Page to Screen: Pieces of Her by Karen Slaughter

Did you read Pieces of Her and are curious about the Netflix series? Want to know how the Netflix version of Pieces of Her is different from the book? Is the book of Pieces of Her better or the Netflix show? I’m here to explain all and welcome your thoughts! Welcome to Page to Screen: Pieces of Her by Karen Slaughter. You can find all my Page to Screen posts here!

THIS POST DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR PIECES OF HER. I will label each episode (and the approximate corresponding chapters) so if you wish to read the post in stages as you watch (or read) you can!

A bit of information about the book AND the movie:

Pieces of Her is a 2018 book by Karin Slaughter.

Pieces of Her is also a 2022 series on Netflix. There are eight episodes that are around one hour each.

Let’s get into our comparison of Pieces of Her: the book vs the movie:

PLOT SUMMARY PIECES OF HER EPISODE ONE: CHAPTERS 1-5

Andrea “Andy” Oliver and her mother Laura are in a diner, having a birthday lunch in Andy’s honor. Laura feels guilty about pulling Andy away from her life in New York to come to Belle Isle, Georgia and help her through treatment for breast cancer. A woman and her daughter approach the table to chat with Andy and Laura. Suddenly, both the girl and her mother are shot. Laura throws Andy to the ground and, when the shooter thinks Andy is a cop due to her 911 police dispatch uniform she’s wearing, Laura tells him to shoot her instead. The man pulls out a knife and stabs Laura through the hand as she tries to defend herself. She uses the knife to slit his throat.

Andy’s stepfather, Gordon, arrives at the hospital, as do the police, who say that the shooter was a disgruntled ex of one of the victims. Laura emerges and tells Andy she needs to move out of their house immediately.

In the episode, Andy showers and falls asleep, then wakes up and hears a noise. But in the book, she goes for a middle-of-the-night run to clear her head. Andy sees a man with a dark hoodie in the garage. She goes in the house to find that he’s talking to her mother, whose hands are tied. He mentions the name Paula Koontz/Kunde. (In the book he says Paula is in Austin. In the show he says “Paula was right about you.”) When the man puts a plastic bag over Laura’s head, Andy texts 911 and then hits the guy over the head.

Andy unties her mother, who tells her to get the man’s ID out of her pocket, then take his money, ditch his ID, and use his car keys and drive his car to a storage facility in West Georgia. There, she’ll find another car. In the show, Laura tells Andy to drive to Maine. In the book, she suggests Idaho.

Andy starts trying the keys in cars parked near the house. One of the cars has a rabbit’s foot handing from her rear view mirror, but the key doesn’t fit. She finally finds the guy’s truck and heads off.

OTHER WAYS THE BOOK AND EPISODE ONE ARE DIFFERENT:

The book spends more time on what a “wreck” Andy is. She was miserable in New York and feels like a sad loser at 31. In the book, more of a deal is made of the fact that Laura willfully killed the shooter by pulling the knife out of his neck. (But the knife was still embedded in her hand, so did Laura really want to have to sit there with the knife connecting her hand and his neck?) The police in the book seem more threatening toward Laura for reasons that aren’t clear.

In the book, a man Andy refers to as “Alabama” comes up to Andy and Laura as they waits for Gordon to pull the car around. Andy also thinks about her biological father, a man named Jerry Randall who died in a car accident when Andy was a baby. In the book, Laura tells Andy that the storage unit is 120, Andy’s birthday. But Andy’s birthday was the day before, in August.

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PLOT SUMMARY PIECES OF HER EPISODE TWO: CHAPTERS 6-8

Andy drives to Carrelton and finds the public library, where she looks up the location of the storage unit. She also prints out driving directions. (In the book, from Georgia to Idaho. In the show, to Camden, Maine.) Andy searches the internet for a story about a man being killed by a blow to the head, but finds nothing. She searches the news on January 20, 1987, then tries to Google Paula Koontz and finds nothing that seems relevant. In the book, she searches different spellings of the last name and includes Austin and gets a Womens Studies Professor named Paula Kunde in Austin.

In the SHOW, Laura is questioned by the police about the shooting. Then she calls Gordon and tells him she needs help.

Andy heads out to the truck, but sees a strange man peering inside. She walks to the storage unit and finds a car. There is a gun in the glove compartment. In the trunk, she finds a light blue suitcase with clothing and stacks of money. She also finds fake IDs with Laura’s picture, one with the name Daniela Cooper, and a photo of a young, injured Laura.

In the SHOW, Gordon arrives and helps Laura with the body of the man Andy hit. The guy dies in the back seat and then a friend of Laura’s named Charlie shows up.

Exhausted, Andy pulls off the highway and gets a motel room. In the BOOK, she splits up the money into different hiding places, then goes to a nearby bar, where she sees Alabama. They talk, and then she checks the news on her phone and finds a story about an unidentified man found under a bridge. She makes out with Alabama (whose name is actually Mike) and then she notices his rabbit foot keychain.

In the SHOW, she goes to the bar, chats up the guy on the next stool, and asks him to teach her to shoot a gun. As they walk back past his car, she sees a rabbit foot hanging from the rear view mirror. Also in the SHOW, Laura goes out to one of the news reporters and says she wants to give a statement.

OTHER WAYS THE BOOK AND EPISODE TWO ARE DIFFERENT:

In the book, Andy finds a stack of photos in the storage unit, including doctored photos of Andy as a baby. SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED PAST EPISODE TWO: Chapter seven of the book is a flashback to Laura Juneau (okay, I’m pretty sure this Laura is not Laura Oliver, for reasons you’ll see later on) at a 1986 finance conference in Oslo. She’s pretending to be someone named Alexandra Maplecroft, speaks to a members of the Queller family (Andrew and Jane), and reflects on her son, David, who was murdered. Alexandra has made a career of criticizing Martin Queller and his political and economic theories. Martin Queller and Alexandra are appearing on a panel together. Laura Juneau recalls how her husband Robert, whose deteriorating mental health she blames on Queller, killed their son David and then himself. Alexandra/Laura pulls out a gun and shoots Martin Queller, then herself.

I don’t think Charlie is a character in the book.

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PLOT SUMMARY: PIECES OF HER EPISODE THREE

Episode 3 is where things really start to diverge from the book to the show, so instead of pairing these entries up, I will start to alternate, trying to point out differences.

In the SHOW, Laura gives her statement to the press which is much less interesting that I hoped. A weird guy is watching her statement and then shows up to threaten Andy.

Meanwhile, Andy sneaks away from Rabbit Foot guy, buys a new car, and heads to visit Charlie. While he’s making her some eggs, she snoops around and finds a photo of him with Rabbit Foot guy. Uh-oh!

Andy calls Gordon mentioning that she went to visit Charlie, which Gordon immediately reports to Laura. After that, Andy starts researching the mysterious Paula and finds out that she is imprisoned in Fort Worth for kidnapping and murder. Andy calls Laura, who asks her to come home, but Andy heads to Fort Worth, as does Laura.

Andy tries to talk to Paula’s lawyer, Geraldine Ross, but can’t get an appointment. She steals the ID of a woman who works at the law office and assumes her identity.

There’s also a flashback to a woman named Annette trying to leave her husband and take her three children with her.

PLOT SUMMARY: PIECES OF HER BOOK CHAPTERS 9-11

In the BOOK, we follow the Queller family in the aftermath of the shooting. Jane “Jinx” Queller is a concert pianist. She, her lover Nick, and her brother Andrew are visited by the FBI, who tell them that the real Alexandra Maplecroft was kidnapped by Army for a Changing World, who want an apology from Jasper Queller for Robert Juneau’s actions. It’s revealed that Jane and Andrew are part of the ACW group. Nick, Robert, and Andrew met in a group home after Andrew had a drug problem. They have evidence that their father committed insurance fraud. Paula shows up with the kidnapped Alexandra Maplecroft.

Meanwhile, Andy is still on the run, renting multiple storage units to hide the money. She researches Paula is not in prison as she is in the movie, but has served her time and is now a professor. She goes to Paula’s house, where Paula opens the door, injured. Andy describes hoodie guy and Paula agree that might be the guy who hurt her. Paula says she served twenty years in prison. Mike shows up and Andy attacks him with a bat and steals his wallet. Paula suggests that Andy to talk to someone named Clara Bellamy in Illinois. Andy takes Mike’s truck and heads to Illinois.

PLOT SUMMARY: PIECES OF HER EPISODE FOUR

There’s a flashback to a group of people testing exploding dye packs.

Another flashback to the Oslo Conference, the fake Alexandra (in the book she is Laura Juneau; in the show Grace Juno) arrives and checks in. Then she heads to the ladies room, where in a toilet tank, she finds the exploding dye pack. Alexandra then meets Queller, who isn’t happy about the way her work attacks his company.

In the present, Andy disguises herself as a lawyer using the ID she stole and visits Paula in prison. Andy shows Paula her mom’s fake IDs, and Paula pretends not to know who she is. But when she sees the Polaroid of the young, injured Laura, she freaks out and says she’ll kill “Jane Queller.”

Shaken, Andy heads to a public computer and searches Jane Queller, finding only articles about Jane’s brother Jasper, a political candidate. Jasper’s memoirs suggest that Jane vanished in the 1980s. Andy realizes Mike is following her and traps him, pulling a gun on him. He admits that he is a US Marshal and says that Andy and Laura have been in witness protection since Andy was a baby. Andy asks Mike to go with her to a Jasper Queller fundraiser.

Charlie and Laura are in a safe house. He suggests that Laura is still in danger from someone named Nick, but Laura insists that Nick must be dead. Charlie shows her photos of a dead Clara and suggests that Nick killed her. Then he shows Laura photos of some men who crossed the Canadian border and asks her if she recognizes any of them as Nick. She says no, but is clearly lying. She asks to leave the witness protection program.

Main differences between the book Pieces of Her and Episode Four:

In the book, Paula is out of prison and in the show, Paula is in prison. Conversely, in the show, Nick is out of prison and in hiding, while in the book, Nick is in prison.

In the book, Andy doesn’t go to Jasper’s fundraiser. She doesn’t learn her mother’s real identity or their connection to the Quellers until much later in the book. Andy goes from Paula to Clara, which we’ll see in the next section. In the show, Clara is dead, while in the book she is still alive.

PLOT SUMMARY: PIECES OF HER EPISODE FIVE

Andy has been magically whisked to Jasper Queller’s NoCal mansion. He tells Andy that her mom was a concert pianist. Jasper also tells Andy that Nick was the one who handed Grace Juno (Laura Juneau in the book) the gun that she used to shoot his father. Grace impersonated Alexandra to sneak into the conference and shot Martin, then herself. Andy asks how Andrew died and Jasper says that “Nick was with him.”

Gordon and Laura are at a bar. She tells him she left witness protection.

In a flashback, the Queller family has dinner with Nick. Jane and Nick are obviously interested in each other.

The Queller housekeeper gives Andy some old VHS tapes of Jane’s concerts, and what do you know? The super-rich Quellers just happen to have a janky old VHS player lying around to play the tapes. Recorded over one of the performances is footage of Nick and Jane being very chummy.

Mike counts the money in the suitcase. Andy calls him asking about Nick Harp and he convinces her to meet him in San Francisco. When she realizes that Jasper is spying on her, including, recording their phone call, she flees.

In a flashback, Martin Queller confronts Nick about using a fake name. Nick tells Jane she has to choose: her father or Nick.

Andy tells Mike that she thinks Nick must be her father. Mike warns her that he thinks Jasper Queller is after the suitcase. Just then, he gets bumped by a jogger and passes out.

In a flashback, Jane deliberately slams her hand in a car door and then goes to Nick. Grace Juno shows up and tells her story of how QuellCorp’s drugs drove her husband to shoot their children.

Main Differences Between the Book and Episode Five

In the book, Andy doesn’t visit Jasper and Mike isn’t attacked by Jasper’s henchmen. Basically none of this episode is in the book except, I think, that Nick is using a fake name.

PLOT SUMMARY: PIECES OF HER EPISODE SIX

In the present, Laura/Jane arrives in San Francisco looking for Andy. She tells Jasper she can ruin his political career. Jasper tells Laura/Jane that Andy is asking about Nick. Laura/Jane calls Charlie, begging for his help. He tells her that she left witness protection, but is clearly going to help her.

Andy, who has taken Mike’s car keys and hotel key card before the ambulance took him away, heads to his hotel and finds the suitcase along with an old newspaper article about the Maplecroft ransom money. Someone comes to the room and she hides, watching Jasper’s thugs take the suitcase. She uses Mike’s car to follow them.

There’s a flashback to Jane at Martin’s funeral, saying that she didn’t think Grace was going to kill him. Martin puts on a Ronald Reagan mask and picks up the Maplecroft ransom money.

Back to Andy, who gives the thugs a flat tire when they stop for gas.

Charlie texts Jane Mike’s hotel and room number, but when she gets there, he’s gone. She finds the name Eli Wexler in his room.

In one of the most improbable scenes in the show, when the thugs pull over to change their tire, Andy tries to take the suitcase out of the trunk without them noticing. When she’s about to be caught, she jumps into the trunk of the car with the suitcase.

Jane calls Eli to ask if he’s seen Andy. We learn that, as in the book, Eli and his wife Clara took care of Andy while Jane was in prison.

In a flashback, Jane is in a train depot where the members of Army for a Changing World are hiding after Martin Queller’s murder. This is also where the real Alexandra Maplecroft is being held. Someone shooting (the authorities?) arrive. There’s a struggle in which Nick gets stabbed through the hand and then cuts Alexandra’s throat. The group heads through an underground tunnel to a van.

This corresponds pretty closely with:

PLOT SUMMARY PIECES OF HER BOOK CHAPTER 12

Back with the Quellers, Nick, the kidnapped Alexandra gets into a struggle with Quarter, one of the Army members. He stabs Alexandra through the hand. Nick punches Alexandra and she falls and hits her head. The group thinks she is dead. The FBI arrives, shooting. Quarter is hit and the rest of the Army start climbing out the back window, with Andrew carrying a metal box. After traveling through an underground tunnel, they find a van.

PLOT SUMMARY: PIECES OF HER EPISODE SIX (PART 2)

Andy is rescued from the trunk by a security guard with a beard. Her mom calls and they meet at a diner. Andy asks her mom if Nick Harp is her father. Jane says she didn’t think Nick would kill Martin. She says she will testify against him if he is caught and the money in the suitcase is the Alexandra Maplecroft ransom money. Jane pretends to have to go to the bathroom and flees out the window with the suitcase, leaving Andy.

PLOT SUMMARY: PIECES OF HER EPISODE SEVEN

Flashback to Jane in prison.

Charlie comes to pick up Andy from the diner.

Flashback to Laura/Jane during her chemo for breast cancer. She’s mean to this poor fellow patient and then sits by her bedside, complaining that she doesn’t want to die as Laura Oliver.

In another flashback, the ACW members are at the safe house. Andrew has been shot. Jane and Nick argue about taking him to a hospital. Jane hits Nick over the head, and takes off with Andrew and the money.

This corresponds somewhat to the rest of Chapter 12 in the BOOK:

They drive to a safe house where famous ballerina Clara Bellamy is waiting. Clara suggests to Jane that Andrew, who seems sickly, has AIDS. Jane realizes Nick has lied to her about a lot of things and confronts him. Nick tells her to choose: Andrew or him. When Jane says she can’t leave Andrew, Nick punches her in the stomach. He knows about the pregnancy.

Back to the EPISODE SEVEN SUMMARY:

Flashback to Jasper and Jane at Andrew’s hospital bed. Jasper tells Jane to blame everything on Andrew. Jane offers to turn herself in, and says that Jasper can have the company if he will make amends to all the evil QuellCorp did.

Then we see there is a side deal between Jasper and Nick: the ACW will kill Martin and Jasper will take over the company.

In the present, Andy and Charlie get into a car accident and Andy wakes up at Clara and Eli’s farmhouse.

There’s a flashback to Clara and toddler Andy alone in the farmhouse. Andy then is wandering outside and Nick shows up and gives her a nickel. Eli arrives home and he and Clara call Andy, who leaves Nick. Then Jane gets out of prison and comes to pick up Andy, who is reluctant to go with her, as Clara is the only mother she knows.

In the present, Andy wakes up at the farmhouse with Nick.

Main Differences Between the Book and Episode Seven

The show cuts out the AIDS plot, though I believe the show alluded to the fact that Andrew and Nick might have had a relationship.

In the SHOW, Nick doesn’t know Jane is pregnant. Clara has died (killed by Nick?)

The side deal between Jasper and Nick doesn’t exist in the book.

In the show, Eli replaces Edwin, and he and Clara just seem to be accomplices of the ACW.

SUMMARY: PIECES OF HER EPISODE EIGHT

Nick texts Jane that he has Andy. She offers not to testify against him and they agree to meet at the farmhouse.

Andy wakes up and Nick says she had an “accident.” (I’m assuming he caused the car accident and somehow remained unharmed, but this isn’t explained.)

Andy shows Nick the picture of a young, injured Jane and asks if he beats up all his pregnant girlfriends. He says he and Jane have unfinished business.

When Jane arrives with the suitcase, there’s a weird erotic vibe between them such that Andy asks if the two of them are going to run off together with the money. Nick searches the suitcase and finds the incriminating tape of the deal between him and Jasper. Nick insists he didn’t give Grace the gun.

Andy knocks over a lantern, starting a fire. Nick drops his gun. Jane gets Andy to safety and then goes after Nick, who’s in the woods. She shoots at him and finally they are face to face. He dares her to shoot him. Andy tells Jane she doesn’t have to do this. The US Marshals show up and arrest Nick.

Gordon and Andy are in the US Marshals office. Charlie is dead and Jane is testifying against Nick.

Jasper shows up and Jane tells him that the tape with the evidence against him burned in the fire.

Back in Georgia, Andy meets up with Mike and Jane goes to a piano store and plays.

Flashback: Jane meets Grace Juno in a bar and tells her that she’s pregnant and that her father, Martin, tried to kill the baby. (There’s a scene of him pouring a powder in her glass of scotch.)

What is the Ending of Pieces of Her on Netflix?

Andy texts Mike asking where Grace Juno got the gun that killed Martin. Mike says that Jane was the only one who witnessed Nick giving the gun to Grace.

Flashback: Jane shows Grace the gun in her handbag and they switch bags.

Jasper calls Jane and tells her he’s been chosen as the Vice Presidential running mate. He also says he talked to Nick suggesting that Nick told him that Jane gave Grace the gun.

Andy looks for her mother, finally finding her at the beach.

PIECES OF HER BOOK CHAPTERS 13-15, Epilogue

Andy heads to talk to Clara. She thinks over the clues that Paula gave her. 1) Paula was in prison for 20 years. 2) Something to do with QuellCorp. 3) Paula recognized the hoodie guy but not Mike. 4) Andy’s age was “interesting math.” 5) Laura has totally lied to her.

Andy researches QuellCorp (a pharmaceutical company) and Clara Bellamy (famous ballerina who vanished from public view in the early 80s.) She manages to identify Clara’s lawyer, Edwin Van Rees. She finally opens Mike’s wallet, which she stole when she beat him up, and finds a US Marshals badge.

Andy arrives at Clara’s. Clara must have dementia because she thinks that Andy is Jane, the mother of a baby named Andrea. She gets Clara to tell her Paula’s real last name and finds a photo that reveals Laura’s real name: Jane Queller.

Andy calls her mother and accuses her of lying to her all her life. Then Mike and Edwin pull into the driveway. Inside, Edwin grabs the phone and tells Laura not to worry. Someone starts shooting. Edwin is killed and Andy is wounded.

What is the Ending of the Book Pieces of Her?

Flashback to Jane, who despite Nick’s beating is still pregnant. Andrew admits he’s dying of AIDS but Paula forbids Jane from taking him to a hospital. Jane reflects how her father raped her. She whacks Paula over the head and drives Andrew to the hospital. Her brother Jasper shows up and tells her that Nick’s real name is Clayton Morrow, and that he murdered his girlfriend. He urges her to turn herself in. She tells him that Nick has evidence of QuellerCorp’s insurance fraud, and Jasper suggests blaming Andrew. She wants to confess, but he suggests that the investors (?) will kill her first.

In the present, an injured Andy reflects that she led Paula, the shooter, right to Clara and Edwin. Paula calls Laura and says “you know what I want.” Andy passes out and wakes up in the trunk of a car. Paula is holding her prisoner. She tells Andy that Laura/Jane testified against them and got put into witness protection. Jane served two years in prison, during which time Clara and Edwin took care of Andy. Nick is Andy’s father. Mike is Laura’s handler. Paula wants some papers from Laura/Jane that incriminate Jasper.

Laura arrives with the files. She offers to trade places with Andy if Paula will let Andy go. Andy realizes that Paula’s gun is empty (a callback to the opening diner scene when Laura realizes the shooter is out of bullets) and Laura slashes Paula’s throat with a razor blade hidden in the bandage on her hand.

Laura and Andy visit Nick in prison. Andy asks Laura if she missed the piano. Mike shows up. Laura is going to wear a wire for her conversation with Nick. Laura seems to be taken in by Nick’s charm and seems to botch things, admitting to smuggling a gun into the Oslo conference and leaving it in the ladies room for Laura Juneau to find. Nick asks Laura to play the prison piano. He tells Laura he wants Andy to appeal to the parole board to let him out. Then he confesses to sending Hoodie guy after her and Paula. What Nick didn’t know was that the dirt he thought he had on Jane (smuggling in the gun and providing it to Laura Juneau) she had already confessed to in her immunity agreement and served time for.

Jane kept one secret from everyone: while the Army for a New World had just planned to explode a dye pack on Martin Queller, Jane knew that Laura Juneau had a fantasy of killing him. So she’d put a gun in the ladies room in Oslo for Laura Juneau to find, so that Laura would kill Jane’s father Martin (presumably as revenge for raping Jane.)

How is the book Pieces of Her Different from the Netflix Movie? Which one is better, the book or the movie of Pieces of Her?

I want to know what you think, so please tell me in comments.

I think the most interesting part of this story is Andy realizing, at that early moment in the diner, that she doesn’t know her mother at all, and then she comes to realize that the person she thought her mother was didn’t exist.

To me the heart of this story is the parent/child relationship. In both the movie and the book, Martin and Jane have a very dysfunctional relationship. Jane then kills her father by proxy, goes to prison for unrelated things, and finds her own relationship with Andy at risk when her past comes back to bite her.

I think the Netflix show Pieces of Me does a better job of exploring the mother/daughter relationship between Andy and Jane, and the father/daughter relationship between Martin and Jane. Having Jane’s main motivation for providing the gun to Grace be to protect Andy is a nice touch. I thought the show did a better job of portraying the relationship between Jane and Martin and the subversive ways (sleeping with Nick, slamming her hand in the door). But my issue with this change is that it isn’t a great motive for Grace Juno to kill Martin.

But I feel like the book did a better job of setting up the whole Laura Juneau (Grace Juno) gun thing. In the book, I felt that Jane was more morally gray. Jane hated her father (for being controlling monster who rape her) and wanted to be free of him. She knew Laura Juneau was unstable, so put a gun in the ladies room in Oslo for Laura to find. It seemed to me that she didn’t want to kill her father, so got Laura to do it for her. I feel like the show overly complicated things with the side deal between Nick and Jasper and the tape.

The other important relationship in the story is Jane and Nick. I wasn’t a fan of the actor who played young Nick, though I thought Jessica Barden as young Jane was fantastic. Having Nick in prison (book) and out of prison (show) was an interesting difference. It made more sense to have Nick on the run so that Jane couldn’t testify against him (lying about him giving Grace the gun) but having him in prison and making Jane face him there had nice Silence of the Lambs vibes.

The other interesting aspect of the story to me was the 80s flashbacks. Pieces of Her has obvious Patty Hearst inspiration, though the whole “evil pharma company” felt a bit more modern. I enjoyed seeing the flashbacks come to life in the show, and while I understood that the AIDS angle had to be removed from the show, I thought it added a poignant aspect to the book.

I think the show should have streamlined the whole Army for a New World aspect. For me, this part of the story just had too many characters and too many moving parts. It could have been a story all its own.

MY QUESTION: How did Jane get hurt in the photo that Andy finds and keeps showing everyone. Did I fall asleep during this part?

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Check out my post on the ABC-TV adaptation of Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series here!