This Collider feature highlights novels that served as the source material for acclaimed prestige television dramas, arguing that a strong book remains the essential foundation even as modern adaptations increasingly diverge from their source to build something new. Written by editorial director Chelsea Adelaine Hassler, the piece spans genres including domestic drama, spy thrillers and speculative fiction, noting that many of the featured titles were bestsellers in their own right before being adapted for the screen.

The available extract details two entries: Tom Perrotta's "The Leftovers", about a small town coping with a rapture-like event that erased 2% of the population, which HBO adapted with co-creator Damon Lindelof, expanding the story far beyond the novel in its later, more surreal seasons; and John le Carré's "The Night Manager", a post-Cold War spy thriller following a hotel manager recruited by British intelligence to bring down an arms dealer, later adapted into a television series. The full list totals six books, though the remaining four titles are not covered in the provided excerpt.