American Rust season 1 is based on the book of the same name by Philipp Meyer, and while there are ways in which the TV show is faithful to the novel’s story, there are also noticeable changes. Any good screen adaptation of a book has to take some creative liberties because translating a written story into a visual medium can be difficult. Most of the core features of the story remained, like the main characters and the murder, but other than that, the show took the book and created something entirely new.
https://screenrant.com/american-rust-show-book-changes-differences/