The Fault In Our Stars movie

I finally got to watch TFIOS a couple of weeks ago, and it was everything that I had expected, or even better! :) I was so excited about it, and it did not disappoint me a bit. I am really glad that's happened, because usually almost everything disappoints me... 
The movie, overall, was pretty loyal to the book, and the only things they missed weren't that important, even though I would've loved to see the "Lonely, vaguely, pedophilic swing set seeks the butts of children" scenes :) But I was watching the movie, and I fell for Augustus Waters all over again... Ansel Elgort was great, with his smile and his performance. The cigarette metaphor, all the scenes with Hazel (Shailene did an awesome job too, in my opinion)... I loved it. 
I loved the fact that I finally found out how to pronounce Lidewij's name, which was something I was dying to know while reading the book.
The movie was beautiful... I am so happy about the adaptation to the big screen. John Green should be proud :) And the trip to Amsterdam, and Birdy's Not About Angels in the soundtrack, and Ansel with Shailene... It was great. I was watching, and I suddenly found myself in the part when they're leaving for Amsterdam, and that felt too soon, and then they love each other, and then he says he's sick and then... I started crying in that bench in Amsterdam that morning... And even if everything was sad from that point on, it was beautiful. And the quotes... 
So yeah, it was a great movie, and even if it's sad, which is why some people refuse to watch it, it is so beautiful that deserves us seeing it over and over again. 

Just One Year, by Gayle Forman (Just One Day #2)

Synopsis:

When he opens his eyes, Willem doesn’t know where in the world he is—Prague or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one magical day in Paris, and something about that day—that girl—makes Willem wonder if they aren’t fated to be together. He travels all over the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her. But as months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question if the hand of fate is as strong as he’d thought. . . .

While I was really, really excited to see the story from Willem’s point of view, this one was sort of a disappointment. I expected Willem to be much more of a deep character, one of those I love and will always remember, but, even if there were many things in his life that seemed to be trying to help him become one, the way he acted was too… shallow? I don’t know how to find the right word. The first example of awful behavior in my opinion is the fact that he didn’t even ask Lulu for her real name. Really? And then when they are pushed apart by another accident, he decides all he wants to do is find her?

I loved the way he travelled the world looking for Allyson, from Mexico to India. But I’m not a fan of the way he treats women in general, all there in his way to Lulu, important and useless at the same time. His mother was an interesting character, with a beautiful name and love story as background, and then mysterious attitude in her relationship with Willem. I like Kate, but I don’t think her relationship with Willem is realistic. Meeting in Mexico, and then talking again months later and with all that trust and like they knew themselves since forever? Sort of weird, but nice. Willem meets so many people during his journey, and he grows sort of attached to everyone. Everyone that seems distant (his mom, his uncle) at first, ends up perfectly happy with him. The ending is too perfect. When he gives up, finds something to do, fixes his relationship with friends and family, Allyson suddenly appears. And they kiss. Out of nowhere.

Don’t get me wrong, I love these books. A lot. I’m really grateful to Gayle Forman for writing them. But these cannot end like this! After a year, they find each other. And then what?? I need to know. I really need to know. I see myself in a couple of years acting like TFIOS Hazel and Gus and sending letters to the author for answers. But it’s also a good ending; it makes me think that the purpose of the story isn’t them as a couple, them loving each other, but all the accidents that happen and bring them together or apart, all the small things that happen in life, coincidences and all, that change the path we follow. 

Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell

Synopsis:

Two misfits.

One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

I ran into this book by pure chance. I was looking for Fangirl, but I couldn’t find it, no matter how many bookstores I checked, so I decided to meet Rainbow Rowell by Eleanor & Park instead. And it didn’t disappoint me a bit.

Eleanor & Park is a story about life. It shows us the worst part of it, but also the best one, and it’s both depressing and hopeful at the same time. Eleanor and Park are both so different, but also similar in so many ways. This book made me smile a lot, but it also made me sad so many times. There are all those hopeless scenes when you think everything, no matter how unfair it is, can’t be helped and I don’t know what to do about it. But then there’s another scene where everything, no matter how awkward, is better only because Eleanor and Park are together. They are just so brave, fighting to be together no matter what.

But then the ending arrives, and everything just breaks down into pieces. I don’t understand Eleanor. Then I cry. Then I still cannot understand. Why does it end like that? And then, last sentence, a trace of hope. The end. It’s like the whole novel had a pace, a getting-to-know-each-other pace, and then suddenly she’s gone and everything comes crashing down to the ending.

But I loved the book so much… Hope, dreams, disappointments, tears, laughs, music, comics, family, friendship, love…; the story is life. And we should all read a love story as hopeful and realistic as this one. 

Just One Day, by Gayle Forman (Just One Day #1)

Synopsis:

Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.

This book was the best thing I’ve run into for a long, long while. I fell in love with it in the third page, when my mind had processed how beautiful Gayle Forman’s writing is. Even in the first scene, where Allyson and Melanie are just waiting there in line to see a play, everything was told really naturally, really gracefully and with complete honesty. And that’s the kind of writing that I enjoy reading the most.

About the characters... the secondary characters, meaning everyone who’s not Allyson or Willem, were pretty strong in the novel, allowing the main characters to express themselves with other people who reflected different characteristics of theirs. Céline was a part of Willem that he didn’t show to Allyson (or Lulu), just like her friends, both Melanie and the ones she met at university, and her family helped developing the character. Since the story was focused on Allyson, Willem was sort of an unknown character to us readers; we only knew what Allyson knew, which was interesting. He remained sort of a mystery throughout the whole novel, and that’s why the second book in the bilogy is about him, about his life and his feelings.

The story didn’t have much of a plot, since it was mainly about finding that guy Allyson spent a day with. But I like the idea. I don’t think it’s feasible in real life, I mean, it’s only one day; that many things and feelings and obsession happening in a day? I find it beautiful that she spends a full year looking for him, but I don’t see it that realistic. But the thing about the book, how I interpret it, is that the important thing is not the stuff that happens, meaning the action is not the main thing. It’s a story about hope, memories, love, and, above everything else, accidents. 

Walking Disaster, by Jamie McGuire (Beautiful Disaster #2)

Synopsis: 

Can you love someone too much?

Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.

I really enjoyed this book, way more than I expected. The first one, Beautiful Disaster, was good, but it was quite a typical love story between these two people that are completely different but that are completely attracted to each other and, of course, they have to end up together. And because of it being predictable, even if I found it pretty good, I think I liked the sequel better. Seeing everything from Travis's point of view was awesome. I guess it must be really difficult for a female author to write from a guy's point of view (it is difficult, I've tried it), but I think she managed to do it quite well, even if Travis may have been a bit too soft for the outer image he tries to give, he was too nice, too perfect all the time. Even his flaws were perfect! I don't know, it wasn't that realistic. But honestly, I have no idea about what do guys think about all the time. 

The storyline was good, but it hasn't changed from Beautiful Disaster, so... I liked how Travis really changes during the novel, and seeing the world through his eyes makes everything different. America and Shep were different from Travis's eyes. I like how we got to know more about Travis's family, his parents, his brothers, and Shep. Some details, like the engagement ring he buys before they split up, were nice to know because they had been omitted in the other book. But what I really found too much was the epilogue; knowing about their children, their names (Abby's fake ID names), and what Travis did for a living was a bit out of the theme of the book, like it didn't match the casual way of narrating things in the book. 

But overall, it was a nice book, and it kept me completely absorbed and obsessed during the day it took me to read it, just like the first one. It's easy to read, it's quite nice, and, even if it's a typical love story, we all need to read that sometimes. 

Paper Towns, by John Green

Synopsis: 

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life — dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge — he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues — and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

John Green never disappoints me, no matter what I read. From TFIOS to An Abundance of Katherines, they are all special in their unique ways. Only John Green can make us laugh, cry and think so deeply with the same page. And Paper Towns was a perfect example of it. 

There’s a problem in this book with verb tenses. Chapter nine in the second part was in present tense, suddenly, when everything had been in past tense and will continue from chapter ten in past tense. That shocked me, because I started reading the chapter and I knew something was different, but it took me some time to notice the verb tenses. And then, the third part is all in present, but that’s fine. The third part was my favorite. The road trip, epic. 

The characters are greatly developed, and real, which is the most important thing. Everyone has their virtues and, more importantly, their flaws, and that’s what I love about John Green’s books. Even Q wonders why he is friends with Ben when he ends up drunk at that party and all that, but Radar reminds him that we should like people for what they are, not because of what we want them to be, and that’s a huge lesson in life. They speak the truth, and that’s pretty valuable. 

Paper Towns tells a story about friendship, love and identity, and it’s full of deep characters that evolve throughout the novel (which is what I value the most) in a very common environment that makes it possible to identify ourselves with them. 

When Margo disappeared, I knew she was going to be disappointing. All those comments Ben made about how she just wanted them to keep her as the centre of their worlds, how she just wanted to be the centre of attention, was exactly as I expected the ending to be. Then we find out she didn’t put those clues out for them to find them, and that she didn’t want to be found. And then Q finally learns that Margo doesn’t exist, not as they want her to be. And that’s what the book is about. There’s a different Margo for every one of them, and that’s what happens in real life. We see things and people the way we’d like them to be, and most of the time, they turn up to be very different from what we imagined them to be like. And that disappoints us. But that’s how we are, that’s how life is, and that’s what John Green is trying to show us. 

The book was fresh, written in this John Green way of his that I’ve learned to know and love. I loved learning about paper towns and contemplating philosophical questions about one’s identity. If you love John Green or simply enjoy new but at the same time old stories, this is your book.

The Fiery Heart, by Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #4)

Synopsis: 

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives.

In The Indigo Spell, Sydney was torn between the Alchemist way of life and what her heart and gut were telling her to do. And in one breathtaking moment that Richelle Mead fans will never forget, she made a decision that shocked even her. . . .

But the struggle isn't over for Sydney. As she navigates the aftermath of her life-changing decision, she still finds herself pulled in too many directions at once. Her sister Zoe has arrived, and while Sydney longs to grow closer to her, there's still so much she must keep secret. Working with Marcus has changed the way she views the Alchemists, and Sydney must tread a careful path as she harnesses her profound magical ability to undermine the way of life she was raised to defend. Consumed by passion and vengeance, Sydney struggles to keep her secret life under wraps as the threat of exposure — and re-education — looms larger than ever.

This may be one of my favorite books in this whole series. It had a lot of romance, which is exactly what I needed at the moment, and the couple was Sydney and Adrian, which made everything better. It’s taken me a long time to finally find this book, because I can’t find it in my country and I needed to get to London or somewhere to finally buy it, but it was definitely worth waiting for it. 

My first thought when I saw that I’d be reading chapters from both Sydney’s and Adrian’s perspectives was begging that this wasn’t going to be another Allegiant. But it wasn’t. Hearing from Adrian’s point of view was interesting, because I’ve always wanted to know more about his way of seeing the world, but it was also a bit disappointing, because I thought very differently of him. Nonetheless, it was great seeing him so in love with Sydney, and also getting to know how he’d felt when he was with Rose. Something else I enjoyed from his point of view was getting to know how Lissa is doing and everything that’s going on at Court and in spirit research. 

And Sydney… she’s changed so much since we first met her in Blood Promise, and I’m so glad she did! She’s become such a different character… and even though I miss that smart, architecture-and-cars-loving girl who was deeply afraid of the evil creatures of the night, I also like the strong, fearless woman, someone who stands up for her believes and who’s learned about love, that she is now. When I first read about her, I could have never suspected she would end up being so in love with Adrian, who’s just her opposite in every single aspect. But they are so great together… And the escape plans, and the she-eats-and-he-doesn’t-drink deal, and the time together at Court… 

So, as you may have guessed already, my favorite thing about this book was their romance, but there are many other things to comment about. 

I deeply dislike Zoe. I never liked her, but the ending of The Fiery Heart, that made me desperate. There was a moment or two throughout the book when I thought I glimpsed some hope for her, but then she just betrayed everything that being sisters means. Little sisters are never horrible in books, but this was unbearable, and Sydney kept trying to fix things with her all the time. It’s also partly Sydney’s fault, because she’s been obsessed with Adrian all the time and there was no way of hiding that, but even though, there’s this unmentioned sisters’ code that’s expected to be respected between sisters everywhere, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include selling said sister to the evil Alchemists who will mess up with her mind. 

Jill, Eddie, Angeline, Neil, Trey… I personally think there are too many characters around at the moment, and the worst thing is trying to have them all in love with someone else in the group, setting up all these couples… it was a bit too much, in my opinion. But I really like Eddie and Jill... And Ms. Terwilliger and the witches, and Marcus and his followers… there’s like thousands of things going on at once. 

And about the ending… poor Sydney. I do not want to see her giving up. And she won’t. For Adrian. But she’s going to go through really tough things, and I’m worried. The Alchemists can be really cruel. But Adrian and the others are probably going to go on a mission to save her and end up with the Alchemists’ re-education and all that… Because Silver Shadows will be the last one, right? I don’t want it to end… just like I was really sad for Vampire Academy to end, but then Bloodlines appeared. I guess we’ll see. But either way, thank you Richelle for all these books. 

The Making of Harry Potter

So about a month ago, on May 2nd, I was in London for a long weekend with my family when they decided to give me a surprise and, guess where they took me? To the Harry Potter Warner Studios!! I was so excited when I saw the bus with "The Making of Harry Potter" written on the side, because I've been wanting to go there since forever! 

So the experience was as good or even better than I'd imagined, and I could see everything, from the real Great Hall to the clothes and wigs the actors used, and their wands. I saw the Gryffindor common room, and Albus Dumbledore's office (with the Sorting Hat and Godric Gryffindor's sword!!). There was the Burrow's inside, Hagrid's hut, the Ministry of Magic and even the Potions class! The Knight Bus was there, and so were the Nimbus 2000, 2001 and the Firebolt. The Horcruxes and other special objects, such as the golden snitch, the Remembrall, the time-turner and many more, rested in a glass box for all of us to see! And butterbeer, it was so much sweeter than I expected! Seeing the goblins, seeing Aragog, Buckbeak, Dobby and even the mandrakes and baby Voldemort was... wow, can't find words to describe it. And the miniature model of Hogwarts that was used for every take of the outside was right there! And the Diagon Alley... I think that was the best thing of all. Every single shop had all the inside arranged, and Gringotts, and Fred&George's shop... everything. The inside of Ollivaders was impressive, with over 7,000 hand-made wand boxes with names on it. JK Rowling had one, and also did Tom Felton, Alan Rickman, and many more of the people who helped make our childhoods literally magical. And the shop!! Wow. Everything, from clothes and cloaks and everything from every one of the houses, to chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's All-Flavoured Beans (which, of course, I had to buy!). It was awesome. 

Being able to visit the set may be the best thing that's happened to me in a long, long while (if not ever). So if you live in London or ever go visit it and you're a true Potterhead, that's the thing you must do. 

PS. I'll update this post soon with some pics of my visit, if you'd like to see them :)

Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me #1)

Synopsis:

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

I expected so much out of this book!! It was great, I loved it, and I really recommend it if you're looking for something good in the young adult genre. I knew what the trilogy was about before starting Shatter Me, and I knew there was going to be a love triangle, so it was obvious that Adam and Warner were the ones she was going to choose. Don't get me wrong, I like Juliette, but I just think she's sort of stupid some times. She hasn't eaten in ages, and she's sitting in front of the most delicious food in the world and because of her stubborness, she decides to starve herself to death to prove a point to Warner. And then she faints, what a surprise.
I've heard that Warner is one of Juliette's love interests, and I can see how he is interested in her, but with all the awful things he's done in this book, how is Juliette ever going to change her mind about him? Something big has to happen for her to forgive him and then love him? I don't know, but I know I will be a fan of Warner, if the excuse of forgiveness is good. Because I really like his character now (compared to Adam, who's too good to be true. Unbelievable), and I would love him to evolve in a way that's believable, that's what worries me the most.
The idea of the story is great, perfectly original and unique, so I sort of thought that Juliette would be the only one with "special powers"? But no, the ending had to become the new X-men movie... That was weird. And there are so many other things that were so wrong in the book, like the way Juliette has never been able to touch anyone but then her lifetime's crush appears and wow!, she can touch him. Of course. And Warner, her potential second love interest, too? Who can believe that? Just like the way the first three chapters go on in that cell without her saying anything special about Adam, and then he suddenly becomes the guy she's been in love with forever?
But overall, the book was fresh, which I think is the most important thing these days. And that's why I loved it. Can't wait to read more about Juliette, Adam and, more importantly, Warner ('cause I love deep characters the most)!! Read it. For sure. And tell me what you think. 

Divergent movie!!

Sorry for not posting this earlier, but I've been really busy and haven't had time to write something this long until now... 

So I finally watched the Divergent movie!! I went to the cinema a couple of weeks ago, on April 30th. The movie was supposed to be out on April 11th here, which I could understand, since the world premiere wasn't that much earlier, but on April 30th? It had been more than a month since a huge part of the world had seen it. 

Nevermind, I finally did. And it was amazing! I was so excited, counting down the days and the hours until I finally got to that cinema room and sat down with my best friends, one that had read none of the books, one that read up to Insurgent and the other one, up to Allegiant. 

After reading the last book in the trilogy, my perspective of the story as a whole and my conception of the characters had changed, and I kind of wanted to know what people with different knowledge about the books thought of the movie. 

It was fantastic. I enjoyed it so much! I just kept thinking how well pictured everything was, and how much I loved the cast. I'll keep saying it forever, but Shailene is the perfect Tris Prior. The Tris in my head was abolutely normal, not too pretty, not too smart, not too anything... (except maybe too brave?) so it made it so easy to identify oneself with her, even if I'd never choose Dauntless... And Theo... omg he's perfect <3 

The only weird thing about the characters was seeing Miles Teller and Ansel Elgort in those different roles when they both play Shailene's love interest in The Spectacular Now and The Fault In Our Stars, respectively. It was weird, but I got used to it fast enough. 

I'm not going to spoil you about the ending of Allegiant  if you haven't read it yeat (why haven't you????), but just let me say that some scenes really got to my heart because of Allegiant. The scene when Tris slides down the steel cable with the Dauntless initiates... wow. And when her mom dies... wow. Allegiant feelings all over. I cried, and not because of what was happening. 

So the cast was great, and the movie itself was awesome. The settings, the clothing... and it was so loyal to the book! Except of that weird scene where Tris just stabbed Jeanine in the hand and injected the serum to her, in order to make Jeanine stop the simulation from finishing its work and killing all those children and innocent people from Abnegation... They kept showing Christina in the simulation, how she was about to kill those people... 

Some things were kept the same way, some things weren't, but it's a movie adaptation and it was as loyal as it could have been (not like City of Bones...). So I'm really happy it was done this way, and I'm probably going to watch it again soon and maybe add things to this post, because the second time it's when I start noticing all those details I'd missed the first time. 

Now everything we have left is wait for Insurgent next year and for Allegiant parts 1 and 2 on the next few years :)

Have you seen Divergent already? You liked it? What faction would you choose?