The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones Movie

Movie Title: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Book the Movie is based on: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Director: Harald Zwart
Starring: Lilly Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Kevin Zegers, Jemima West, Robert Sheehan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Godfrey Gao, etc.
Summary: When her mother disappears, Clary Fray learns that she descends from a line of warriors who protect our world from demons. She joins forces with others like her and heads into a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld.

My Thoughts: Initially, I wasn't super excited about this book being made into a movie. Out of all the books I've gotten the chance to read in the YA juggernaut that is The Mortal Instruments series, this was definitely not my favorite (with City of Glass being my absolute favorite). But then I, along with the rest of the "shadowhunter" community, saw the first movie trailer for this film and my interest automatically piqued. I was so excited! And I was quite pleased with the end result of this movie.

It wasn't perfect, but I found it to be very entertaining (Clary's mom and Isabelle are such a BA's). The casting was amazing, but the script could sometimes drift towards the cheesy and was kind of hit or miss (mostly hit though, don't worry). And the changes they made when adapting the book to a film medium made sense from a cinematic perspective. The parts they cut out weren't too noticeable to me as a fan, and didn't ruin the chance of a sequel to the movie franchise. Honestly, I think I might like the movie adaptation better than the actual book in this case. I know. It's sacrilege.

My biggest problem, though, lies in the monstrosity that is Valentine's hair. Rat tails? Really? There is no reason you need multiple rat tails protruding from your head, Valentine. They don't make you any more intimidating, and I'm pretty sure those aren't even in style in the Downworld.
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters Movie Review

Title: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Released: August 7, 2013 (USA)

Directed by: Thor Freudenthal

Starring: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Leven Rambin, Brandon T. Jackson, Douglas Smith, Stanley Tucci, Nathan Fillion, etc.

Summary of the Movie: In this retelling of Rick Riordans book, "The Sea of Monsters", Percy Jackson, accompanied by his friends Annabeth Chase, Clarisse La Rue and Tyson, his half brother, goes on a journey to the Sea of Monsters to retrieve the Golden Fleece and save Camp Half-Blood.

My Thoughts: Anyone who has read the Percy Jackson series and then saw the first installment of the movie franchise, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, knows how badly they did at adapting the first book into a film format. I'm not usually one to be snobbish when it comes to book to movie adaptations, but this one was a pretty off compared to the amazing series written by Rick Riordan.

First of all, Percy and his friends in the first few books are in their early teens, while in the first movie they had Percy be about 16 years old. That was probably one of their biggest mistakes if they had any intentions of this series going as far as the books go, time-wise. Not only that, but the way it translated just didn't sit well with the majority of the fans who had read Riordan's series before, including myself.

So when they announced there would be a second installment of this movie franchise, I was instantly interested. Did Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief do well enough in the box office to warrant a sequel? Apparently so. Not only that, but it seems to have been revamped. Many of the fans can just watch the trailer and tell that this movie would be a lot more true to the book than the last, therefore more people were anticipating it's release, including myself.

But upon leaving the theater, I was sorely disappointed. Even though many characters from the series that weren't in the first movie were put into this one, some of them were misrepresented entirely (such as Silena Beauregard or the sass-less Percy).

It was like they took a few plot points from Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters book, and threw out the rest. Nothing was considered when it came to staying true to the Greek mythology roots or the continuity, especially when it comes to the possibility of a third Percy Jackson movie. I actually came out of the theater feeling a little bit angry, to be honest. Being such a fan of Riordan's works and seeing one of his novels be botched this much was hard to watch. Not only that, but the movie lacked natural flow, and as a film I felt like it fell short of my standards of a good movie.

So no, I don't think I'll be buying this one when it hits the shelves on DVD, but I definitely won't let this movie put a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to Riordan's brilliant series.

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Death Cure

Title: The Death Cure
Author: James Dashner
Series: The Maze Runner series (#3)
Pages: 325 (paperback)
Published: October 2011
Summary: Thomas knows that Wicked can't be trusted, but they say the time for lies is over, that they've collected all they can from the Trials and now must rely on the Gladers, with full memories restored, to help them with their ultimate mission. It's up to the Gladers to complete the blueprint for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test.

What Wicked doesn't know is that something's happened that no Trial or Variable could have foreseen. Thomas has remembered far more than they think. And he knows that he can't believe a word of what Wicked says.  The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than Thomas could ever imagine.
Will anyone survive the Death Cure?

My Thoughts: Wow, what an ending to The Maze Runner trilogy! So many twists and turns (in more ways than one). James Dashner once again weaves a wonderful adventure that is easy to read, easy to keep up with, yet will keep you on the edge of your seat for most of the book.

However, there were a few parts that did lull a little bit and seemed slightly unnecessary which is why I didn't give it a 5 out of 5 stars. The first two books in this trilogy were a little bit more fast paced, twisty, and less predictable, but this third installment tied up the series very nicely. I did have a few questions at the end but I assume they will probably be answered in the prequel to the series, The Kill Order. It gave me a sense of finality, even though there were quite a few emotionally distressing moments (the deaths! THE DEATHS! My poor heart broke because of all the deaths in this book).

Finishing this series only makes me even more excited for The Maze Runner the movie (premiering in the U.S.A on February 14, 2014). If you haven't read The Maze Runner yet, I highly highly recommend it! It was one of my favorite books I read last year, and it's a quick exciting read that I feel anyone can love. So definitely expect updates and a review about this highly anticipated movie adaptation. It looks like it's going to be a good one!
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars 

Books I Bought in July

(A late update, but nevertheless an update)

Adding on to my book collection and enabling my book-buying addiction, I've been to a few used bookstores and Barnes & Noble a few times this month. I am proud of myself, however, because I didn't buy as many books as I did last month and I think that's progress, right? Anyways, enough about this growing addiction to feeding my bookshelves, here's my book haul from the month of July:

Grave Mercy - by Robin LaFevers
I've seen a number of great reviews on this book, and my best friend even recommended it to me, and I trust her judgment, book-wise. And on top of that, it looks really interesting! A total BA female master assassin who's the daughter of death?! How awesome is that? Downside, though: it's really long and it'll probably take me a while to get to it let alone to get through it.

Agatha Christie short stories
I found this one at the used bookstore and ended up buying it because I don't have any collections of short stories so I thought, "why not start with the queen of mystery?" I'm starting my university classes in a couple of weeks, one of which is creative writing where we write and read a lot of short stories, so you could say I was inspired by that.

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey
This is one of those books that defines a year. Last year I feel like it was The Fault in our Stars, and after seeing only positive, raving reviews about this sci-fi adventure, I'm certain that this will be one of the best books of 2013. If you click on the title above it'll link you to the goodreads page for this novel where you can read the summary (it was a bit long to put in this post). It seems slightly vague, but only in the best of ways. I hate it when a book summary tells the reader exactly what happens. It makes it too predictable, and I love to be kept guessing while reading. It's exciting!

Pretties - by Scott Westerfeld
No I haven't yet read the first book of this series, Uglies, but once again I was recommended to read this series and I've seen many-a-blogger enjoy this book so I bought it. Also, it was on sale and I had a coupon. How could I resist!?

Hallowed - by Cynthia Hand
This book is the second of a trilogy about fallen angels and angels in general, and if you read my book haul post from earlier last month you'll know how much I loved the first of this series, Unearthly. It was lighthearted yet kept your attention the whole time, which is perfect for me when I'm at university during the semester and busy with college-y stuff (is that a real term? my brain is fried from summer classes I apologize). On another note, this series has some of the most beautiful covers. I usually don't like covers with girls in dresses on them because they've been a little overdone, but these are so gorgeous that I can't get enough of them.

Maybe I won't buy as many books this month seeing as how I'm starting back up with my college classes and on top of that I'll be doubling my time with my internship which means less time to buy books or read. But I always seem to find time between classes, so don't expect an official hiatus. It'll be more like a-post-every-other-week kind of hiatus as opposed to where I (attempt to) put up a post every week. Whatever the schedule, I wish you happy reading!

July Wrap-Up and YALLFest News

Well to say that I didn't get much done in the month of July is kind of putting it lightly. But I have an excuse! I had two finals for my summer classes within a couple of weeks of each other and in the end, I only ended up finishing one book (The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen) and starting one other book (The Death Cure by James Dashner) this month. And on top of my summer classes ending, I had to help plan my family vacation to Disney World (which will be this weekend!) and finish my paperwork for my internship and yeah July just was not a good reading month for me. I may or may not have found myself in another reading slump, which will hopefully be broken by my 12 hour drive to and from Florida this coming week.

However I do have some good news! I'm planning on going to YALLFest, which is Charleston, South Carolina's, young adult book festival. It'll be held on November 9, 2013, and it's a one day shindig in one of my favorite cities and admission is absolutely free. There are going to be 50 young adult authors there (among the list are Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia of Beautiful Creatures fame and Stephanie Perkins, author of Anna and the French Kiss) along with a keynote speaker, who will be Veronica Roth this year. Yes. THE Veronica Roth! As in the author of the Divergent series (the last book of the trilogy, Allegiant, is set to release October 22 of this year). Her book signing is going to be a huge even in and of itself especially with the first book of the series, Divergent, getting it's own movie next year. On top of that, this is one of my favorite series at the moment, so I will definitely be bringing my own copies for her to sign at the event and yes I am fangirling over the thought of just meeting her (but only a little).

A more complete and detailed description of when, where, and who will be attending YALLFest can be found here if you're interested in learning more about the event.

I've never been to a convention or book festival of any kind before, so this should be a wonderful and exciting new experience for me and I absolutely cannot wait!