In recent years, we have seen Prime Video decisively lean into the Young Adult (YA) genre, turning it into one of the most intriguing strands of its overall strategy. The results achieved by certain productions — including The Summer in Your Eyes, Maxton Hall: The World Between Us, and Off Campus — demonstrate that stories aimed at teenagers and young adults can captivate a very broad audience. A central element of this strategy is the connection with the publishing world. The platform is looking with particular interest at novels that already have a solid following, especially those that gained popularity through BookTok, the literary community of TikTok. While other titles are in development for the coming months, Netflix responds to the growing attention toward coming-of-age stories, those set in exclusive school environments in particular, with the green light for Prep, a series based on the best-selling novel by Curtis Sittenfeld.
Prep: the plot of Netflix’s new YA series
Written by Nicole Taylor, who has previously conceived One Day for Netflix, Prep follows the story of a teenage girl from Indiana who attends a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts. In the novel, the intelligent Lee Fiora finds herself at Ault School thanks to a scholarship, feeling like a stranger among peers far more privileged. Here we see sweater-clad boys chatting in front of old brick buildings and girls in kilts wielding lacrosse sticks on impeccably maintained athletic fields. Between the fear and the allure these surroundings exert on her, Lee becomes a careful observer — and, over time, a participant — in their rituals and routines. However, when her behavior takes a self-destructive turn and ends up in everyone’s view, the identity she had built with such care within the community shatters.
“Prep is by far my favorite novel; I wanted to adapt it since, twenty years ago, I first read it and found in it a surprising reflection of myself,” Taylor stated. “There is no sharper portrait of the introspective, book-loving and insecure teenager, nor a more truthful or ruthless depiction of the pitfalls tied to social mobility, than what is found in Curtis Sittenfeld’s magnificent debut novel. I am thrilled to oversee its adaptation for Netflix.”
Sittenfeld herself commented: “I am delighted that Netflix is turning Prep into a TV series: it was worth waiting 22 years! Alix Taylor, from Gloria Sanchez, has carried the project forward with great intelligence and enthusiasm, and Nicole Taylor’s screenplays are truly brilliant. Nicole’s adaptation helps me understand my own novel better, and myself. At 51, I can’t wait to see what they do with this story of privilege, deep desires, and teenage torments.”
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