First Kill by V. E. Schwab: Book vs. TV Show

^{Beware! This post contains spoilers.}

First Kill short story vs. First Kill TV series

When it’s time for teenage vampire Juliette to make her first kill so she can take her place among a powerful vampire family, she sets her sights on a new girl in town named Calliope. But much to Juliette’s surprise, Calliope is a vampire hunter, from a family of celebrated slayers. Both find that the other won’t be so easy to kill and, unfortunately, way too easy to fall for…

Show of hands, who here has already binged First Kill?! 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️ This sapphic vampire and vampire-hunter romance has been ALL OVER the internet the past few weeks in advance of its release. And you know as a HUGE Buffy fan and sapphic girl myself, I had to binge the entire thing the weekend it came out!

Y’all, I was SO excited. Me and my girlfriend pretty much just squealed the entire watch time. As my girlfriend put it: “now I finally get the Twilight obsession!” 🧛🏻‍♀️🗡🩸🖤

Did I think it was the best show I’ve ever watched? Absolutely not. 🙅🏻‍♀️ But was it cute and fun and silly and squeal-worthy? YES. If you’re a fan of any teen supernatural romp you will enjoy yourself. This show is really campy and definitely a throwback to those types of series (cringy CGI and all, lol).

Look, I’m just a queer gal living in a heteronormative world who loves to see some cute sapphic characters on television that just lets them be gay and doesn’t end in literal tragedy. (Though, that season finale? My heart is broken! 💔😭)

As V. E. Schwab explained during an interview for the show, “it still feels like the vast majority of the time when queer characters get to be at the centre of a story, it’s because the story is about queerness. But that is reducing them in a way that their straight counterpoints don’t get reduced.”

THIS. ☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻

In particular, the first couple episodes of this show really shone. 🤩 The first episode itself is essentially just V. E. Schwab’s short story, First Kill, that the TV show is based on and the inspiration for its name. (Which is fantastic in and of itself!)

I do think the show loses a bit of steam as it goes along. I also felt like even more of the universe could have been explored? The first few episodes do a really good job setting the story up, but then it felt like the rest of the season just kept working towards something that never got fully actualized. Which isn’t to say I lost interest as it went on – in fact, it’s the opposite, I wish there could have been even more to watch!

After reading the story and watching the show, I think it’s genuinely hard to compare the two, because the short story is, well, short. While the TV show is intended to expand upon the world created in the story. For example, I really enjoyed the girls’ families, and how they were elaborated on in the show compared to the small glimpse of them we got in the story.

The short story itself is so well written and really just the perfect taster – it doesn’t get bogged down or drawn out the way the show can feel at times. But it also leaves things up in the air, while the show answers a lot more questions!

My recommendation? Read the short story first to get yourself familiarized with the characters. And then once you’re truly hooked on Juliette and Calliope’s whirlwind romance, check out the show to see what happens next! 👀

Have you seen First Kill?

What were your thoughts?

Let me know!