Beautiful Creatures MOVIE Follow-Up

Why Richard LaGravense?

I was expecting so much from this movie. It was a very good book. I hadn't read something like it in a long time and I liked to read something fresh.

But why?

Why did you have to get sucked into the turmoil that was Percy Jackson?

I was really looking forward to watching it. Did you have book burnings on the set instead of actually reading the book? Honestly. Characters were missing, Larkin was supposed to be so much more important, Sarafine was supposed to leave Mrs. Lincoln's body. 

That leads me to the casting of the movie. I'm sorry, but Alden Ehrenreich does not look like a high school Junior. He looks like a college graduate. Even my brother leaned over and said, "He's a Junior?" Lena was casted all right, but I wish she would have done more with her character! There was so much that Lena Duchannes could have been and that wasn't shown in the movie.

Emmy Rossum was the only one who was close to her character, Ridley, and they still messed her up. How do you replace lollipops with strawberries? Are we trying to advocate eating right in movies now? Why?

They didn't even cast Ethan's dad and later on in the book he's important to why Lena gets into the whole deal with her mom at Greenbrier. Whywhywhy?

I just can't express how disappointed I was in this movie. Important parts, and characters were missing. . . Amma was not the bookkeeper in the Caster library/ the regular library. What happened to the Caster library only being opened on certain days at certain times? What happened to the scenes shown by Genevive's locket? What happened to the whole relationship between Link and Ridley? Why did Ethan forget about Lena? That never happens in the book! What happened to Ethan and Lena finding the locket together?

If you've read the book, avoid the movie. Please. Save yourself the heartbreak of watching it crash and burn. If you haven't read the book, pick it up and see for yourself that it actually is a great story.
 

Beautiful Creatures MOVIE

2013 is definitely the year for books becoming movies! 

Beautiful Creatures is coming out as a movie in four days on February 14. If you haven't read it by now, where have you been? 

Okay, I really can't talk since I read it just last year in December, but I read it. That counts. 

It's a really good action book (whose review is yet to be posted by me) that follows a boy and a Caster. It's a really interesting fantasy book that takes place in the South of the United States. I would pick it up and try to cram it in those four days because it is really good, and it's always fun to judge the movie based on the book. At least it is to me. 

From what I've seen in the trailer, it looks all right. The actor playing Lena matches pretty well, but the actor playing Ethan is not the one I would chose. *shrug* We'll see how he does. He doesn't look like the character I envisioned in my head. There are a lot of the actors that I probably wouldn't have chosen, but actors aside it looks like the plot is pretty much in tact.

If you haven't seen the trailer I'll put it below. 

The cast list goes as follows: 

• Alden Ehrenreich as Ethan Lawson Wate
• Alice Englert as Lena Duchannes
• Jeremy Irons as Macon Ravenwood
• Viola Davis as Amma
• Emmy Rossum as Ridley Duchannes
• Thomas Mann as Link
• Emma Thompson as Sarafine
• Kyle Gallner as Larkin

I'm not as hyped up for this one as I am for City of Bones, but I am still pretty excited. What do you think? 

Trailer: 

 


 

CITY OF BONES movie!

As I'm sure you've heard, the City of Bones movie comes out this year in August! If you haven't heard and you want to learn about it, the trailer is below. If you haven't even read it then get off this dang page and pick it up! You have months to read it!

It's kind of surreal for it to be made into a movie. I remember when The Hunger Games became a movie and I flipped out. I started reading the City of Bones series in the eighth grade, around the same time that I started this blog and also around the same time that I read THG. It's been so long--a little over three years now--and I'm overly excited that they're making a film adaptation of it. 

From what I've seen in the trailer (below), it's pretty close to the book. I mean, of course, there are always things that aren't going to be exactly adapted (e.g. how she finds the Shadowhunters the first time in the club). And Jace has an accent. That made me smile because it's really cool that he has an accent. It didn't describe on in the book, but I think it's really beautiful. And it makes Jamie Campbell Bower (who is beautiful) a very interesting Jace. As long as it's not a Percy Jackson and the Olympians repeat, I think I'll be good. 

If you haven't watched Percy Jackson, please don't. Read the book. It's so much better. 

The cast is as follows: 

• Lily Collins as Clarissa "Clary" Fray
• Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace Wayland
• Robert Sheehan as Simon Lewis
• Jemima West as Isabelle Lightwood 
• Kevin Zergers as Alec Lightwood
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Valentine Morgenstern
• Lena Heady as Jocelyn Fray
• Aiden Turner as Luke Garroway
• Jared Harris as Hodge Starkweather

(Just look them up on Google, since the pictures I wanted to put didn't work)

I'm very, very excited. Anyone else?

Trailer:

 

Book Review: City of Glass

Title: City of Glass
Author: Cassandra Clare
Release date: 2009
Rating: 5/5
Publisher: McElderry Books
Book Summary:

To save her mother's life, Clary travels to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters--never mind that by doing so she is breaking the Law, which could mean death. Even worse, Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by Shadowhunters who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight. Luckily, Clary finds an ally in the mysterious Sebastian, who holds a strange attraction for her. As Valentine musters a demon army, can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their ancient hatred and work together? And can Clary harness her newfound powers to help save them all--whatever the cost?

Review:

I didn't realize I haven't posted up this review! Whoops!

The third (supposed to be final) installment of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, City of Glass offers a winding tale of Clary's and Jace's family. . . and Valentine's.

Clare does not fail when it comes to The Mortal Instruments. She has beautiful descriptions that make the area come to life around you; the smells, the tastes, and the sounds. Her cliffhangers when she switches from one character's point of view to the next has you turning the pages trying to find out if that last character is okay and not being eaten by a demon.

Things you don't expect fly out from the shadows and get shoved into your face as if saying "HA, we got you again. What are you going to do about it?"

There are times when your heart breaks and other times when your heart soars and you wonder when there will be a section that you can rest from the emotional rollercoaster.

All the characters you've known from the other two books--Jace, Clary, Simon, Alec, Isabelle, etc.--all develop even further and show you sides that you probably wouldn't have guessed would have come out in those characters.

I'm not sure what the heck will happen in the next two books because of the way that this book ended (another surprise you won't see coming!), but I know that it will be just as emotional, and crazy as these books have been.

I highly recommend reading this book if you've read the other two: City of Bones and City of Ashes.

I can't wait to pick up City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls.  I know Cassandra Clare won't disappoint!

~M.A.Chase♥

Book Review: Perks of Being a Wallflower

Title: Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Release date: 1999
Rating: 3.5/5
Publisher: MTV Books
Book Summary:

It is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through through unchartered territory. The world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where all you need is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

Through Charlie, Chbosky has created a deeply affecting novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.

Review:

THERE MAY BE SPOILERS

It definitely wasn't anything I was expecting, and frankly I think my hopes being let down is why I rated it so low.

This book is my summer reading book, so I was happy to read it since I've heard so many good things about it. "It's great!" "I really liked it!" "Read it! It's so good!"

In my mind, I thought it was going to be a first person/third person story of a boy that is a wallflower and he witnesses different things and whatnot. I was disappointed to see that is was a book compiled of letters sent to an unknown receiver.

It didn't bother me at first, but after a while it started to really bother me. When I pick up a book, I like to read the descriptions and imagine and have it playing in my head like a movie. Unfortunately, this didn't read like that. I had to make up my own places, and make up my own characters to fill in the names and place names in order to read the book and not get confused.

Charlie's letters still left me a little confused since they were jumpy and often jumped from one subject to the next with out prior warning. I understand that it's supposed to be a letter from a teenager and not all teenage letters have the best writings in them, but I still would have expected a smoother change in subject.

I really didn't feel like I connected with the main character Charlie at all. I didn't feel any familiarity or anyway that I could have fit myself in Charlie's story.

I wish I could have been happier with this book because I was extremely excited to read it.

Also, I have no idea how this book will be turned into a movie. Something that will make me curious enough to watch it. Let's see. . .

~M.A.Chase♥