I was browsing TikTok the other day, as you do, and a video came up on my feed saying about endings being changed in a book based on the country it was released in. I was intrigued so obviously dived into the comments to find out which book they were talking about and apparently Beach Read by Emily Henry has a different ending in the UK. This obviously led to a lot of Googling by me (because I don't believe half of what I read on TikTok without verification) and it's true! I'd never really thought about changes being made to books based on release location beyond the spelling of words being changed from US English to UK English.
It's probably a little naïve of me but I figured they would try and stay true to the story and not ask the author to make major edits. I know books get released with different covers because often the marketing needs to be different to fit with the countries market and there are books released with different titles as well. I mean Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US, Jenn Bennet's Night Owls is The Anatomical Shape of a Heart in the US. I know that when books are translated their titles can often be changed in the language they’re translated to make more sense in that language. I really thought that was the extent of changes made, but it turns out that's not the case so now I want to find out which other books had this happen.
Beach Read – Emily Henry
It's not a major difference, I totally spoiled myself to see what it was, and it just changed how the book ended slightly. It does seem like it would change the tone of the ending slightly and the direction the relationship would be taking for January and Gus. I don't know the reasons behind the change but I think the UK ending sounds more fitting to the book and would be the one I would enjoy best. I've got the UK edition anyway so at least I can be happy knowing it'll work best for me when I eventually jump on the hype train and check it out anyway.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder – Holly Jackson
This one totally surprised me and I actually only discovered the change when I was reading Sam's post at We Live and Breath Books for Sloth Goes Places: Connecticut. She mentioned the book in that post as being set in Connecticut and I was totally confused. I admit, it's been a couple of years since I read the book but I distinctly remembered it being set in the UK because that's one of the things I liked about it, even though the A-Level project Pip was completing was totally foreign to me as I never did anything like it in my A-Levels. I googled to find out what the deal was because I remembered the US edition of the first book released later than in the UK. Turns out that globally it's UK based but it's only the US where the setting was changed. I admit, I did the typical thing of rolling my eyes because of course Americans had to make it US-based to appeal to their book market but I suppose I shouldn't judge too harshly because I know publishing is complex and they know their markets best and what will sell. I doubt the change of location really alters the story too much but is good to know if I discuss the book with US-based people we will be discussing slightly different books. And here I thought books would unite us worldwide.
Hex – Thomas Olde Heuvelt
I'd actually forgotten about this book until I began writing this post but it perfectly fit. The book was originally published in Dutch in 2013 and was then translated into English in 2016. The book's location was changed to upstate New York and the author even rewrote the ending from the original Dutch book. I borrowed the book a few years ago now and it was actually really scary. I obviously haven't read the original Dutch but I suppose the location itself wouldn't influence the book too much, for me both the Netherlands and America are foreign locations but the US is going to be far more familiar given how widespread US shows and media is. As for the different ending, I can't really remember how it ended now (it's been a few years) but the bits I've managed to find about the changes I don't know if the Dutch ending might be more messed up.
I couldn't think of any more books that changed based on publishing location, but I do not doubt that there are more. I could understand changes being made to Hex as it was translated to English. I know with translation work it does require certain changes to be made simply because to literally translate books would lose a lot of the meaning and intent in the writing. Not all words and phrases are so easily translatable. Each language has its own way of saying things and that's what makes it interesting. I would expect books to be altered to best get the meaning and intent of the book across in each language. It did surprise me to see that books that were written in English were changed in small or major ways. Changing words spelling, like center to centre would be obvious (US spelling does still throw me when I'm reading) and altering from sidewalk to pavement or yard to garden even make sense to me. But the change of location or ending was surprising.
Do you know any books which were changed based on where they were published which I haven't mentioned? And anyone who can and do read in their native language and English, have you ever noticed changes to books if they're translated to your language? I'm really interested to see what changes are made to books.
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