Adoration is an Italian series on Netflix that has intrigued the audience with its thrilling and thought-provoking storyline. The teen drama follows the murder of a teenage girl, Elena, that shocks her tight-knit community.
On the surface, the show is a murder mystery; however, it touches upon the themes of teenage struggles, friendship, love, sexuality, and family. As the questions about Elena’s death are left unanswered, her best friend, Vanessa, takes it upon herself to bring out the truth.
The deep and layered narrative makes the audience wonder where the creators got the inspiration for the show. Adoration is based on a book written by Italian author Alice Urciuolo.
Adoration is based on Alice Urciuolo’s book Adorazione
Netflix’s Adoration is an adaptation of Alice Urciuolo’s 2020 novel, Adorazione. The book marked the author’s debut, and its popularity urged Netflix to come up with a television adaptation, with Stefano Mordini on board as the director.
Urciuolo worked on the novel during the COVID-19 pandemic and released it in 2020. The book became a hit, and the following year, it was selected as a finalist for the Strega Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Italy.
Netflix confirmed the development of Adoration, inspired by Adorazione, in September 2023, and the show finally hit the screens on November 20, 2024. The novel is a story about grief, growing up, and how a community deals with tragedy.
It is set in the small Italian town of Pontinia, where a teenager named Elena is killed. A year later, her friends are still struggling to move on while also dealing with the routine challenges of being teenagers.
Readers may see how Elena's friends and neighbors are impacted by her passing in this novel. There is a lot of gossip and judgment in this little town because everyone knows one another. People in the community tend to hide their true emotions and act as though nothing is wrong because of the traditional, patriarchal values that shape it.
Meanwhile, each of Elena’s friends struggles with their own issues. Diana feels insecure about herself, in contrast to her best friend Vera, who seems brave and confident. Vera’s brother secretly loved Elena but never told anyone. At the same time, Vanessa, Elena’s closest friend, is dealing with the grief of losing her.
As the group members try to figure out their lives, they face feelings of love, desire, shame, and rejection. The book shows what it is like to be a teenager as people feel lost and try to find their place in the world. Elena’s death becomes a symbol of the pressures they all face.
The novel also touches on the serious issue of violence against women, showing how it affects not just the victims but everyone around them. Speaking about how she portrayed real teenage emotions in the book, Urciuolo revealed that she reflected on her adolescent years to write the story.
She said in an interview with NSS G-Club:
“I was twenty-four when I started writing it, in the midst of processing my own adolescence, which allowed me to create a more structured narrative.”
Further talking about the themes presented in the book, the author said:
“Shame is a central theme. The small community I depicted is a reflection of the places I come from, and I still remember how people scrutinize each other and how strongly judgment is felt. Maybe it happens in bigger cities too, but they are two different approaches.”
“I wanted to highlight how the perception of strong prejudice makes people reluctant to tell the truth, to open up, to express what they think. In Adorazione, the characters can’t talk to each other, and that’s part of the problem that leads to violent outcomes.”
The show wonderfully portrays the themes explored in the novel, with the help of a stellar star cast including Alice Lupparelli, Noemi Megagnini, Beatrice Puccilli, Giulio Brizzi, Penelope Raggi, and Luigi Bruno.
All episodes of Adoration are now streaming on Netflix.
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