The Hunger Games

Hi, everyone! So today the topic is Hunger Games. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and a book that blew my mind away. I’m not going to say, that you should read it, simply because at this point someone have already  told you that. And why did they? Well, because it is just that good!

I first came across it, when I was scrolling trough the amazon bestsellers last november. And yes, I never had heard of it before. I’m not going to say that I fell in love with the book from the first page, because that never happened to me. However I fell in love with the history, the beautiful way that was written and the power of each characters. It’s not every day that you find a heroine, that doesn’t have confidence problems, that knows who she is and doesn’t put herself down to please others.

All tributes fight for staying alive, and of course that is something that I think everyone can relate to. There is so much that life has to offer, that we wish to stay one more day here and sometimes we take that for granted. Also Katniss fights and tries to stay alive for her family. And like many books have taught us, love is our strongest weapon. I really advice you to read and once you have, comeback and comment. 🙂

“In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games,” a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.” Amazon.com description of The Hunger Games (book 1)

Other dystopian books were written before this one, like 1984 by George Orwell, which was the inspiration to the worldwide Tv franchise Big Brother and others will be written after. Still I find this book a good way to approach this subject, not to smooth but also not to harsh either. It’s known that it’s violent and just like description says it really ends up being about to kill or get  killed. Never the less it’s all shown to us by the eyes of the kind and very human Katniss. We know by her actions that if it was her decision she would never kill anybody but this is to protect her family.

So I liked the contrast of the brutal deaths to the humanity of Katniss that prevailed in that pressure, where it would be easier to just shut that part of her. When Rue dies, it’s like the game just got real, because she was someone who you got to meet and like. It’s like everyone’s little sister. So that part was really sad, but it was the best way to make her see what the Capitol was really about and plant the seed that would eventually make her act against it. And in my opinion is one of most heartbreaking and touching scenes in the whole book.

The end was a big exciting scene and I loved it. Actually all of the ends in the 3 books were amazing. The sacrifice that Peeta and Katniss were about to do, reminded me a lot of Romeu and Juliet, but of course it wasn’t ruined by the classic tragic end. I haven’t talked much about their romance in book 1, because while I was reading it, it always seemed to be just for the audience and never for themselves. Not that I’m saying that she wasn’t keen on him, it was more like friendship with kisses involved. Besides who would blame her, she was trying to live to support her family and she didn’t know him for that long. But don’t get me wrong, I was always for their “ship” and never for Gale. He lived for the purpose of breaking the Capitol and that made her more a second priority to him and let’s not forget that sometimes he was too hasty in his decisions. While Peeta saw the truth in people and took the time to think about his actions and the people that he could trust. So he really was the match for her.

Someone that was also an important character was Haymitch, that even though he was most of the times drunk, he knew clearly what were the most intelligent moves to do, to make them stay alive. He was also the demonstration of what the Games did to the winners. Nightmares, the guilt of those who were dead, etc. Sometimes I think that being killed was a gift, to what was the hell that you had to live, once you got back. Having kids, was like giving a sentence to someone who wasn’t even born yet and you wouldn’t have anybody to talk that would understand you. I imagine that I wouldn’t be that fine either.

About crush, I have to say the name of Finnick. He is funny and also smart. He can be sweet and brave, like we saw him be to Annie and he is hot. So… 🙂

Let’s just say that there is a reason why it’s a bestseller, turned into a movie and has a massive fan base. I just loved it and I’m really waiting for the second movie to come out. I know that I didn’t write about everything that happened in the books, but there is so muchhh, that I wouldn’t stop writing and you wouldn’t have the patience to read it.

Next week I hope, I will do one of the occasional movie reviews about the very own Hunger Games movie, to celebrate the released of the DVD’s . So stay tuned! 😀

Lots of love,

Paradise of Words

Divergent

   Divergent was a book that locked me into the pages and made me take an exciting and unpredictable trip trough a strange and dangerous world. I’m going to start by saying that you really wanna read this book. Like really! I started it with an open mind but also thinking that this could be just another book following the same pattern that has been copied hundreds of times in YA novels. And it wasn’t! It was like an insane ride, full of stupefaction moments.

And if you are afraid that it’s going to be like the Hunger Games, I can tell you that the only thing that they have in common is: that it takes place on the future and the story is told in the first person (Beatrice). That is pretty much it!

“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.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.” Amazon.com description of Divergent

If you haven’t read the book… GO! And then come back… because this is a book that you don’t want to miss. (specially if you love YA) *Spoilers alert*

So the he book starts with Beatrice, our heroine, a fun but restrained girl having to choose between staying in her section or change to another one. I think that is interesting seeing the conflict that starts to grow inside of her and that when she goes to take the aptitude test, hoping that this will help her to choose, she just gets 3 different and odd results, later known as Divergence (so I really like that she wasn’t able to take the easy way and had to choose between her own happiness and the loyalty to her family)

Once she decides she wants to be a Dauntless she goes trough an amount of physical and mental tests all very dangerous (where people actually die!!!) and meets the persons that will eventually become her friends. I did though at first that Peter would be a possible “candidate” for a love interest with Tricia and would create a love triangle with Four (that one never fooled me 😉 ). But to my surprise he grew in to be a character that I hated with all my heart. He was cruel (just like Eric) and since they were in a place where being the best fighter and knocking out others has almost the same status as getting a good grade in math in the real world, he really became dangerous and heartless. Also throughout the story he was more like a silent cobra that attacked in the darkness of the night, instead on the heat of the fight, so I really didn’t know what he was planning in those moments.

While Tricia develops her skills and gets positive remarks about her work, others like the group of Peter get jealous and even attack her one night. I wasn’t expecting the brutality of it and it really took me by surprise that one of the aggressors was her friend and peaceful guy Al. I would have seen it  more if it had come from Cristina. It’s not that I don’t like her, it’s just that I don’t trust her. She seems to be one of those people who are always fine when you are the one that is weak, and once Tricia got up in the ranking, she just got jealous and weird. But going back to Al, I still was sad when he committed suicide, I suppose that in the end the guilt and the lost of Tricia’s friendship just was too much for him to handle.

Now to happy, romance stuff, Four is really awesome and they do have a lot of sweet moments together. He has grown from being a mentor/friend to be a mentor/boyfriend. I remember reading the part where Tricia’s father talks about Marcus and the son that transferred from Abnegation and I knew it was going to be important, because why else she (Veronica Roth) would put that in? So I kinda already knew that he was Tobias, like I suspected that her mother had been a Dauntless, all because she seemed to much at ease in the compound.

I really loved when they were in his fear landscape and in the end she was like “This is why they call you Four.” That I would have never guessed. Also I was so embarrassed for her when she was in hers, because it was private fears, like we all have and specially one like that and there were people watching :S

Now the end part, with all of the fights and she being shot, was really exciting to read. When Tobias was injected I really hoped that the book wouldn’t end with him like that, because that would have meant that she would spend the whole second book trying to find a way to save him and that would have been just boring. Plus I liked how she was putting to the test all that she had learned and still when her parents died it was so bittersweet and heartbreaking, even more because they were protecting her and finally she knew that they had accepted her choice.

I really don’t know how is going to be the conversation between her and Cristina, once she tells her that Will is dead, because of her. He was such a nice guy, I’ll miss him. I thank that she has her brother, that has her back and Tobias and I don’t know what the hell she had on her mind to bring Peter along, I would have left him to rot in the battlefield. He is just going to bring trouble, mark my words. 😉

P.S. Almost forgot how amazing and smart she was in the strategic challenge, I really knew that she could kick the other team’s butt. Take that Eric!

*End of spoilers*

So basically the conclusion is that if you want a new and good YA book to read, go to your nearest store and buy this one! Seriously I loved this book! But let me just warn you, that even though it has amazing fun parts, it also has scenes that are not for the soft-hearted.

Read, read and read! 🙂

Lots of love,

Paradise of Words

Twilight

The Twilight Series are for me one of the most popular victims of movie adaptations. They are one example why people are always so afraid when some studio picks a book and wants to convert it to the screen. Not only they can destroy the image that you have already created in your mind (which is normal, because everyone has a different idea of what the characters might look and the places where they live) but they also can distort the whole idea of the movie.

I’m not saying that these books are precious works of art. They are not. But they are also not what they stand nowadays. Screaming girls and boys that go crazy every time that Robert Pattison sneezes or even a stupid love story with a foolish female main character.

I’m not going to write my opinion about the movies, because this is for the books. But unfortunately it seems that today you can’t find one separate from the other. All that I will pronounce it’s that I liked the first movie (special thanks to Catherine Hardwick, that i think made an amazing job with this one), it showed truly how the town should feel like, with all the rain and black sky. Also the music that they added kinda gave it a different feel to it, like the baseball scene and the rest of the movies were a down fall, specially the second one (again this is my opinion and I respect others that say differently)

Going to the books… *spoilers alert*

“Bella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.” Amazon.com description of Twilight (book one)

The first one, Twilight introduced the story in a way that we saw Bella, the main character moving to a new town, where she didn’t know anybody (something that everyone that has moved to a different school can relate to) and then seeing her fall in love with this mysterious boy. I know that the way I write, it makes look foolish, but Stephanie Meyers actually makes it work. It’s an easy reading and we get more interested while we start to know Edward’s family (the way they live, etc… which I enjoyed) and more. So I would give this book a 7,5 on a scale to 10.

The second one, New Moon, was my least favourite book of all of them (nothing related to the movie, for I read the book before it was released). It was the book where Edward leaves because he think he’s protecting her (which I think is ridiculous, because it puts both of them in suicide mode) and just gives the book a look of depression. I do understand that trough this way Jacob was able to stand up and became a bigger part not only on the story, but also in a way that made readers have to choose sides (Jacob or Edward). So 5 out of 10.

And with that idea, we go onto the third book, Eclipse. What I liked about this book was the real feeling of battle. Both, werewolves and vampires coming together to fight off Victoria. I would also say that the whole arrangement marriage thing was a good deal, because she would eventually have to become a vampire and convince Edward, in the other hand since this was all happening in a “possible” present it became a little unrealistic, since she was just 18 and I was expecting more dating, turn vampire  and forever happy. (also I must say, for the good of my conscience that the marriage proposal happened just like I said in book 3 and not in 2, like it was shown in the movie. They almost made me jump out of my sit in the cinema, no joke, and scream “This is not like the BOOK!!” Like I already said I do understand minor changes, because they are necessary, but this just didn’t make for me). 7,5 out of 10

Now book 4, is when the wedding happens, and I was very happy with the scene where Bella really sees that she is beautiful even not being yet a vampire. It real makes her have more self-esteem. Now after the honey moon, was when I was really surprised. I have to say, that not for a moment throughout the books, I thought that she would have a child. It was a good and refreshing move from Stephanie, that gave new light to characters that were more kept quiet. And yes, I’m talking about the friendship that starts between Bella and Rosalie. I had already liked when in Eclipse Rose told her her past life story, but now it was more real. My favorite part in this book has to be the moments while and after Bella turns. The way that she now is more strong and likes to play with it, like when she battles with Emmet. Now for the finish, the “almost” fight was ok and in general was a good ending, with the expected and lived happily ever after + Renesmee. 8 ou 10

Like I said, even though is a very simple story, with love triangles and vampires and werewolves throughout the middle, Stephanie Meyer actually worked it ok and I liked it. Actually I read all the books in a surprising time and was very excited when the last one came out. Again for me the movies were what ruined it, even though it made the books more popular. Now if you are looking for an outstanding novel this is not it. It’s fun, it’s good YA, but that’s it. Also I ask do not judge the books with the movies. And if you are looking for something different and better, I do advice you The Host also by Stephanie Meyer, but with light years of distance. It is amazing and written by a Stephanie with more experience and also more mature.

Read, read and read!

Lots of love,

Paradise of Words