50 YA Books We Want Adapted to the Big or Small Screen

Cover to The Diabolic, by S.J. Kincaid. Image via publisher Simon & Schuster.

35. The Diabolic 

The odds of The Diabolic making it to screen in its current form to get a PG-13 rating or lower seem rather slim, because I noted in my review that I found it surprising that it’s actually a YA novel, especially due to its violent action sequences. Then again, The Hunger Games films all had PG-13 ratings, and that’s a series that’s literally based on teens and tweens killing each other for the entertainment of a dystopian America. (Of course, sites like MTV were making an argument as early as Catching Fire that the films blurred the line between PG-13 and R.)

Anyway, S.J. Kincaid’s The Diabolic follows Nemesis, who is herself a Diabolic: trained and created to be a powerful bodyguard for Sidonia. However, when galactic politics mean it’s unsafe for Sidonia to visit the imperial court, Nemesis goes instead and meets Tyrus, the heir to the throne, as well as finding that the empire isn’t as stable as it seems. Well, all right, she helps destabilize it.

The Diabolic will be followed by at least two more books, and, as of now, won’t conclude until 2018. It may be safer to wait until for the second book’s arrival. But, with the Divergent film series going out with a whimper, The Diabolic might move into the sci-fi dystopia hole left by The Hunger Games coming to an end.