Seriously, worse than murder? Every Year After creators stunned by backlash to Percy twist

*Warning: Spoilers ahead for Every Year After*

To say readers of Every Summer After were angry about the Percy twist would be an understatement – some were left “scarred for life”. Now the TV adaptation Every Year After has arrived, the creators behind the story are addressing the backlash. 

The new Prime Video series is the perfect watch to fill the void left by Heated Rivalry, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and Off Campus. 

Based on Carley Fortune’s popular BookTok novel, it tells the story of Percy Fraser (Sadie Soverall), a writer who returns to the lakeside town of Barry’s Bay, where she met and fell in love with Sam (Matt Cornett).

There’s love, friendship, heartbreak, death, and plenty of yearning, with both the book and the series showing how one big mistake can impact your life for years to come. 

In this case (and I’m assuming you know this if you’re still reading at this point), it’s that Percy slept with Sam’s older brother Charlie (Michael Bradway) when she was 17 during a particularly vulnerable moment. 

By the end of the book, Sam forgives Percy. But the same can’t be said for many of the readers. As said by one on Reddit, “That twist made me so angry. It’s been two years and I’m still not over it.”

Multiple people said they were unable to read another Fortune book afterwards, while another wrote, “I am so damn uncomfortable about what happened, I think I’m scarred for life.”

There are plenty of similar comments on TikTok, and while some see the nuance in the situation, others simply “hated that.” And similar sentiments are being shared in light of Every Year After’s release. 

“I just watched the show and Sam should never have talked to them ever again,” wrote one, while another said, “My heart is broken.” You get the picture. 

There is an interesting book change that you should know about: While in the pages, Sam already knew the truth after Charlie confessed to him, he doesn’t find out in the show until Percy breaks the news to him years later. 

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, both Fortune and showrunner Amy B. Harris take a more nuanced approach to Percy’s mistake, expressing empathy for her. 

“With Sam and Percy, their relationship as young people doesn’t feel safe to Percy, because he’s being a teenage boy, very wishy-washy. She’s really vulnerable,” Fortune told the outlet. 

“I think what I tried to do, and I think what the show does a good job of, is show [that] she makes a mistake. We’re very flawed, and we do make mistakes, but we are still worthy of good things, and love, and that’s the journey that Percy’s on.”

She also disagreed with fans who claim Percy cheated on Sam with Charlie, saying, “To me, it doesn’t really matter, but I know to readers it does. 

“People have used the word adultery, which I think is absolutely inappropriate when they’re 17. It’s a betrayal. It’s a betrayal of Sam, and it’s a betrayal of herself.” 

Fortune noted that Percy gets “the most heat” compared to Sam and Charlie despite the twist being “foreshadowed from the first chapter,” while also expressing surprise that some readers consider it “worse than murder.”

Harris, meanwhile, told THR that she welcomes the conversations about it and suggested Percy may face more criticism due to the fact that the book is told from her perspective. 

“Percy made a huge mistake in sleeping with Charlie, but Sam had been very inconsistent,” she said. 

“You could say, ‘She’s too needy’ and ‘She needed too much from him,’ and that’s fine, but I don’t think that’s the case, actually. I think Sam, when things got hard, always pushed her away. 

“When he got scared, he would be like, ‘We have our serious lives to take care of, and we have to pursue our own dreams, and we can’t be together.’ That was incredibly painful for Percy.”

Harris continued, “I think we made it pretty clear, she’s starting to understand that she lashes out at Sam when he hurts her. She would kiss other boys, she would throw a boyfriend in his face. 

“I think she’s learning these painful lessons, and I hope the way we told the story of how Charlie and Percy ended up hooking up, was [because] that relationship [between Sam and Percy] had become so hard and so difficult, and Charlie was fun and a breath of fresh air.”

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Featured image credit: Prime Video