My two lives — as a YA writer and a movie critic — collide when I watch movies based on popular YA novels. And that happens more and more often these days. I like having the extra insight that comes from having read the book — especially when the adaptation is a good one, like The Fault in Our Stars (here’s my rave review).

Unlike TFiOS, The Hunger Games, Divergent, etc., How I Live Now didn’t make it to multiplexes in my state. The adaptation of Meg Rosoff’s acclaimed novel was low-budget and low-profile, so I had to catch it on Netflix.

I had very mixed feelings about this movie, as my review here reveals. Some bits I loved (and won’t soon forget); others, not so much. And since I haven’t read Rosoff’s book (yet), I can’t compare the two.

But I do think the movie version of How I Live Now deserves a look. And now I’m eager to get my hands on the novel and experience Daisy’s terrifying life-during-wartime story from her first-person perspective.