Movie adaptations of young adult (or YA) novels have been around for a long time, most notably with the Harry Potter franchise, but it was the release of Twilight in 2008 that truly kicked off a frenzy. The $37 million production earned $192 million in North America and an additional $200 million worldwide.
Hollywood studios looked at those numbers, saw the devotion of the fan base, and figured that other YA adaptations could work just as well. Suddenly, any even remotely popular book found some producer looking to purchase its screen rights.
The truth is that almost none of these adaptations have been as financially successful as Harry Potter or Twilight. While some have been hits, many have been outright bombs. The level of quality has been very mixed, as well. A number of them were warmly received by the nation’s film critics, as evidenced by their high scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Others were met with derision for their lack of quality or failure to translate what made the source material popular.
We’ve scoured Rotten Tomatoes to find the YA adaptations that have been rated most “rotten” and the ones rated most “fresh.” In each case, we’ll tell you what the critical consensus was, as well as which elements were most commonly singled out for praise or scorn. Some of these scores are impressively high, others embarrassingly low. Either way, the critics have spoken, so let’s see what they had to say.
Here are the 15 Most Rotten (And 15 Freshest) YA Adaptations, According To Rotten Tomatoes.
Rotten - The Giver (35%)
Not even the star power of Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, and Taylor Swift could save The Giver, an adaptation of Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal-winning novel that has become a common middle school reading assignment.
The story is about a society with no pain or suffering, and a boy who is mentored in the ways of the “real” world by an older man.
Critics overwhelmingly agreed that the movie doesn’t delve deeply enough into the complex themes that make the book a continual favorite. They deemed it too shallow, resulting in a less-then-stellar 35% approval rating.
Fresh - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (77%)
A magical pair of blue jeans is at the center of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, based on the first in a series of novels by Ann Brashares. Four female friends share those jeans as they navigate various personal dilemmas.
The film was lauded for its affecting portrayal of friendship.
Lead actresses Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, and Amber Tamblyn got great reviews, not just for their individual performances, but also for the authentic group dynamic they create together.
The end result was a fresh RT score of 77% and a friendship that has lasted until today.
Rotten - If I Stay (35%)
A lot of adolescents who read Gayle Foreman’s If I Stay are seriously into its deep story. In the film version, Chloe Grace Moretz plays Mia Hall, a girl who ends up in a coma after a car accident. An out-of-body experience follows, during which she has to decide whether to return to life or move on to the afterworld. Obviously, it’s a tearjerker.
The only problem is that critics wanted to cry for all the wrong reasons. They felt the potentially meaningful tale was handled in a manner that was more manipulative and corny than touching. Only 35% of them believed the movie was worth seeing.
Fresh - Holes (78%)
Based on the Louis Sachar book, Holes gave Shia LaBeouf an early big screen role. He plays Stanely Yelnats, a teen boy sent to a detention camp where he’s forced to dig holes. Jon Voight plays the cranky camp director and Sigourney Weaver is the even crankier warden.
Reviews for Holes were largely positive, leading to a 78% at Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie earned accolades for telling its story with intelligence and not talking down to the young target audience.
LaBeouf was also singled out as a rising star for his work as Stanley.
Rotten - I Am Number Four (32%)
I Am Number Four sure sounded like it should have worked. Pittcus Lore’s science-fiction tale about an extra-terrestrial named John (Alex Pettyfur) hiding on Earth from the enemy that’s trying to eliminate him has it all – action, adventure, humor, and romance. Dianna Agron fulfills that last element as John’s love interest.
This is one of those cases where what seemed fresh on the page felt cliched onscreen. Reviews pointed to a pervasive feeling of familiarity in I Am Number Four.
Critics weren’t bowled over by Pettyfur’s bland performance either, leading to a score of 32%.
Fresh - The Miseducation of Cameron Post (78%)
The newest movie on this list is The Miseducation of Cameron Post, adapted from the book by Emily Danforth. Chloe Grace Moretz plays the title character, a teen girl whose parents force her to attend a “conversion center” after they come to believe she might be gay.
Reviews for the film point out that it handles the LGBT-related subject matter with equal parts humor and insight.
Moretz is also getting kudos for her compassionate performance.
As of this writing, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is just opening and has an 78% score. That may vary slightly as more reviews come in.
Rotten - Insurgent (29%)
The Divergent franchise was supposed to be a very big deal, especially with its attractive young cast that included Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Miles Teller.
Veronica Roth’s series didn’t translate well to the screen, though, with all three entries garnering weak reviews.
The second chapter, Insurgent, landed right in the middle, scoring a 29%. Reviews rightly pointed out that YA adaptations about teens fighting evil in a dystopian future were played out by 2015. This movie simply didn’t have new ideas to bring to the table. Not even the charismatic leads could save it.
Fresh - The Spiderwick Chronicles (80%)
In The Spiderwick Chronicles, twin boys and their sister discover some bizarre occurrences taking place at the dilapidated mansion their family moves into. When an army of weird creatures attacks the home in search of an ancient book, the kids must fight them off.
Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black’s book series came to the screen in spectacular fashion, earning a solid 80% approval rating from the nation’s critics.
Reviewers loved the visual style of the film, in addition to the overall sense of imagination.
Star Freddie Highmore was celebrated for his dual performance as the twins.
Rotten - The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (25%)
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement is the sequel to the surprise 2001 hit.
Inspired by the Meg Cabot YA series – but not based on any particular installment – it follows the journey of Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) as she comes to terms with the fact that an arranged marriage has been set up for her.
While the original Princess Diaries received mixed reviews at best, this follow-up stalled out at 25%. A frequent refrain was that Mia’s story had essentially been told the first time around, leaving the sequel to rehash many of the same ideas and jokes.
Fresh - The Fault in Our Stars (80%)
John Green did something bold when he wrote The Fault in Our Stars. He told a story about teenagers with cancer in a way that wasn’t depressing. There was even a streak of humor in it.
The movie version, starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, managed to pull off the same feat, guiding it to an 80% rating.
Critical consensus was that Josh Boone’s adaptation avoided all the easy “disease movie” tropes, earning its emotions honestly.
The lead actors got lots of love for their empathetic portrayals of the main characters, whose love transcends their respective illnesses.
Rotten - The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (25%)
Critics never cared for The Twilight Saga. None of the chapters even cracked 50% at Rotten Tomatoes.
Of the five movies made from Stephenie Meyer’s massively popular series, Breaking Dawn - Part 1 fared the worst, coming in with a lowly 25%.
Part of this was because Breaking Dawn was divided into two halves. By definition, that meant Part 1 was little more than set-up for the big finale, with all the action and plot resolution coming later on. There was also the fact that, like we said, critics generally found Twilight silly overall.
Fresh - Warm Bodies (81%)
Writer/director Jonathan Levine brought Isaac Marion’s zombie romance Warm Bodies to the big screen in 2013.
Nicholas Hoult plays “R,” a zombie who falls in love with the very much alive Julie (Teresa Palmer). Together, they have to figure out how to make their unlikely attraction work.
Marrying a zombie story to a rom-com couldn’t have been an easy task, but Levine pulled it off.
Warm Bodies enjoys an impressive 81% score, thanks to its successful mix of quirky humor and sincere love story. Critics hailed it as a fresh spin on the zombie genre.
Rotten - Midnight Sun (17%)
Midnight Sun is a little different from the other films on this list, in that it’s not an adaptation of a YA novel. Instead, the source material is a Japanese film, Taiyo no Uta, that was aimed at adolescent audiences in its native country.
Bella Thorne plays a girl with xeroderma pigmentosum, a medical condition that makes it dangerous for her to exposed to sunlight. This means she can only romance her new boyfriend at night.
Sporting a 17% score, Midnight Sun was criticized for being an utterly formulaic teen romance. Its inaccurate portrayal of the disease also came under heavy scrutiny.
Fresh - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (82%)
The Sundance favorite Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is not your typical coming-of-age picture.
Based on Jesse Andrews’ book, it tells the story of a movie-obsessed teenager (Thomas Mann) who is forced by his mother to spend time with a former classmate (Olivia Cooke) recently diagnosed with cancer.
Critics loved all the cinema-related dialogue and references in Me and Earl.
They equally loved the sensitive performances from Mann and Cooke. The plot, meanwhile, was heralded for avoiding easy sentimentality in its depiction of illness.
These qualities got it certified fresh at 82%.
Rotten - Eragon (16%)
The best-selling novel Eragon attracted attention because its author, Christopher Paolini, was a teenager when he wrote it. The movie version was made by adults who perhaps didn’t fully grasp the youthful tone found on the page.
This story of a boy and his dragon working together to fight an evil king earned a thumbs up from only 16% of reviewing critics.
Many of those who panned it pointed out that the plot seemed to be a ripoff of Star Wars. Visually and in terms of action, the film blatantly tried to ape Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Everything about Eragon seemed derivative onscreen.
Fresh - Whip It (84%)
Drew Barrymore made her feature directing debut with Whip It, from the Shauna Cross novel. Ellen Page plays a rebellious teenage girl who decides to join the world of competitive roller derby. Barrymore and Kristen Wiig play two of her teammates.
The excellent 84% score reflects the high energy and sharp comedic vibe that Whip It’s novice director brought to the project.
Additional kudos were handed out for the strong female empowerment theme, which critics found inspiring.
Ellen Page’s three-dimensional performance was similarly cheered.
Interestingly, despite the great response, Barrymore has yet to direct another film.
Rotten - The 5th Wave (15%)
Adapting Rick Yancey’s novel, The 5th Wave features Chloe Grace Moretz as a young girl making her way through a world that has been decimated by four alien attacks. Her goal is to reunite with her little brother before the fifth wave of attacks begins.
Reviews dismissed the film for its often unimpressive special effects, which don’t always look convincing. Critics also felt the entire concept of a decimated Earth had been done much better in other, similar films.
Those things, combined with a cliched story, resulted in a 15% score.
Fresh - Bridge to Terabithia (85%)
Bridge to Terabithia brought author Katherine Paterson’s story to the screen in 2007. Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb play friends who spend time playing in the imaginary world they’ve created together. Zooey Deschanel co-stars as a kindly music teacher.
The hidden secret of the story is that it becomes a hardcore tear-jerker at the end, when Robb’s character passes away.
The film received positive reviews for addressing loss in a manner that’s both age-appropriate and useful for the target audience of children. Much happier than the ending is its 85% rating.
Rotten - Vampire Academy (15%)
Vampire Academy is, as the title suggests, about a school for vampires. Within its hallowed halls, a battle between good vampires and bad vampires takes place.
Zoey Deutch, Claire Foy, and Sarah Hyland are among the stars of this film, adapted from Richelle Mead’s fantasy novels.
Reviews were, to put it kindly, atrocious. Only 15% were positive. Many critics dubbed Vampire Academy a poor translation of Mead’s books. Others said it felt like a half-baked mash-up of Harry Potter and Twilight. The convoluted plot didn’t win many of them over, either.
Fresh - A Monster Calls (86%)
A Monster Calls author Patrick Ness also wrote the screenplay for the film based on his work. It’s a fantasy about a young boy who conjures up an imaginary tree monster to help him deal with his mother’s terminal cancer, an absentee father, and a harsh grandmother. Liam Neeson provides the voice of the tree.
Critics couldn’t stop raving about director J.A. Bayona’s creative visuals and how they complement a dark, emotional story.
A whopping 86% of them agreed the movie is a profound examination of how imagination can help children cope with tragedy.
