Wayward Pines

I'll try to summarize the large differences and maybe not give away whole spoilers, but that's probably hard to do.

- Pilcher is an ever larger egomaniac who literally believes himself to be God for saving the human race. The entire purpose of him doing it was to play house and recreate a civilization where he is worshiped. He has direct conversations with Ethan about him being God and Ethan being Lucifer and being cast out of Heaven, among other quotes and allusions. Pilcher had a wife and daughter (Alyssa) that were supposed to come on the time journey with everyone else, but his wife backed out. So Pilcher had Pope kill her and basically abducted his daughter.

- Pam was a complete sociopath. Pilcher finds her a homeless 13 or so year old girl one night after giving a lecture at a University. Brings her in and raises her. She spends the whole book fantasizing about killing Ethan's family in front of Ethan, terrorizing the town, and just generally being a crazy bitch. Sort of like her character started off in the TV show until they changed her to this whiny sympathetic to the cause emo.

- There was never any rebellion. No bombs. No explosions. Etc... There was an underground group that met together to actually relax, discuss their past lives, offer support to one another in the midst of all the confusion, and partake in a few vices like singing, dancing, drinking and things they couldn't do while under constant surveillance in Pines. That was it and it was all they really wanted.

- Pilcher was extremely paranoid about this group and them defying him, so he sent his daughter Alyssa in to spy on them. Well, then he got super paranoid about his daughter turning against him, so he and Pam murdered her. Like, tied her down to a table in the mortuary and ritually stabbed her repeatedly to death. This surveillance video is eventually recovered by the surveillance tech and Ethan and what he uses to more or less convince the town that Pilcher is an evil SOB. That and along with bringing and Abby in to town square during the fake 'f?te' as they are referred to in the books, not 'reckonings.' And they're like mardi gras with pitchforks and butcher knives. Not the same way they're portrayed in the show.

- Adam Hassler is alive for the whole series. His whole plan was to be frozen with Theresa so he could wake up in the future and be with her. He didn't believe Ethan deserved her and part of the deal he made with Pilcher to keep the Secret Service off their back was that Ethan goes away, he and Theresa get to live happily ever after. Hassler has been out ranging for the last 3 years in the book. Up to Seattle, down to San Fran, all around trying to search for signs of any civilization or anything to help humanity. Book 3 has quite a few of his POVs and he eventually gets back to Pines when all the shit is going down.

- Eventually they overthrow Pilcher, but not until after like 50% of the town or some shit were killed by Abbies and Pilcher's temper tantrum. The 'bigger' secret then comes out that Wayward Pines was never sustainable, or at least that it would no longer be sustainable. They lost all their livestock in the attack, their stores of supplies is running low, and the harsh winters don't allow for reliable farming. Even with the reduced population they only have a few more years. So Ethan and them have to come together and figure out their best way to survive...

Super secret book ending spoiler


Oh, and there really is no kid shit in the book. Like Ben has maybe 5 lines across all three of them. Don't think you ever see anything that actually occurs in the schools, or with crazy teacher lady, or 1st generation cult. You know the kids are being taught the truth and that they're taught David Pilcher is God and Savior, and that is about it.