Friday, August 5, 2016

F L A W E D - by Cecelia Ahern

My best friend lent this book to me in preparation for a book club meeting that she wanted me to join in at the end of July. She gave it to me towards the beginning of June and assured me that I had more than enough time to finish it before the book club.
I was a bit apprehensive as I'd only just bought something like 24 books and I was planning on getting through as many of them as possible.

I picked up Flawed one Monday night to begin reading and by the end of Tuesday I was finished. 
I could NOT put the book down. 

It's set in a present day, yet somewhat dystopian world where the government has appointed a group of people called 'The Guild' to hand out punishments for those who display a lack of judgement. For your lack of judgement you get branded with an "F" on the particular part of the body that housed the lack of judgement. For an intention meant well but gone bad - your temple. For untruthful speech - your tongue. For judgement of the heart - your chest. For stealing - the palm of your right hand and for running away - the sole of your foot. 

For Celestine her life is perfect and all going according to plan. Everything is great at school, she has an amazing boyfriend and a loving family - until one day she makes a public choice that changes her life forever. 

The action is non stop as we follow Celestine in her new life as being "Flawed". Love and support flow forth from the most unlikely of characters and a mysterious boy promises to find her. I couldn't put this book down for the mere fact that I wanted to know more, more, MORE. How disappointed I was to find out that the rest of the story doesn't come out till April 2017. 

Ahern's character development leaves much to be desired & her plots are a little transparent (but maybe I'm just to used to reading mysteries). All in all it was a good read, Flawed shows that is only Human to err and that Good cannot exist without the Bad. 

I'll give it a 7 /10
THE RAGING QUIET - by Sherryl Jordan
I read this book about a month ago now and I actually really enjoyed it. It's the type of book that if you set aside a couple hours with a cup of coffee you could get through it quite easily. 

The story is set in the 15th or 16th century somewhere on the English Coast. It centers around a 16 year old girl called Marnie, who marries a Lord more than twice her age and moves away from the Estate she worked on and the village she lived in with her family her entire life. It is mostly done to save her family and we begin the story with Marnie making her way towards her home in a little fishing town called Torcurra. 

The majority of the time this book left me feeling angry due to the injustice of Marnie's life and the injustice of what it must have been like living as a poor girl in these Medieval times.
Everyone was telling you how to live your life but you. Guys wanted to sleep with you and take your virture but looked down upon you and shamed you once they'd had their way. Men ruled, said whatever they wanted to and women had to hold their tongue.

The entire situation with the ignorant villages of Torcurra had me angry as well - granted given the time they lived in anything strange or out of the ordinary would be looked upon with judgement and suspicion - I guess the same way things could be now, however there were just less people back then to question and try and explain away the "norm". Back then everyone was sheep, one went this way and the rest would follow.
One of the other characters in this book is Raven (formally Raver). He lives in Torcurra, not in a specific place really but mostly at the church. Our first meeting of him, he is being whipped in the town square to rid him of his demons. We soon learn that he is in fact deaf. When Marnie and Raven become friends, Marnie figures this out easily enough and they being to sign to each other to talk. 

There are a lot of aspects of this book that make me think really long and hard about what it would have been like to live in a time like this. Where most of the questions about the universe were yet to be asked. Where people believed more in Angels and Demons and gossip than fact. Where anything out of ordinary made you stick out like a sore thumb and you could be trialed for witchcraft all because you figured out a different means of communication. Not only that but how afraid would you have to be and how small minded to not want to think outside the square, to expand your mind. To think differently to other people. What a scary time to have existed. 

Sunday, June 19, 2016

The Devil's Footsteps - By E.E. Richardson

"One in Fire, two in blood
Three in storm and Four in Flood. 
Five in Anger, Six in hate, 
Seven Fear and Evil Eight. 
Nine in Sorrow, Ten in Pain,
Eleven Death, Twelve - life again. 

Thirteen steps to the Dark Man's door,
Won't be turning back no more..."

Every town has one, a scary children's rhyme, a myth, a legend. This one belongs to the town of Redford. Legend has it there are 13 stepping stones hidden somewhere in the woods, each number representing the way you will die. If you find them and sing this rhyme as you hop along the stones the Dark Man takes you on the last one.

This is how the story starts with Bryan (age 8) and Adam (age 10), brothers messing about with a power neither fully understands. On that fateful day Adam is taken by the Dark Man and never seen again, Bryan left behind to live with the guilt of running away from his brother.

This is a great book and very easy to read. It has a very Stephen King-esk feel to it - reminded me a lot of 'IT'. Three friends trying to piece together the puzzle of the eerie feeling that has always settled around the town of Redford, the adulst and residents who turn the other way, pretend it doesn't exist and the mystery of the missing children that stretch back to when the town first began. 

The Hunger Games Series - By Susan Collins

It's a great feat that I find myself having read all 3 books and watched all 4 movies in the space of about 10 days - especially when you factor in that I work 40 hours of that week and then still have to cook and clean and do other 'adult' activities.

Also factoring in that when I sat down to read this Trilogy a few years ago it took me starting the first book about 5 to 7 times before I finally gave up. I'm not much of a fan of things set in a post apocalyptic world. I'm not sure whether it's because I believe that's the way the world could turn out or whether I don't believe it, but it's just never been something that caught my attention all that much. I guess this time around I just really wanted to know what all the fuss was about and form my own opinion about this story by myself.

I'm the type of person who prefers to read the books before I watch the films - this is why I tried so many times to read the book before the movie came out. But after a while I decided that if I couldn't enjoy the book then it didn't really matter all that much whether I liked the movie or not; being a film student I'm used to watching films for the sake of watching films rather out of excitement or joy.

Initially, it was Collins' style of writing that kept putting a damper on my progression through The Hunger Games. I'd get through the first few chapters but then get distracted by how childishly written it was (says me who can't seem to write coherent sentence). I found that the way she described things just wasn't colourful enough for my taste in reading. I like to be able to feel like I could close my eyes and immerse myself into a setting or a feeling and I just never had that connection with this book.

The first time I watched the movie (whenever it was that it first came out on DVD) it's not that I didn't enjoy it, nor was there anything that I particularly didn't enjoy. It was just an okay film in my opinion. Interesting enough to keep me watching but not so grabbing that by the end of it I wanted to pick up the book and start reading (like I did with The Maze Runner series). After that I wasn't at all interested in watching the rest of the films which in hindsight I'm pleased about because I wouldn't then be able to sit here and write this with both the books and the films still fresh in my mind.

So last week, when I was sick and stuck at my parents house I found myself with these books on my sisters book shelf in front of me, just begging to be read. In all fairness I had been eyeing them up for quite some time, it's just my sister had never owned the 1st book, only the 2nd and 3rd and I'm definitely not the type of person to begin things in the middle. When I found she had finally purchased the 1st book I was quite pleased. So I pulled the book off the shelf and started reading, telling myself if I made it to at least chapter 10 it would be smooth sailing.
An hour or two later found me halfway through the book with no sign of letting up. Somewhere in between chapter 5 and 10 Collins' grabbed me.

I'm not quite sure what it was though - Katniss' character annoys me to no end. She's constantly negative and although a lot of the time her actions seem selfless she is actually quite selfish.
I think the main issue is that I see a lot of myself in her, and that's why she annoys me so much.
If I ever met Peeta in real life I would hate him straight of the bat - far too nice for his own good, puts himself down whilst uplifting others and is just kind of an all around sap.
Gale is sulky and brooding like every other teenage boy out there - wants the girl but doesn't.
I think Haymitch and Cinna and oddly enough even Snow are the only characters that don't frustrate me. Snow mostly because he's a very transparent villian - he's evil and he knows it, the characters in the book know it and we know it as well.

One of the aspects I did particularly enjoyed is how closely the film and books correlate to each other. How well the actors portray the characters internal monologue and the dialogue conveyed from book to film was almost identical.

As I sat and watched frame after frame and scene after scene it was like reading the book and seeing it in my minds eye - except I didn't have to imagine because it was right there in front of me, on screen. Of course there were a few things that didn't turn out the way I imagined they would, and of course your have to give the film makers the benefit of the doubt in creating a world that doesn't actually exist (yet). But I was definitely impressed.

In typical Hollywood style there was more emphasis on the romance than there really needed to be, but being a film student it's something I expected. It didn't take away from the narrative too much but it didn't add anything either.

All in all - if I were to rate this (book and film) I'd give it an 7/10 all around.