The Flight Attendant Novel: Compare and Contrast

[Meredith Quill]

Discuss Here!

[Bort]

So far (two episodes in, anyway) the show has run pretty similarly to the book. Some minor details are different. The book had this whole blackout drunk murder take place in Dubai instead of Bangkok. And Cassie’s sibling was a straight woman instead of a gay man. The concerns of the sibling are the same: apprehension about a drunkard aunt being around the kids.

I don’t remember anything about some childhood hunting incident being a repressed memory thing, that seems to be new.

I do have to say I think using Dead Alex as a substitute for the first person narrative of the book is a pretty great idea.

[Kiss my mutt]

I found the protagonist to be wildly different in personality in this series than in the book. The main character in the book was a drunk but she didn’t come across as a sympathetic, funny character like in this show, at least to me. It was a good book though and the series is decent. I’ll be watching. 

[Bort]

27 minutes ago, Kiss my mutt said:

 

I found the protagonist to be wildly different in personality in this series than in the book. The main character in the book was a drunk but she didn’t come across as a sympathetic, funny character like in this show, at least to me.

 

Yeah, honestly? I kind of hated her in the book. I had no sympathy for her at all. I like the show version of the character much better.

[Atlanta]

On 11/28/2020 at 12:05 AM, kariyaki said:

Yeah, honestly? I kind of hated her in the book. I had no sympathy for her at all. I like the show version of the character much better.

The show version is def more likeable. The show makes her a fun party girl who overdoes it, but the book makes her more of a sad sack.

[chocolatine]

There's a wonderfully meta line in the book about Cassie watching "an old sitcom about brilliant young physicists who are socially awkward" in her hotel room in Rome.

[Bort]

29 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

There's a wonderfully meta line in the book about Cassie watching "an old sitcom about brilliant young physicists who are socially awkward" in her hotel room in Rome.

Ha, who knew?

[chocolatine]

6 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Ha, who knew?

I wonder if Chris Bohjalian was already envisioning who he wanted to play Cassie an a TV/movie adaptation as he was writing the book.

[lasu]

I wonder if Chris Bohjalian was already envisioning who he wanted to play Cassie an a TV/movie adaptation as he was writing the book.

  

If so, he was really onto something, because I read she bought the rights to this book just based on the premise, before she even actually read it.

I've just finished episode 5, and I find the changes they made bizarre.  Dubai/Bankok, Russians/north Koreans, Alex's family being involved/not involved. Crazy magical lawyer with mob connections and now mob debts.  Rosie's character fucking her husband over to be a spy.  It's like, the book was bonkers enough!  I actually really like Dead Daario as a plot device to replace Cassie's thoughts in the book, but I don't know why they are making her "fall in love" with him.  

[Bort]

46 minutes ago, lasu said:

Rosie's character fucking her husband over to be a spy. 

I think that part WAS in the book, it just wasn’t part of the narrative. It was just something that was revealed in the FBI interviews at the end.

[chocolatine]

27 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

I think that part WAS in the book, it just wasn’t part of the narrative. It was just something that was revealed in the FBI interviews at the end.

IIRC, in the book both Megan and her husband turned out to be spies; she wasn't doing it behind his back like she is on the show. I also liked the way it was done in the book much better. Megan pretty much flew under the radar until the reveal at the end, but in retrospect, there were some subtle red flags, like her telling Cassie she would lie to the FBI and tell them Cassie spent the night that Alex was murdered in her own hotel room, but then telling the FBI that she saw Cassie trying to sneak back to her hotel in the morning.

Also in the book, Cassie's brother-in-law works at a military chemical weapons facility, and is initially presented as the likeliest person in Cassie's orbit to be a spy.

[lasu]

Yes, in the book Megan and her husband were both spies.  Even in the show, they say how easy it would be for a flight attendant to be a spy, but then in show, they have Megan be a spy, but so far it has absolutely nothing to do with her being a flight attendant.  It's just another goofy change I truly don't understand.  The only upside to all these changes is that I don't know what the hell to expect next.

[Bort]

25 minutes ago, lasu said:

Yes, in the book Megan and her husband were both spies.  Even in the show, they say how easy it would be for a flight attendant to be a spy, but then in show, they have Megan be a spy, but so far it has absolutely nothing to do with her being a flight attendant.

Doesn’t it? The espionage guys are Koreans, presumably Megan flying into Seoul made it easy for them to initiate contact with her in the first place.

[lasu]

15 hours ago, kariyaki said:

Doesn’t it? The espionage guys are Koreans, presumably Megan flying into Seoul made it easy for them to initiate contact with her in the first place.

It's incredibly possible I missed something, but I thought all the exchanges and meetings took place in America - at the mall, the seedy hotel...?  I thought all of this was happening in the US, and was solely because of her husband's job, not hers.  Like I said, I absolutely could have missed something.

[Bort]

1 hour ago, lasu said:

It's incredibly possible I missed something, but I thought all the exchanges and meetings took place in America - at the mall, the seedy hotel...?  I thought all of this was happening in the US, and was solely because of her husband's job, not hers.  Like I said, I absolutely could have missed something.

Yes, all the exchanges we’ve seen have been in America but as I said, the initial contact may have been Seoul. Also, didn’t Megan say something to Cassie about needing to be on the flights to that city?

[lasu]

Also, didn’t Megan say something to Cassie about needing to be on the flights to that city?

 

I do remember that now.  I guess, for me, they didn't do a good enough job making that clear.  Not a huge deal, more that they are having her character screw her own husband over behind his back, in what seems to be a bid for spending money and excitement.

[MaggieG]

I'm just glad the show didn't end with her being pregnant like in the book.

[Atlanta]

24 minutes ago, MaggieG said:

I'm just glad the show didn't end with her being pregnant like in the book.

Totally forgot about that. Who was the father?

[MaggieG]

15 minutes ago, Atlanta said:

Totally forgot about that. Who was the father?

She seemed convinced it was Alex's but I remember not agreeing or liking that because she slept with Buckley and Enrico around the same time. So any of them could have been the father.

[Bort]

Dude, I don’t even remember that. I swear I read the book, but there’s a lot of stuff I don’t remember. Probably didn’t help that I didn’t actually LIKE the book that much.

[chocolatine]

2 hours ago, MaggieG said:

I'm just glad the show didn't end with her being pregnant like in the book.

Me too! She was a raging alcoholic in the beginning of the pregnancy; the poor kid would have probably had lifelong damage from her drinking.

[shapeshifter]

On 12/28/2020 at 5:56 PM, chocolatine said:

Me too! She was a raging alcoholic in the beginning of the pregnancy; the poor kid would have probably had lifelong damage from her drinking.

What was the time frame of the book? 
If all of the action happened within 3 weeks, it could be okay:

Quote

It is in the third week after fertilization that specific alcohol-induced birth defects begin to affect the developing embryo (https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/developmental-timeline-alcohol-induced-birth-defects).

More importantly, what was the time frame of the TV series? Since they're doing a second season, they could still have a pregnancy reveal.

[chaifan]

Question for the book readers:  Was there anything in the book that matched up with the scene where Miranda finds 2 passports for Cassie?  The show seemed to make a point of Miranda finding them (looking at both), and then she mentioned them in a later episode.  But then, nothing.  No explanation, no point in the show where that comes into play.  It's really nagging at me!  Any insight from the book?

 

[chocolatine]

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

What was the time frame of the book? 
If all of the action happened within 3 weeks, it could be okay:

I don't know exactly, but it must have been at least that long since Cassie worked on multiple international flights after Dubai. 

3 hours ago, chaifan said:

Question for the book readers:  Was there anything in the book that matched up with the scene where Miranda finds 2 passports for Cassie? 

That didn't happen in the book.

[claire.11]

On 12/7/2020 at 12:37 AM, chocolatine said:

There's a wonderfully meta line in the book about Cassie watching "an old sitcom about brilliant young physicists who are socially awkward" in her hotel room in Rome.

Just to check, this was the big bang theory yes? I can't think of another show, although this one isn't 'old' per say

[Sarahsmile416]

On 12/28/2020 at 5:56 PM, chocolatine said:

Me too! She was a raging alcoholic in the beginning of the pregnancy; the poor kid would have probably had lifelong damage from her drinking.

I just read the book and yes! How the hell did she manage to avoid having her kid have FAS.  That was a particularly silly addition to the plot because the first thing I said after I heard that was, but she was still a raging alcoholic even after she slept with Alex so how the heck did that kid end up unscathed? 

On 1/25/2021 at 10:08 AM, shapeshifter said:

What was the time frame of the book? 
If all of the action happened within 3 weeks, it could be okay:

More importantly, what was the time frame of the TV series? Since they're doing a second season, they could still have a pregnancy reveal.

I was trying to figure out the time frame in the book too, but given the events it seems very unlikely that it was only three weeks. 
My next question was the stun gun that Buckley shot her with…would that have caused any fetal issues? 

Edited September 30, 2021 by Sarahsmile416

[Atlanta]

Just reread the book. So much was changed. Ani (Annie) was strictly only her lawyer (no Max), Shane was barely in it, and Megan wasn't featured much. Enrico and Buckley lived and it seemed like her and Buckley became friends. Miranda died (murdered by Buckley). The CIA gave Cassie a new identity and she changed her looks, but still flew. Very confusing. 

[chocolatine]

On 5/18/2022 at 8:00 PM, Atlanta said:

Just reread the book. So much was changed. Ani (Annie) was strictly only her lawyer (no Max), Shane was barely in it, and Megan wasn't featured much.

I think what was really poignant in the book was that Cassie didn't have any real friends, only drinking buddies. She led a lonely life.

In the book, Cassie also got pregnant from her night with Alex and ended up having the baby, a girl she named Masha. The show chose to drop that, since the season two plot wouldn't really work if Cassie had a more settled life.