J - John Green Books

John Green is an American writer who has released hugely successful books such as The Fault In Our Stars and Paper Towns. And his stories are some of my favourite ones to read; his way of writing keeps the reader constantly captivated throughout his books and his plot twists and turns never fail to create a wave of emotion for the reader.

John Green hasn't written piles and piles of books and I think that's why the ones he has written are so good and are appreciated so much, because although there are year gaps between his releases, his new stories never fail to keep up with the high expectation he's set for himself and are always a really good read. His books include:

• Looking For Alaska 
• An Abundance Of Katherines
• Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances
• Paper Towns
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson
• The Fault In Our Stars

It wasn't really until 2012 when The Fault In Our Stars was released that his books became hugely popular, but I think this is because everyone can relate to the story. Ok, not everyone has a romantic love story like the one told between Hazel and Augustus, but everyone can relate to the loss and hurt the characters go through as they loose someone they love to such a horrible illness. The premise of the story - how Hazel and Augustus meet and fall in love is unlike any other romance story because of the time limit they have to be together and how this obviously has a big impact on their relationship.

Although I haven't actually read all of John Greens books, we have a collection of them all in my household and I'm slowly working my way through the pile. But I hugely recommend reading The Fault In Our Stars, Looking For Alaska and Will Grayson, Will Grayson; all three stories are completely different but all are equally as good. Looking For Alaska does a "Before" and "After" and you constantly wonder what is the before and what is the after until you find out half way through the book; and Will Grayson, Will Grayson shows the two point of views of two different boys with the same names and how different their lives are and you become invested in their different lives and their stories until they finally meet.

If you want more information on any of these books click here to visit John Green's website.

"Some infinities, are bigger than other infinities"

Until tomorrow,

Alice x

Continue Reading...

The Maze Runner Series

Ok, so I watched and read the Maze Runner back in September/October time - so it hasn't exactly been recently that I became a fan of this series - but, the plot of the stories seriously kept me interested and absorbed.

I'll start by writing about the books. I came across the series after I found out that Dylan 
O'Brien, was playing the lead role as Thomas in the film. (O'Brien also stars as Stiles Stilinski in the American TV show Teen Wolf, this is where I first came across him.) Now, James Dashner, the American writer of the series released the first Maze Runner book back in 2009, following this he also released 'The Scorch Trials' in October 2010 and to finish the series 'The Death Cure' in October 2011. These three books are all continuous from each other, they continue the story of Thomas, Minho, Newt, Gally, Teresa, Winston and all of the other guys, as well as introducing new characters along the way. I'm not the biggest reader ever, and a book or story have to have an interesting plot to keep be captivated, however, although James Dashner isn't the best writer I've ever come across, the plot and the emotional attachment you get to these characters makes up for the average writing. The story follows Thomas, from when he first enters the maze, when he's fitting in with the rest of the guys who live maze, when he's trying to convince them to escape, when Teresa arrives, and to when they escape. The story is fast paced, unusual and completely different to any other franchise at the moment, but I think that's what makes it so interesting. Dashner has also written a prequel to the maze runner 'The Kill Order', now I did purchase this book, however, although I am intrigued to find out what happened before the maze was created, I have yet to read the book. This was mostly because it is basically a completely  separate series. I have read prequels in the past, however I have struggled to pick up this book and read it, just because the characters are completely different and I have become use to reading about Thomas and his friends. I know once I actually get the motivation to pick up the book and read it, I will most likely enjoy it, it's just getting use to the change in characters.  

---

Right, onto the film. The Maze Runner was released in October 2014 (UK) and directed by Wes Ball, a new and upcoming Director. The Maze Runner was the first film Ball has ever directed, however you wouldn't be able to tell because the structure and setting of the film is absolutely amazing. The plot obviously slightly differs from the books, like all films do, but most of the changes were necessary. For example, in the books Teresa and Thomas can communicate through their minds, now although this was a major feature of the book, it was unrealistic to put it into the film, so it was decided the connection between the two characters would be shown another way, this was done by Teresa and Thomas recognizing each other even though all of their memories had been wiped (well, it is a little bit more complicated than that but you need to watch the film to understand that). The casting for the film was also completely spot on (ok I may be a little bit biased because Dylan O'Brien but sh). The characters are exactly how I imagined them to be in the book - Newt being played by Thomas Brodie-Sangaster (who also starred in Nanny McPhee as Simon Brown), is portrayed as a tall, square jawed, blonde haired, teenager. Sangaster is a British actor and because of his characters repeated use of the british-curse 'Bloody', he was allowed to keep his British accent  whilst filming for the maze runner. Gally, portrayed by Will Poulter, was the main character in the book and film who didn't get along with Thomas, Gally is a tough looking guy, who is very serious and has a hard accent, he mainly didn't like Thomas because of his determination to escape the maze. This was the type of cast I expected, they almost meet the descriptions of the characters in the book to a point, and they portray the people that were written about exceptionally well. All of the actors in the film are young but really, really talented.

The only thing that irritates me about the Franchise films at the moment is the fact that they're all getting pushed aside because of the Hunger Games. Don't get me wrong, the hunger games is an absolutely phenomenal series and I am massive fan of it, however new and upcoming franchise series keep getting ignored or knocked out of the way by the British community because of it. The Maze Runner still did amazingly well and was recognized,  however, cinemas don't seem to understand that they can recognize more than one franchise series at once, the same happened when the Harry Potter films were being released, all other big sequels were knocked aside by cinemas. This is a massive downfall for these companies because younger people such as myself, enjoy hearing about and watching lots of ongoing sequels at once.   

"If you ain't scared you ain't human" 

The Maze Runner film was on DVD on the 16th December 2014 in the USA and is released on DVD on the 9th February 2015 in the UK - Make sure you check it out! 

Until next time,

Alice x 

Continue Reading...