The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

This is the first of my three books for the Book to Movie challenge. I went ahead and read it early because of some new rules posted on the challenge. I also decided that I would compare the books to the movies as part of the fun of this one.

I actually saw the movie for this one last summer. It is pretty unusual for me to see a movie and then read the book. I normally read the book first. Well, anyway, I loved the movie when I saw it. Meryl Streep was wonderful as Miranda, the she-devil boss of the title, and Anne Hathaway did a good job as Andy, the suffering junior assistant. After reading the book, I realized that there were some significant plot changes in the movie. I liked them when I saw the movie, but ended up liking the book much better. In the movie, Miranda is somewhat redeemed and shown as more humane by the end. In the book, there's no such redemption. She's a she-devil from start to finish, which I think is much truer to the character.

I ended up liking the book much better than the movie. It was told in first person by And, and I got a much better sense of her thoughts that way. I also liked that the book did not wrap the whole thing up with a somewhat contrived happy ending. Miranda was still awful, and Andy had to deal with the consequences of some of her decisions while she worked for Miranda. In the movie, Andy cheated on her boyfriend, but, in the book, it was much more of a moral decision for her and did not progress beyond a kiss at a party. That felt more in keeping with the character. I think the movie had Andy lose a bit if herself to Miranda, but she ended up stronger in the book.

Overall, I really liked the book. It was well-written with some great dialogue. This was not a book I'd normally select to read which is the great thing about this challenge. I forced myself to pick books that were not "safe" picks. I'd love to know what other people thought of the book.