Books that made my 2014

It's been a great year for books overall, but when I think about the ones that have changed me or have had a huge impact on me this year I know exactly what I'm talking about.

- Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell. This is probably my favourite book that I've read in 2014. After wanting to read it for a really long time, I was able to buy it and read it asap. I had never been as excited while reading a book, but everything was just so real! I could relate to everything that was going on, and I am just really proud of being a fangirl. I keep telling the rest of my family to read it, but I know you won't think of it as highly as I do if you aren't a teenager in the 21st century. I want my children to read it in the future and learn about the best things of being a teenager right now. It has nothing to do with all those novels who say they depict teenage life while mentioning alcohol and drugs; this shows what the Internet has done for our generation. It was just so wonderful that I want to keep reading it over and over again. 
Read my review: Fangirl
- City of Heavenly Fire, by Cassandra Clare (TMI #6). The ending book in a saga like this deserves to be recognized everywhere... I can't say I'm happy that I read it because the series which had accompanied my teenage years has ended, and that is very sad. But I really liked the book, even though the ending and some details could've been better. But, we all know Cassie and love her for that. So this is a must-read that I definitely want to read again (when I get over the series ending, that's it). And I'll be waiting for The Dark Artifices this next year 2015 with joy and anticipation. 
Read my review: City of Heavenly Fire
- Allegiant, by Veronica Roth (Divergent #3). This was published at the end of 2013, but I wasn't able to read it until earlier 2014, so I'm just going to talk about it now. This book was the death of me. As the last book in a trilogy, the ending had to be great, but this one was sublime. I want to thank Veronica Roth so much for this. The death of the main character isn't something usual, and it was both one of the best endings and one of the worst (as a reader who suffers and suffers), so I'm glad it exists. 
Read my review: Allegiant

So, what were your highlights of 2014? Do you agree or disagree? And what are you looking forward in 2015? Happy New Year everyone!!

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? 

Allegiant, by Veronica Roth (Divergent #3)

Synopsis:

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories. 

But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

I'm gonna write my general opinion, spoiler-free, and all that now, and then write my real reaction to the book, full of spoilers... I never do that, but I need to this time. I really, really need to. This initial rant is written assuming that all of you have read the first two books, and I'm aware that I may be one of the last people who haven't read Allegiant, but that's just a matter of where we leave, so... 

So I'm just going to say something about the book that you'll know if you just open the page. The book isn't from Tris's perspective like the other two are. I mean, it is, but it's also told from Tobias's perspective, depending on the chapter. I'll leave you to think about that... 

I loved the book. It was great. It's been a while since I read the previous two, so I don't remember them all that well, but it was enough. The plot in this book is really different from the other two, changing escenarios and introducing many new characters in the story. It first looked like Veronica Roth had to end the series someway and didn't know how, so she came up with a new plot for this one, kind of. But now I'm starting to think that this may have been thought in advance, maybe at the beginning of Insurgent, clearly not while writing the first book. 

I want to say that I loved Tobias in this final book. Maybe it is because of being able to see the world from his perspective, but I just grew more and more fond of him, fell in love with him all over again. It looks like he's grown as a character in this book, now that he and Tris really know each other and all that, but maybe it's my point of view because I don't remember the last two books that well, I don't know. 

I don't like the new characters in this book. They aren't well-developped and they aren't that deep. And I love deep characters... I just think they could've been better. 

There was a lot of happiness in this book, but also a lot of sadness. I think it was a great ending chapter to  an awesome trilogy. 

*spoilers start here*

Wow. I don't want to ruin anyone's excitement to read Allegiant if they haven't read it, so don't read this if you don't want to be spoiled, but that book ruined me. I'm permanently marked by it. Just like it happened with Clockwork Princess, I'm not going to recover. Clockwork Princess ripped my heart out leaving a permanent wound, and Allegiant just made it worse, making me feel the pain all over again... Books are ruining me. 

But let's talk about the ending book of the trilogy by Veronica Roth. I just think she went kind of crazy while writing this book and came out with all these GPs and GDs and all these genetical things that came out of nowhere. I don't really know how she invented those, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't her plan when she wrote Divergent. Not only she made the world inside the book worse, but she also decided to torture poor Tobias by making him a false divergent, making him genetically damaged. That's such a horrible word... I didn't like that in the book, the fact that the genes became such an important part of the plot... 

Let's see if I can write about the important thing in the book now. The heartbreaking event that changed me and that I haven't been able to say it out loud or written it yet, and I finished the book a couple of days ago. Tris dies. Omg I wrote it. Haven't said it. Will never be able to... It's such a huge thing that the main character dies!!! How can that even cross a young adult novels writer's mind? I mean, I think it is magnificent. It is so awesome that Veronica dared to do that! I hate her and admire her for that. It made me think of what would have happened if Katniss died in The Hunger Games. Can you imagine that?

Caleb is the character that I hated the most. He's not a good brother. No matter how much Tris loves him in her inside, Caleb is not a good person and I don't think he deserves what Tris did for him. Not only did he fail her in multiple ways, but he only intended to sacrifice because that was what everyone expected from him. I don't hate him completely, but I don't particularly like him. I like Peter better :)

As I said before, I loved Tobias in this book. Watching him find out he was genetically damaged and then reading and getting to know the way he sees Tris, the way he sees his parents and the rest of people... that was perfect. The way he suffers, the way he loves, the way he hates, the way he forgives... I love him for every single detail. And Tris was just as amazing as always, being the epic heroine she is and filling the book with her shining light.  

No matter how devastated am I after reading the book, Allegiant was an epic finale for the awesome trilogy. 

*spoilers end here*

Divergent trailer

On August 25th, the VMAs were on on MTV, and I stayed up until 5.20am watching them. I really looked forward to the Video Music Awards because my favorite artist, Taylor Swift, would be there and was nominated to a couple of awards, and also because I love watching award shows, seeing all those people I like (or not), tweeting while watching it, seeing the performances and the dresses... And I specially looked forward to this VMAs because the Divergent trailer was going to be revealed at some point that night. When I watched it, I was so excited about everything I saw that my brain didn't process it that well, so I had to watch it again and again. That's what I do with trailers, anyway. I've seen the Catching Fire, TMI and Vampire Academy trailer thousands of times, just like The Host and other movies's, so this was not going to be an exception. 

I loved the trailer. It showed a lot of meaningful scenes, not as many as in Blood Sisters, but a lot. I'm going to take this opportunity to comment about the cast too, because we can't say we hate someone as our favourite character until we've seen them acting as them. I absolutely love Shailene Woodley as Tris. When I imagined her in the book, I pictured a completely normal girl, not too beautiful, not too confident, not too shy, I pictured her as completely average, because that's what makes us relate to the character. I find very important that the main character is relatable to us, because otherwise everthing would be completely unbelievable. I like Theo James as Four, I do, but I just find him maybe too old for the role next to Shailene. When we see him tell Tris that he's not going to let her be killed, he doesn't look as a potential love interest, at least for me, but maybe when I see the movie I'll think differently. 

I really like the fact that Kate Winslet is in this movie, because having a well-known actress as her gives to the movie a different look from the outside, like it's not just a new teenage dystopian story. 

So, after seeing The Host, which was a good adaptation of the book, I expect this, only from the trailer, to be as good, more or less. The scenes look great; jumping from the train, learning to fight, going up the fair wheel... I expect a lot from this movie, even if that's what has made me be disappointed in some other movies. 

If you haven't watched the trailer yet, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6HHCxLZftQ

Divergent movie news

The cast and other information for the Divergent movie were announced less than two months ago, and not everyone is happy about them, it's not how we imagined the characters while we were reading them. 

- Shailene Woodley plays Tris Prior, the main character of the book. 

- Theo James is Four, the other main character, and the character we girls were most looking forward to know. 

- Kate Winslet will be Jeanine, the evil one in the film. 

- Ansel Elgort is Caleb Prior, Tris's smart brother. 

- Zoe Kravitz is Christina, Tris's new friend in Dauntless, brave and reckless. 

- Maggie Q. will play Tori, another Dauntless member. 

- Ben Lloyd-Huges plays Will, one of Tris's new friends. 

- Ben Lamb will be Edward, another friend. 

- Christian Madsen is Al, another friend. 

- Jai Courtney is Eric, the Dauntless leader Tris doesn't seem to particularly like.

Uriah, Peter and other characters are still being cast, even if there are many rumours that haven't been confirmed yet. 
The movie is currently being filmed in Chicago, USA, but I'm not sure if they started yet...
So what do you think? Are the actors like you imagined the characters?

Divergent, by Veronica Roth (Divergent #1)

Synopsis:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue-- Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is-- she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. 

That book left me speechless. I mean, how can someone have thought of that? After The Hunger Games, that's the beginning of the trilogy every teenage in this world will read. That's what happens when books are like this, even people who never open a book try and read it. And then they love it. And they thank me for recommending it. Just like it happened with The Hunger Games. 

The way Veronica Roth explains what Tris is feeling, the way it looks like she has everything planned since the beginning but there's no way we're going to guess the end of it, it's wonderful. It's a good book to read if you need action, love, and things happening at the perfect moment, not having to wait for centuries for the next thing to happen. 

Which faction would you choose? Candor, Erudite, Dauntless, Amity or Abnegation?