The Fault in Our Stars
book by John Green
directed by Josh Boone
Hazel and Gus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous given that Hazel's other constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic leg, and they met and fell in love at a cancer support group.
You can read my review of the book here.
I doubt I could have come to this movie without expectations even if I tried. As you all know, the hype was INSANE. And even if there had been less hype, after that book who wouldn't hope for the movie to live up to it? So yes, I had expectations. And for the first time since Catching Fire, they were met!!
The screen writing: This, I think, is what makes or breaks an adaptation. THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, the screenwriters stuck to the book, and used direct quotes everywhere, catching all the best ones. There were a few more that didn't make it, like 'My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations' and one that I think wasn't done justice - 'I don't mind Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you' was put in in the middle of a heated conversation so It didn't have the poignant moment like at the end of a chapter in the book. (Just FYI, the above quotes were done by memory. They're everywhere!)
The Casting and Acting: B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. No complaints there. They had Hazel and Gus. In everything they did. I even liked Hazel more in the movie. And Ansel- needless to say, my friends and I have found our new celebrity husband. AND HE TAP DANCES. As if he didn't have enough going for him.
Music and Effects: Wonderful. Great choices, cinametography was perfect. I loved how they actually filmed in Amsterdam and the Anne Frank house. Though I wasn't sure how I felt about the Anne Frank quotes being used during the kissing scene. I could see how they were relevant but... I dunno. Holocuast and cancer aren't the same thing. Other than that, the rest of the voiceovers were well done. I especially liked how they did the texting!
What's that you asked? OF COURSE I CRIED. In fact, I was the one who had the forsight to bring tissues and was passing them to the row behind. The sobbing in the theater was deafening. I couldn't tell what was Shailene and what was the teenage girls until Shailene stopped but the crying continued.
Well done, Hollywood!! Rating:
In other news, I've started watching the vlogbrothers. Oh.My.God. They are brilliant. Recommended. I learned more in 3 minutes than I do in a year at school. #Nerdfighter.
Love,
Esty
City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6)
Cassandra Clare
Fantasy, Romance
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT FOR ALL CASSANDRA CLARE BOOKS EXCEPT THE BANE CHRONICLES
GUYS. *sobs* THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS IS OVER.
Why has it taken me forever to post this review? For starters, it took my copy FOREVER to get here. TEN DAYS AFTER THE RELEASE DATE IS TEN TOO MANY, BOOK DEPOSITORY. YOU COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTOOD THE IDEA OF PREORDERING.
Second, by the time I HAD gotten it I was back at the dorms and suffered from a lack of computers. AND BY THE TIME I DID HAVE ACCESS TO A COMPUTER, dance and exams set in and there was no time to write it. The last two reasons also (poorly) excuse why I haven't been blogging much. HOWEVER, last final is next thursday and then I'll be free as a bird (jk, still have dance and work) to read and blog.
As you can already see, anything written by Cassie Clare will have a whole long review in which I'll talk about only HALF the things I could go on and on about and will be FILLED with capitals. Anyhoo, let's get to it.
I'll start and say that unfortunately my expectations far exceeded the reality. I came at it expecting a Clockwork Princess level tear-jerker and staring-into-space-causer but it really wasn't like that. I did cry in the end when Simon had to give up his memories and I genuinely was sad, but it was a little forced. Did anyone else feel this way? In CP2, halfway through I was suffering from book PTSD.
Unrelated to the tear- factor, predictability for this novel was high. On that front, I didn't expect it to be anything like CP2 because we know already that Tessa's not involved, Jem is, two weddings, a boyfriend dies, and everyone's identities. Also, for me Jordan was the top of my likely-to-be-killed list. The only bf who could die without ruining the story and shattering TOO many people's hearts. As for the Heavenly Fire being used to cure Jem, that much Christine from PolandBananasBooks had guessed and I agreed. (I recommend this girl's videos ridiculously. She's always spot on and hilarious). So basically, the two major OMG moments I knew in advance. However, I didn't think EVERYTHING would be that obvious- even the smaller OMGs were easy to forsee 100 pages before they happened. (Jessamine saving the London Institute, Magnus's father being the Prince of Hell everyone kept mentioning, etc)
MY MAIN DISAPPOINTMENT was Jordan basically being wiped off the map after he died. Maya didn't even CRY, and was all like, WELL I WAS GOING TO BREAK UP WITH HIM ANYWAY. (GO FREAKING FIGURE OUT WHY) Cassandra Clare wrote about it on her Tumblr, but I was still not satisfied - I mean, he was stabbed right in front of you and died in your lap. THE TRAUMA ALONE SHOULD HAVE HER BAWLING. Let alone loving him. Even after that, his death was mentioned only when the other characters were told. No mourning or wishing he was there or doing something for him or anything. As a big fan of his, I wanted to see more reaction to him. REST IN PEACE JORDAN KYLE.
My secondary disappointment was the underlying theme of Some Things Can't Be Forgiven. That may be true, but when a person completely changes I believe they delete the person they were before and should be given a second chance. Jordan deserves COMPLETE AND TOTAL forgiveness, and Jonathan was who he was because of things that were physically and emotionally done to him before and after his birth, and therefore the untainted boy we got to see for a few seconds before his death deserved burial according to traditional Shadowhunter customs. The things he did weren't HIM, just as Jace is not held responsible for the things he did while possesed, nor Jordan should have been for hurting Maya on his first Change. IT'S NOT THE SAME AS SOMEONE SANE AND AWARE DOING SOMETHING UNFORGIVEABLE AND SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN TREATED LIKE IT WAS. In both cases.
AND NOW FOR THE THINGS I LOVED
-Jem kidnapping Church. Now THAT made me happy cry. Their reunion was beautiful.
-Jace bringing a condom to Hell. You know, just in case.
-That interesting snippet of OMG information that was sooooo underrated about Luke's and Amatis's mom being an Iron Sister. Ten bucks that comes to play in TDA.
-JEM. I JUST
-THE WEDDING COMIC (I know that there were two different comics for two different editions. Mine was the British one- the tear jerker for all TID fans. CASSIE CLARE, THAT WAS CRUEL. BUT GOOD. I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE
-Jessie saving the London Institute. I loved her a lot in TID and wished we could have explored her character more, so it was so nice to hear of her, even in passing.
-Izzy and Simon. Nuff said.
-Malec. Are. Back.
-EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING SIMON SAID OR DID. I used to think he was annoying, and now I find him heroic.
-Really hilarious scenes (the usual) e.g. the sarcastic clapping at Clace in the beginning, MY EYES MY EYES, You-straight-people, Simon feeding on Alec (It was not sexy. I had some feelings.) Jace visiting Magnus in the beginning, Jace and Jordan meditating, BROTHER ZACHARIAH STOLE OUR CAT.
-EMMA, JULES, AND THE BLACKTHORNES.
-Magnus's speeches- especially in the end, about how if you show your enemies something other than harshness, you might get something other than hostility.
-Tessa in the Spiral Labyrinth. I DEMAND MORE INFORMATION
-Simon Acsending. *commences party*
THE ISABELLE LIGHTWOOD THEORY. I'm still a believer. It'll happen.
Minor OMG I wanted to mention: THE FAERIE QUEEN SLEEPING WITH SEBASTIAN. WHAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT EWWWWW OMGGGGG HOWWWWW
Okay, and with that I'll stop.
It was fun, and beautiful. Though I'm pissed that now we HAVE to read TDA (the next Shadowhunter series), and if you haven't read TID you're probably kicking yourself.
On the bright side, MORE JACE, MAGNUS, AND JEM. #TheShadowhunterMen
Rating:
Love,
Esty
An Abundance of Katherines
John Green
Contemporary, Romance (?), Road Trip (ish)
19 Katherines and counting...
When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun - but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.
Do you really need to read the review? Everything John Green writes is uncontested sheer genius. It's not even gonna be long because what can I say? Katherines features a weird, lovable, social-pariah protagonist with a weird but cool obsession, a weirder and even more lovable best friend, a kickass girl and and some totally-bizarre-but-totally-could-happen circumstances. (This is true for Looking For Alaska and Paper Towns by John Green, and some of these elements are in Will Grayson, Will Grayson by JG and David Levithan. Link to my review)
Everything about JG's writing makes me laugh. In this book, things are explained through highly illuminating and highly hilarious footnotes- hence the cover. Through the journey Katherines took me on, I used my high school math FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER to understand the graphs Colin makes about his relationships. In the back, there's an appendix BY AN HONEST TO GOD MATH GENIUS named Daniel Biss, who talks you through all the calculations made in the novel. Thank you, John Green, for putting the object of my misery to funniest and best use in the world(:
Other pleasurable aspects of Katherines were the diversity and random and bizarre and no-way-I'm-gonna-go-look-that-up pieces of trivia.
However, I did understand the critics who said this is legendary JG's weakest book, and while it didn't move me to tears and/or inspire big life revelations in me like the others, I'd hardly call it WEAK. It's just a different kind of novel. Sheesh, people. It's like we need another hit of our extreme-feels drug. TAKE IT AND LOVE IT FOR WHAT IT IS.
Rating:
What is that you say? I haven't been on my blog in 2+ weeks?
I knowwwww:(
I'm sorry.
Screw you, finals.
I'll be back soon.
Promise.
Love,
Esty
The Truth About Alice
Jennifer Mathieu
YA contemporary
Everyone has a lot to say about Alice Franklin, and it’s stopped mattering whether it’s true. The rumors started at a party when Alice supposedly had sex with two guys in one night. When school starts everyone almost forgets about Alice until one of those guys, super-popular Brandon, dies in a car wreck that was allegedly all Alice’s fault. Now the only friend she has is a boy who may be the only other person who knows the truth, but is too afraid to admit it. Told from the perspectives of popular girl Elaine, football star Josh, former outcast Kelsie, and shy genius Kurt, we see how everyone has a motive to bring – and keep – Alice down.
While The Truth About Alice isn't perfect, it's got so much going for it it still tops my recent 'to-recommend's. The story isn't a new one- girl is completely socially destroyed by rumors about her. However, this was the first book I read on the subject (that I can remember) that deals EXCLUSIVELY with that one storyline. While that might sound like a drawback to you, I'll explain soon why I liked it for that.
TaA is very short and reads very quickly, partly because the relatively small chapters are narrated by four different students in Healy High. With these different POVs you see the kids' various motives for keeping up the rumors and ostrasizing Alice. In the background you have a lot of dynamic material like Josh obviously being gay, Kelsie traumatized from her past, Alice's mom basically deserting her and the like and yet these things aren't elaborated on much. I liked that because it underlined that everyone has a backstory- but it doesn't justify horrible actions. It also added depth to the characters without getting off-topic and made me really intrigued by them.
Another thing I liked was the relatability of the students- they were all very flawed people. I figure every high school reader will be able to relate on some level to one of them- socially akward, shallow, slow, bent under peer pressure, etc.. Ironically, the character in which I saw the most development was Elaine, the shallow, has-it-all popular girl. That made for a nice unexpected twist and a break off the cliche(:
I will acknowledge one little thing that I saw also bothered others around the blogosphere. The Truth About Alice is a really touching story but it doesn't have any sort of climax or conclusion. There's a bit of a build up and you feel a little like there's going to be some sort of message in the end- but it never came. On the other hand, I felt the book was kinda unique because it didn't have that - it was like, here, this is what happened to Alice. Make of it what you will. It was very realistic in this way. The story ended with things looking up a bit, not to worry(:
Rating:
As you can see, I'm still caught up in a sea of tests. I'm still available on comments and Twitter, just will be reading and posting less. Thanks for understanding and keep up the feedback!
Love,
Esty
The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1)
Jenny Han
Contemporary romance
Some summers are just destined to be pretty.
When each summer begins, Belly leaves her school life behind and escapes to Cousins Beach, the place she has spent every summer of her life. Not only does the beach house mean home away from home, but her favorite people are there: Susannah, her mother's best friend, and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly has been chasing Conrad for as long as she can remember, and more than anything, she hopes this summer will be different. Despite distractions from a new guy named Cam and lingering looks from Conrad's brother, Jeremiah, Belly's heart belongs to Conrad. Will he offer his to her? Will this be the summer that changes everything?
Hey people. It's May and you know what that means.... every high schooler in the northern hemisphere's nightmare. So as you saw for the last two weeks I'll be blogging a less. Also, in between every new book I'm rereading a TMI novel to refresh before City of Heavenly Fire.
So. The Summer I Turned Pretty. At one point a few years back this series was all the rage. I'm so glad I finally got to read it.. it really was a sweet read. The setting was absolutely gorgeous- a beautiful beach house, hot boys and summer. Also, I loved how Belly already has a long history with Jeremiah and Conrad in the book's beginning because it added depth and believability to the relationships.
As for the characters, I almost fully approved of Belly. She was smart and sweet, girly but tough. Quite honestly, the only thing I didn't like about her was her friendship with Taylor from back home. Taylor is a bitch and I really didn't see what Belly liked about her. She mainly used Belly during the flashbacks in which she appears. Not to mention, who someone is friends with usually says a lot about a person in my opinion so I really thought that relationship was out of place. Unfortunately, it seems like we'll get more of her in book #2.
Jeremiah... I love you. I was backing him the whole way. Strong but funny, confident but not cocky unless joking. He was always there for everyone in the book. #TeamJere
Cam- I relatively liked him, but not especially. I did think it was cool and exotic how he's Japanese and speaks tons of languages.
And Conrad. Fans of the book may scream at me, but I just didn't get what I was supposed to love about him. As both Belly and Jeremiah mention in the book, he's been brooding and acting like a jerk. Even in the flashbacks, he had little dialogue. It was more like, Conrad danced me around the room. Conrad laughed and told Jeremiah to... it made it impossible for me to love him like Belly did.
The ending- was kinda horrible. And not in the it-was-random-and-stupid. As in it was beautifully sad. I hadn't realized when picking up the book that it wouldn't be all light and fluffy so I really wasn't prepared for that. It still was beautiful, though.
The POV- I didn't love the fact that sometimes the chapters were from age 11 and 14. I didn't want to read from the POV of a kid or read about the characters as kids. It felt unnecessary and kept interrupting the story I was enjoying. Of course, sometimes this arrangement works wonderfully, but not in this case for me. Rating:
Love,
Esty
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Classic
"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel—a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice—but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.
Oh my gosh, is my short response to this book. I kinda wanna smack myself for not reading this years ago. On the other hand, I'm glad I read it now with my literature class because I better understood it at this age and was able to ask my teacher questions.
I don't think I've read a story told from the POV of an eight year old since I myself was that age. And yet, I was so REFRESHED by Scout's perspective on things. The issues in the novel were so simple to her- she and her brother (and children in general) are able to cut through all the prejudice and rumors her community has drowned itself in and see things clearly. The candidness in which she describes things and her matter-of-fact way of life was so beautiful and so FUNNY. I'm beginning to understand why adults laugh at many things kids say.
There were multiple wonderful themes in this book. My favorite was how growing up is slowly sewing your mind shut (you can see this especially when Jem and Scout are talking about different types of people and Jem says something along the lines of 'I used to think like you, when I was your age..'). Another was the theme of family- Atticus' strict but loving education, the childrens' respect of Aunt Alexandra although being opposed to her views. Not to mention Jem and Scout's relationship. Another, obviously, is criticism of society who is blinded by racism. About that, I liked how the author showed us (through Atticus pointing it out a few times) how even the prejudiced were very good people sometimes. There was even a little bit of a feminist statement. Scout remarks on how the women of Maycomb are hypocrites and gossipers, but when it really came down to it, they're each hiding the secrets. In the end, you see how their little parties are really them putting on a brave face for each other.
Also, I developed a little crush on Jem(:
All in all, I was totally blown away by this book. I loved every minute of it and plan to revisit the novel every once in awhile. Rating:
In other news, Kayla has won my giveaway for the signed copy of Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mylnowski! Congratulations, Kayla! I have sent her an email and she has 48 hours to get back to me, at which time I'll choose another winner. Thank you all for participating!!
Love,
Esty
