Netflix's new YA show Trinkets is based on a book of the same name, and the original text gives even more of a description of the three main characters. One of them, Moe (Kiana Madeira), differs in a few ways in the show from the novel, chiefly in that Moe is short for Maureen in the Trinkets book. Presumably it's still a nickname in the TV series, but it's never addressed like it is in the book.
In the novel, another main character Elodie is a photographer for the high school yearbook. It's because of this that she discovers Moe's real name. The passage where she learns the truth goes as follows: "Moe's real name is Maureen Truax. I know because Rachelle had me photograph her and her friends last week, so 'all the social dynamics of LO can be represented.' I finally found them under the bleachers getting high and they told me to 'leave us the fuck alone,' so I did."
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This bad girl attitude that Moe portrays to the world is a big focus of the book. In the Trinkets book, Moe is described as a "burnout" with a funny, sarcastic attitude, but it's hinted at early on in the novel that this is more of a role Moe plays than her true personality. In Moe's first POV chapter in the book she says that her troublemaker friend Alex saw the way Moe dressed freshman year of high school and assumed she would fit in with the burnouts. "Next thing I know, I was being introduced by Alex to her friends as her hilarious, sarcastic friend Moe … and that's the person I've stayed ever since."
Just like on the show, there's more than meets the eye with Moe in the book. She's an avid journaler in the book, and she has a soft spot for "bubblegum" music like Katy Perry (which show-Moe probably wouldn't be caught dead listening to). In the novel, like in the show, she is still secretly dating Noah (Odiseas Georgiadis). But he's her neighbor in the book, and it's his idea to act in public like they aren't a couple. The show gave that power to Moe. One other big book to show difference with Moe's character is that her hair is described in the novel as "cherry red," but it's a dark brownish-black in the TV series.
While Moe's real name doesn't get a mention in the show, it fits both her book and TV personality that she shortened her name. Maureen doesn't really fit her personality, projected or otherwise. She created a new identity for herself by going by her nickname, and it's this individuality of her character that shines on the page and the screen.
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