‘Dear Child’ Is Based on a Book, Not a True Story & Here’s What You Need To Know

‘Dear Child’ is a new Netflix mystery thriller that brought attention to itself thanks to a great storyline and suspense. When a woman escapes with her daughter from captivity, the police have reasons to believe that it is the woman who went missing 13 years ago, but not everything is what it seems. If this summary sounds familiar, there might be a reason for that. So, what is ‘Dear Child’ based on?

‘Dear Child’ is a mystery thriller TV show based on a psychological thriller novel of the same name by Romy Hausmann. This is a miniseries produced by Netflix, consisting of six episodes. It is a story about a woman who escapes her long-time captivity alongside her daughter. After that, many things become unclear, and the investigation begins.

This show is one of the better mystery thrillers Netflix has released recently. In the next few paragraphs, we’ll focus on what the show is about and tell you a bit more about a book the show is based on. So, keep reading to find out more about it!

What is ‘Dear Child’ about?

‘Dear Child’ is a new mystery thriller crime drama TV show that starts streaming on Netflix on September 7. Isabel Kleefeld and Julian Pörksen direct the show, and its original title is ‘Liebes Kind.’ The series stars Julika Jenkins as Karin Beck, Naila Schuberth as Hannah, and Justus von Dohnányi as Mathias Beck.

Karin’s and Mathias’s daughter, Lena, disappeared thirteen years ago, and her parents looked for her relentlessly all these years. Lena was abducted and lived in a controlled environment with her two children, Hannah and Jonathan. The woman escaped her captivity alongside Hannah and ended up in a hospital. The plot thickens even more from there.

The police found Hannah in the woods alongside her mother as they were running from something. The investigator patiently urges Hannah to remember everything that was happening, and the child is sure her mother’s name is Lena, and the woman in the hospital is her mother. Hannah also reveals that her mother wanted to kill her father, and the show’s trailer reveals why. Hannah, Jonathan, and Lena were abused severely for years and lived in captivity.

The police connected the dots and realized that this case was most likely about a missing woman from thirteen years ago. Then, Lena’s parents are informed about it, but the mystery continues when Lena’s father does not recognize her in the hospital and is sure that the woman in the hospital bed is not his daughter.

The investigation continues, and the question remains: Why would Hannah think the woman in hospital is her mother? Or why would she lie about it? In the meantime, Jonathan is still kept in captivity, and the leads in the investigation are gradually bearing fruit.

The show’s trailer shows that this is a show full of mystery and thriller, and not everything is as it initially seems. The audience will get an answer about who Lena really is and what happened to her and her children. Also, the show lacks investigation, chases, and suspense. The show’s storyline is interesting. There is no doubt about that, but let’s see where the inspiration for the show came from.

The show is based on Romy Hausmann’s novel of the same name

‘Dear Child’ tells a disturbing story about abduction, torture, false identities, and psychological torment. Luckily, it is not based on a true story. The show’s trailer clearly states that the series is based on Romy Hausmann’s best-selling thriller of the same name as the show. So, let’s see what the book is about.

‘Dear Child’ is a psychological thriller novel published in 2019. The book tells a story about a woman, Lena Beck. She’s been in captivity in the cabin in the woods for thirteen years. She was a college student when she disappeared in Munich, and years later, the police found a woman hit by a car in a forest on the German-Czech border. Their investigation revealed that the woman they found might be none other than Lena.

When Lena’s parents are informed that the police may have found their daughter, Lena’s father, Mathias, goes to the hospital to identify the woman, but he is sure it is not his daughter. The story gets weirder because the woman is not alone but in the company of her children, Hannah and Jonathan. Even though the woman in the hospital does not look like Lena, Hannah resembles her a lot, and even the DNA test shows that Hannah and Jonathan are Mathias’s grandchildren.

What happened to the real Lena, and who the woman in the hospital is? Mathias is determined to find out the truth. Of course, the book answered all those questions, but for the purposes of this article, this information is enough without any unnecessary spoilers.

It is worth mentioning that even though the show is based on the book, the show’s director did change some details, and it will be interesting to see to what extent they digress from the original storyline from the books. Either way, the book is praised for its explorations of themes like trauma, identity, and the consequences of long-term captivity, and it also shows how hard it is for Hannah, Jonathan, and ‘Lena’ to adapt to life after captivity. We can only hope that the show will succeed like the book.

‘Dear Child’ streams on Netflix on September 7!