This is not quite a straight-forward book vs TV series, because the book I read about fraudster Anna Sorokin – My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams – was not the basis for the new Netflix series, Inventing Anna. Instead, the series was based around a feature article by Jessica Pressler (and her forthcoming book, Bad Influence).
So, read or watch?
Read. Because:
- Rachel stands by her version of events, whereas the TV series has a number of fictional characters that are a pastiche of people involved. I’m not a fan of sorting fact from fiction – just let me be absorbed in one or the other.
- The book gives a slow build. The series unfolds from the perspective of various characters, making the accumulation of Anna’s fraudulent activity a little disjointed,
- Nine hour-long episodes of Anna’s terrible accent in the TV series was almost too much.