This Judy Blume Adaptation Has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes Score…and Don’t Sleep on the Book Either

As a kid, there is a list of books and authors that comprise your coming-of-age TBR. Beverly Cleary. Shel Silverstein. The Velveteen Rabbit and The Giving Tree. Magic Treehouse. The Harry Potter series raised a generation. But if there’s one author who truly captured the rite of passage into adulthood, it’s Judy Blume. She gave us treasures like Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret and Tales of a 4^th Grade Nothing, among many other titles.

I’m a self-proclaimed bookworm (I read on average one book per week), so I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never read any of Blume’s novels—until now. While I don’t watch much television, I do love a good book-to-screen adaptation. Recently, I stumbled on Netflix’s 2025 adaptation of Blume’s 1975 bildungsroman, Forever…, and despite the fact that most of my entertainment-obsessed pals haven’t heard of it, it’s got a stunning 97 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. Here’s how the book and series stacked up against each other.

When Forever… was published in 1975, it generated immediate controversy over its explicit sexual content. Today is no different—in 2025, the book again made waves as one of 13 books banned from every Utah public school.

I was one of those kids whose parents forbid them from reading the likes of Twilight, so Forever… never even made it across my desk. But, reading it as an adult, I will say that if I ever had children, I would allow them to read it. (At the right time, of course.)

The story follows two high schoolers falling in love for the first time, and everything that comes with it. Though the material is explicit, it’s not, importantly, gratuitous, and deftly explores the concept of consent and safe sex in the bloom of first (and young) love. I’ve read many books, but couldn’t recall, before Forever…, one that talked about these foundations, or displayed respectful communication, in a way that felt authentic and not cringe-worthy. I have an inkling that if more high schoolers read Forever…, they’d have a better understanding of appropriate ways to explore sexuality.

The Netflix show might cite Blume’s novel as the source material, but the characters and storyline couldn’t be more different. Not, necessarily, in a bad way. We still have two young lovers trying to discover who they are as the uncertainty of the future looms large before them.

However, while Blume’s book was for teenagers, I think Forever firmly falls into the adult camp. For starters, it’s rated TV-MA, and the stakes are a lot higher here.

Set in the present day, the Netflix adaptation introduces us to two new protagonists. Justin Edwards comes from a wealthy family in the Hollywood Hills, and falls for a former primary school classmate, Keisha Clark, raised by a single mother in Inglewood. Keisha’s running from her past, clouded by an ex-boyfriend and a sex tape scandal; Justin is uncertain about his future but feeling the pressure of his successful parents.

One of the biggest changes this time around is the dose of healthy parental involvement. In the book, Kath’s parents are in the periphery, and they’re a happy family, but the parents in the series are involved. Justin’s parents talk to him about safe sex. He doesn’t make Keisha feel taboo about her sex tape. Sure, the T.V. series veered far from the source material, but in a good way. Talking about sex with your parents in the ‘70s? Uh, good luck with that. Today, it’s essential—and the parents in this version of Forever… are a model on how to do it right without moralizing.

Does the Netflix version give our young couple a happy ending? With a great soundtrack and storylines, you’ll have to see for yourself. But I will say that I think the 97 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating is absolutely warranted. And I mean, any series that ends with a riff on “Moon River” has me in an automatic puddle, no questions asked.

Watch on Netflix