The Woman in Cabin 10 has received a glowing review from the original author, Ruth Ware. Her 2016 novel follows Lo, a journalist attempting to solve a mystery after she witnesses a passenger go overboard and is unable to convince anyone else that it happened. Keira Knightley plays Lo in the movie, which debuts on Netflix on October 10.

The upcoming The Woman in Cabin 10, which also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Kaya Scodelario, Hannah Waddingham, and Guy Pearce, is the first movie adapted from a Ruth Ware novel. However, a series based on The It Girl is also in the works, and In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Lying Game, and Zero Days have been optioned by various companies.

People recently caught up with Ruth Ware after a special screening of The Woman in Cabin 10 in London. The author called her “surreal” first viewing of the movie “an out-of-body experience.”

In addition to being excited by the fact that her words are being brought to life, she praised some of the ways that the movie is different from her novel. This includes the ending, which involves some “really clever workarounds” because the novel was told from Lo’s perspective while the movie naturally takes on a third-person view.

She also said that, even though Keira Knightley is less of an everywoman than the way she herself imagined the character, the actor “perfectly” captured Lo’s “slightly vulnerable, but fundamentally incredibly tough, dogged, driven persona.” Read Ware’s full quote below:

Honestly, like an out-of-body experience. It was really crazy seeing it when I watched the film for the first time. But I think the moment when I sort of realized, “oh my gosh, this is all real” is when I did my first set visit and going into a universe that I had dreamt up in my spare room 10 years ago and hearing characters that had never existed outside of my brain uttering lines that I just scribbled down because I thought they sounded interesting.

That was honestly just the craziest thing of my life. It was surreal… I feel like I know how to write a book, but I do not know how to make a movie, so I was very happy to hand that over to the experts. I think the thing about the book is we’re inside Lo’s head for all of it … We don’t know anything else, and obviously a film is very different, in that respect. You’re seeing it externally. The audience has their own mind to make up about stuff, so it needed to be told in a slightly different way, particularly the ending, and I think they’ve all kind of done some really clever workarounds.
[Keira Knightley] is a lot more beautiful than I’d imagine Lo. Lo in my head was always just more of a kind of everywoman, but I think she’s really caught what I was trying to create with Lo’s spirit, like she brings that sort of slightly anxious, slightly vulnerable, but fundamentally incredibly tough, dogged, driven persona. She just captures that perfectly.

What This Means For The Woman in Cabin 10

Ware’s comments imply that the ending of the movie could be somewhat different from what was presented on the page, which could make it an unpredictable experience even for viewers who have already read the original novel, which was a New York Times bestseller.

This could potentially help it stand out among the wide variety of literary psychological thriller movies that have hit screens in the past decade, including Gone Girl, A Simple Favor, The Girl on the Train, and The Woman in the Window, which were collectively parodied by the Netflix series The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.

Our Take On Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 Review

Ultimately, it remains to be seen if audiences have the same reaction to the Keira Knightley movie as Ruth Ware. While her review seems honest, it is somewhat in her own best interest to share a positive review of a movie adapting her own work.

However, it is not uncommon for authors to speak out against adaptations of their own projects. Most notably, Stephen King has shared thorough criticisms of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of The Shining, but more recently Rick Riordan has expressed consternation with the Percy Jackson movies. This could mean that The Woman in Cabin 10 will truly be an exciting adaptation.