Bluey and they're all in the in the ship, they're not seeing anything outside of the the fake boat, but they're all pretending. That's that's my kind of vibe a bit, is that they were just bouncing off each other. They were yes anding, absolute improv prose, these two. So seeing Terabithia weakens Terabithia. You create the kingdom yourself, you read the book, your imagination does that storytelling, the magic exists because you take part in imagining it. And the film can't do that, it movies need the visuals, so we have this giant creature and fantasy armies and massive CGI sequences, and they're alright, they're okay, but it is one of those things, it's like in a horror film when when you see the monster, it immediately becomes less scary. What you're imagining, what you put yourself through beforehand, is always much worse. It's almost better to not see the thing. So that's where I got for it. It's in the the animations, they hold up okay, I suppose. But Territory was never about the monsters for me, it was about their imagination, it was about their friendship, and it was about them supporting each other in their imaginations, and I think that's adorable because I know once again going back to if you had friends growing up that you would like let's play pretend this, and they were like, Oh no, that's not, I don't really get what you're doing. They're the worst friends, you want the friend that will buy in and you know double down with you. They're good friends to have, and if you've still got one of those friends, well done. And of course, let's get more into Leslie. Um what Catherine Patterson does with Leslie is impressive, to say the least. She could have created this kind of like all American, quick talking, wise beyond her year, you know, fantasy archetype where, you know, she isn't phased by anything, and she just takes the hand of this boy and drags him along through this crazy time. And isn't and the whole point is that she wouldn't be scared of anything, she wouldn't have any fears, any um awkwardness or any pitfalls. She would just be a veneer of like a Laura Croft, but as a child. Like I don't know, it's just that kind of fantasy characters always have that one where they just battle through and they don't really get affected by what's happening around them, but she's incredibly believable, she's clever, she's awkward, she's confident, but she's still vulnerable. She isn't there to save Jess, she's her own person. She isn't just like a not even a damsel in distress, whatever the opposite is, really. So that's why it's so important that when she dies, we don't feel like the plot has lost its character, we feel like Jess has lost a friend, and there's a huge difference there because in her dying a part of him has too. And because we're in Jess's head, we feel that we feel that in a big way. And I've spoken about the grief and denial stage, but I just really wanted to double down because that part it's the equivalent, and Brett Goldstein, he's having his moment at the minute, but he something that he said on his podcast once was that crying in a film never gets him. If someone's crying in a film, yeah, alright, cool, you can cry. It's when someone's trying hard not to, and the words aren't coming out clear because their throat is getting blocked by them trying to hold back their tears, they're trying to stay strong for someone else who's there that they don't want to see hurt, that kind of thing. That is what gets me, and this whole part of the film where he is in denial, and you can see the dad is trying to hold back his tears. Not not massively, he's not like falling over his words, but you can tell he's deeply affected by what's happened, but he understands that he has to tell his son what's happened because it is in a horrible way a rip-off the band-aid moment. He knows his son has to know because if he doesn't tell him right then and there, he's gonna find out from someone else. So he as a dad has to be strong enough to hold the burden to tell his son what's happened, and you know, you you're always gonna be the bad guy there, it's always gonna be a kill the messenger sort of way, but he knows he has to do it because who else is gonna tell him? He's gonna walk outside and see the police there, and so when he first hears what happens, he refuses to accept it, and his older sisters in the book think it's because he's stupid, like, and that they can't believe he's eating his pancakes, um, but he's he's eating his pancakes because his mum hasn't made him pancakes for years his mum hasn't showed him this level of affection in years, and his brain is choosing to focus on the m the minor positive rather than the huge negative, and no one knows how you're gonna deal with grief until you're in it, and so seeing this one person's level of grief and how he'll he deals with it as a 10-year-old 12-year-old, I can't remember how it was 12-year-old boy, yeah. You would go to your alternate dimensions of thought, you would go grasp at anything to help this situation not happen. You would do, and he is not only in denial, he then when he comes round from denial, he is in complete um survivor's remorse because if he hadn't have gone to the museum and had have gone with her or taken her to the m museum, she would have avoided it happening. But at the same time, that rope swing was a ticking time bomb, and if it wasn't gonna be her, it was gonna be him, or it was gonna be either one of them, with the other one looking on, not being able to do anything anyway. So it was a completely it was avoidable by not going across a a rope swing like that, but it was unavoidable, it was gonna happen. And in the the film captures some of this denial and and regret, but the book, you're in it, there's no escape in it, because you hear him trying to categor categorise what's happened, and you kind of witness a twelve-year-old boy trying to make sense of probably one of the most devastating things that's gonna happen to him. That's what you hear, and in the I think that's why what makes the book hit harder. Although I will say, of course, the film with the line of I think she do enjoy it, yeah, you did well there, Hollywood. You absolutely beat me over the head with a bat there. So the final verdict. The film is very good, the audiobook is excellent, and the book is outstanding. So the film has its fantastic performances, the audiobook has its narration, but the novel just has something that neither version can fully replicate. It has it has the time, it does, and I I think I I think the film does capture a lot of it, but there's just a few narrative aspects of Jess's mind that we miss out on. Like his sisters could have been worse in the film, because they were bad in the book, the bullies at school, the scene where the the part in the book where Um Leslie deals with the bully, the part in the book where they deal with the bully. I mean, I know they that was that was them being quite harsh, so I know that why that was cut. But the novel has the time to s understand Jess, understand his family, understand his fears, understand why Leslie changes his life, and because we know Jess so well, everything that happens afterwards carries a lot more weight. Their friendship matters more, their grief hurts more, the healing feels more meaningful, the film tells a story, but the book allows you to be within that story, um, and that's why for me the book wins. I was genuinely bowled over by this book, it got me, and I'm starting to think it's maybe because I was also a lonely little boy. That's what it might be. So if you were a lonely little boy, read this book because it's for you. Um and obviously it's I'm saying that the you know the book and the audit book, the audible will do the job. If you listen to the audit book, it's it's gonna hit you the same as the book. The book just allows you to have a little bit where you can put the book down and have a little bit of a rest, to be honest. But so if you are if you were once a young boy, this book is for you. Um so the book for me, you know, we're we're getting a nine out of ten there, and the audiobook's the same, and the film, it's good. It's an eight out of ten. So they're all worth your time, and so if you haven't got the time, the film is still a good go. But if you can only have one version, I would read the book. Because knowing Jess like through and through makes everything hit a lot harder, and that is my verdict there. So thank you for joining me for tonight's m special Monday night episode of Is the Book Better? And like I said before, I hope your Monday wasn't too painful, and I hope you haven't got the Tuesday scaries, and I hope this gave you half an hour away from emails thinking about meetings and maybe traffic that you've been sat in. So next week we'll be diving into another book and another adaptation, another literary rabbit hole with The Devil Wears Prada, which, as I've often said, I didn't know was a book. So until then, look after yourselves, keep reading, and I will see you in a couple weeks. Bye.