8 major ways the 'Nine Perfect Strangers' show is different from the book, so far

In David E. Kelley and John-Henry Butterworth's series, Tranquillum House is supposed to give off a "midcentury-modern meets zen" feel, set decorator Glen W. Johnson told Architectural Digest. The geometric windows look out on lush greenery and fill the space with light, and the modern furnishings are brand new.

Moriarty envisioned the opposite. In the book, Frances describes Tranquillum House as a Victorian mansion built in 1840 that's "sandstone, three storys, with a red corrugated-iron roof and a princess tower."

The interior is filled with stained-glass windows and has a "red-cedar and rosewood" staircase reminiscent of the Titanic.

Some of the group's bonding exercises — the dirt-digging, the potato-sack race, and Earth day— were written into the show and aren't part of the 10-day retreat in the book.

At her core, Masha Dmitrichenko (Nicole Kidman) is the same in the "Nine Perfect Strangers" book and TV show.

Both versions of the character transform from corporate executive to wellness guru after dying and, miraculously, coming back to life. But the circumstances that lead Masha to leave her high-power position behind are different.

While the on-screen Masha gets shot by one of her many enemies in a parking garage, Moriarty's character has a brush with death because of the way she treats her own body.

In the first chapter of the book, Masha is described as a "middle-aged, overweight woman" that chain smokes and neglects everything that doesn't fall under her job description as the "global operations director for a multinational producer of dairy products." Overworked and exhausted, she has a seizure in her office, eventually going into cardiac arrest.

Similar to the sequence of events on the show, Yao (Manny Jacinto) is the paramedic that resuscitates her.

The Tranquillum House guests check in to the resort in a flurry on the show, with certain personalities immediately meshing and others clashing.

In the book, the characters don't have as much time to get to know each other off the bat, as the program kicks off with five full days of mandatory silence.

"The retreat will begin with a period of silence lasting five days, during which there will be no talking, apart from counseling sessions, no touching, no reading, no writing, no eye contact with other guests or your own companion," the guide map given to the guests reads.

In the series, Masha is on the receiving end of sinister threats, sent to her phone from an anonymous number.

"CONGRATULATIONS," one message reads. "It's your LAST WEEK ON EARTH."

This subplot was created for the show, and there's no mention of Moriarty's character being stalked, followed, or threatened in the book.

High-school sweethearts Ben Chandler (Melvin Gregg) and Jessica Chandler (Samara Weaving) arrive at Tranquillum House in a fractured marriage. Their specific issues remain fairly vague on the show, but Moriarty provides more of the couple's backstory in her book.

After a burglar robs their home, Ben's mother buys the couple a winning lottery ticket, funneling a $22 million fortune directly into their pockets. With that money comes a new life, but it's one that neither Jessica nor Ben necessarily signed up for.

After Jessica undergoes various plastic surgery procedures with the lottery money, Ben struggles to look at her. He considers her physical transformation a "willful disfigurement" and compares her to a "chipmunk." He feels like he doesn't recognize his wife's "frozen forehead," "blowfish lips," "puffy cheeks," "camel eyelashes," "fake hair," and "fake boobs."

"I miss your face," Ben tells Jessica in the book. "Your beautiful face. I don't recognize you. I don't recognize us or anything about our lives. I miss our old flat. I miss my job. I miss the friends we lost because of this. But most of all I miss your face."

The surgeries aren't the couple's only issue in the book, but they are a major one.

Lars Lee has more or less one thing in common in both the book and on the show: He's dashingly handsome.

Played by Luke Evans in the series, Lars joins the group as a snarky undercover journalist hoping to uncover Masha's secrets. In the first episode, viewers learn that he recently went through a nasty breakup with a man named Ray.

Moriarty's version of Lars is different.

In the book, he's a family lawyer in a 15-year-long relationship with Ray, who, much to Lars' agitation, won't stop pressing him about having children together. A serial wellness retreat-goer, Lars signs up for the 10-day transformation to get some space from the situation.

Throughout Hulu's "Nine Perfect Strangers," viewers are led to believe that Masha hand-picked her guests.

For example, she knows that Napoleon Marconi (Michael Shannon) and Heather Marconi (Asher Keddie) lost their 18-year-old son Zach Marconi to suicide three years before arriving at the retreat. She also offers the couple and their daughter, Zoe Marconi (Grace Van Patten), a discount to attend the expensive retreat.

In the book, Masha doesn't give any of her guests a discount, and she doesn't know that the Marconi family suffered a loss until they share the information with the wider group.

Heather acknowledges that Tranquillum's price tag is slightly high for herself, a midwife, and Napoleon, a high-school teacher, but says they can afford the getaway thanks to years of skipped vacations and an inheritance from Napoleon's grandfather.