•The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey comments and thoughts•

During this last month, I was lucky enough to meet up with some fellow bookworms and we all got to watch The Fifth Wave which is a book to movie adaptation. Of course, we had all read the book before ; never the less, everyone had very different opinions about the movie and the book. So I have decided to let you know what they all said!

Quick summary (from shmoop.com)

The human race stands on the brink of extinction as a series of alien attacks decimate the planet, causing earthquakes, tsunamis and disease. Separated from her family, Ohio teenager Cassie Sullivan will do whatever it takes to reunite with her brother Sam. Fate leads her to form an alliance with Evan Walker, a mysterious young man who may be her last hope. Forced to trust each other, Cassie and Evan fight for survival during the fifth assault from the invaders.

Questions

 Can you describe the book in 3 words?

• Interesting, dangerous and Divergent-like

• Amazing, hot characters

• Fictional, mainstream and... boring?

• End of Earth

• Classic teen novel

 What was your favourite thing about the book|movie?

• I liked the way Rick showed that the human race has a real chance of surviving against aliens if we are smart enough.

• My favourite thing would have to be the badass characters who managed to stay alive. 

• Surprisingly, there was one thing I did enjoy about both the book and the movie, and that was the fact that there was a huge plot twist... (spoiler free post).

• I liked to see the way the main character and her brother acted towards each other after so much had happened (the end of the world). I really enjoyed seeing that people still have human feeling even when they believe nothing could get any worse.

• Even though this novel was very much like any other teen-book that is out right now, I enjoyed the way the author came up with the different waves rather than just making it a normal invasion. 

 What was your least favourite thing about the book|movie?

• Honestly, even though the book was entertaining, at a few different points throughout the novel i felt like it would never end since whenever it seemed like it was coming to an end, another problem would pop up. The same thing happened to the movie. 

• The one thing that I didn't love was the way they made the aliens in the movie. I pictured them so differently in my head while I was reading and when I saw them on the screen... I wasn't disappointed, I just wasn't expecting it.

• As mentioned when I described the book in three words, I didn't really like the storyline of this novel|movie because it's just like any other teen book that it out on the market right now. The end of the world..., survivors, aliens, love... I didn't really enjoy reading it. It didn't have a special twist to it. 

• I didn't like how the story didn't have a final cut. I HATE CLIFF HANGERS!

 Who was your favourite character and why? 
• My favourite character is probably Ben because although he goes through a lot during the story, he is still alway able to find a way to keep everybody calm. He is also the smartest character, from my point of view. 
• The character whose story I enjoyed reading best was Evan because he was the one who went through the most character development. 
• Definitely Cassie! She is a badass but she is also loyal to her family. She is quiet and shy at first but then you find out that she is willing to fight anyone when she know what the right thing to do is. She is AMAZING!
• Honestly, I didn't really connect with any of the character.... but if I had to choose one, it would have to be Sammy, Cassie's young brother. This is mainly because she was really cute, not because he had any specific skills I liked. 
• BEN!!!! He was smart, a leader, a strong character. Overall, a really lovable character!

 What score would you give this book out of 10?
• 8 because it was fairly good. It was a really nice easy read. Probably won't read it again, but during the time I was reading it, I really enjoyed it. 
• 7... A fun quick read! 
• 8 because some of the characters had a really interesting and unique story! I definitely recommend it for any young adult reader. 
• 4 because it wasn't too bad but I though it was quite stereotypical. It was kind of like any other YoungAdult book that is out in market at the moment. The characters weren't great and there wasn't a lot of character development. 

• 10!!!! It was amazing! I absolutely tell in love with the book and I can't wait to read the Infinite Sea!

What is better, the book or the movie? 

• ALL THE READERS ANSWERED BOOK!!!! yet they all agreed that it was one of the best book to movie adaptations from a YA book they had watched. 

Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta - A.K.A. greatest book ever written

Hello Readers! 
I recently re-read one of my favourite books and it is easy to say that it is now my favourite book! I think that the reasons why I didn't like it as much when I read it the first time as the second time was because I was younger and couldn't really read between the lines as much. So! I'm going to tell you everything there is to the book without spoilers!

The first thing you should know are the facts about the actual book:

Author: Melina Marchetta

Adaptations: Looking for Alibrandi (2000)

Country: Australia

Genres: Young-adult fiction, Bildungsroman

Originally published: October 5, 1992

The book summary:

Josie Alibrandi is an girl from Italian descent who is growing up in Sydney, Australia. Josie is on scholarship at a prestigious Catholic school where it matters what her father does. Josie doesn't know who her father is as she lives with her mum, Christina, all she knows was that her mother had her against her fathers wishes when she was in her late teens. Josie and her mother's lives are interfered with by Nonna Katia, Christina's mother. 
Josie's father, Michael Andretti, comes back into Josie's life with no idea that he had a daughter. When he finds out he and Josie decide to have nothing to do with each other.

At school Josie hangs out with her misfit friends, Sera, Anna and Lee. She has a crush on the school caption of their brother school, John Barton. She also meets Jacob Coote, the school caption from the local state school, who asks her out... and I know you guys probably want to know more but I can't write any spoilers! 

The main characters:

Josephine Alibrandi

• The main character in the book

• The school vice captain of a high class school

• She is Italian

• She is the only child of single mother

Jacob Coote 

• The school captain from a local state school

• Has a crush on Josie 

• Is kind of a badass

• Is Australian

Christina Alibrandi
• She is Josie's mother
• Had Josie at 17
• She's not married
• She constantly gets told off by her mother
• She is Italian

Katia Alibrandi
• She is Josie's grandmother and Christina's mother
• She is referred to as Nona
• She treats her daughter badly because she is an only mother
• She is Italian











Michael Andretti
• Josie's father
• Lives in Adelaide
• He is unaware that Josie exists
• He owns a fair amount of money









John Barton 
• He's the school captain of a hight class school
• He has been Josie's crush since as far as sh can remember
• Josie's closes boy friend
• His father puts a lot of pressure on him

So now that you have brief idea of what the story is about the characters are in going to tell you what were the best things and the not so great things about this book:

Best Things:

-Such an fast and easy book to read
-Amazing and interesting storyline that makes you wanna keep reading and never let go of the book
-Really good character development throughout the book
-Makes you realise a lot of good and bad things about having different cultures 
-Teaches you so much about Australia

Not so good things:-Cliffhanger at the end! So if that annoys you...

-When I read the book, I would have liked to know more about how Jacob was feeling through the book
-Even though it will teach you a lot about Australian culture, there are some things that you could miss if you don't know a lot about Australia.

 Michael Andretti and Christina

Josie, Nona Katia and Christina Alibrandi

Josie Alibarndi and Jacob Coote

And for you guys who like watching movies... There's a Looking for Alibrandi movie!

Initial release: May 4, 2000
Director: Kate Woods
Running time: 1h 43m
Adapted from: Looking for Alibrandi 
Movie summary and actors:  Josie (Pia Miranda) is struggling to cope with her teenage existence. She lives with her single mother, Christina (Greta Scacchi), and attends a prestigious private school, where her snobbish classmates mock her Sicilian heritage. She contends with the dramas of teen romance, divided between John (Matthew Newton) and Jacob (Kick Gurry). When her family receives a visit from Michael (Anthony LaPaglia), her mother's former lover, Josie is overwhelmed when she discovers that he is also her father.

 

City Of Bones Review!

hey Readers!

During the Christmas holidays, I've read a few books, but I just wanted to share a review about my favourite one; that doesn't mean I didn't like the rest, becuase, NO way, all the books I've read over the holidays were amazing, I loved Ruby Red and the book after it, I loved reading Angel's Fury, it was breath taking; and I also really enjoyed reading An Abundance Of Katherines by John Green, which you probably already know, wrote The Fault In Our Stars. So, as I was saying, during Christmas I read the whole The Mortal Instruments series. I will write a review about the City Of Glass and City of Heavenly fire soon, so if you are interested, it will come up soon. But this post is going to be about the first book in the series: City Of Bones!!!! Which also is a movie, but, as I always say: "Read the book before you watch the movie!". The book was just briliantly written by Cassandra Clare and I personally think it had a great storyline.

The summary of the book:

 When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? The Shadowhunters would like to know... 

My favourite quotes:

1. “Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?' - Clary

"Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself." -Jace

"At least, you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland." -Clary

"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.” -Jace

2. "Is this the part where you start tearing off strips of your shirt to bind my wounds?"  -Clary

"If you wanted me to rip my clothes off, you should have just asked.” -Jace

3. “Don't touch any of my weapons without my permission." -Jace

"Well, there goes my plan for selling them all on eBay," -Clary

"Selling them on what?" -Jace

"A mythical place of great magical power.” -Clary

• So, as you can see, this book has a lot of fantasy in it. There are a lot of vampires and werewolves and shadowhunters (the ones who keep the demons away from the mundane world (human world)). And I think this is mainly why I kind of fell inlove with this book series; because there is so much fantasy and fiction involved, but still, you can relate to it becuase it all hapens in our world, in New York to be exact. There is a bit of romance involved too, between Clary Fray and Jace Wayland, the two main characters. But still, it's not like one of those romantic novels, that are all about thier realationship, it's more about the way they behave when they are around each other and it shows how different things can be when you fall inlove. But as I was saying before it is defenitely not romantic book, it just has a touch of it to make it more interesting.  This book is great, amazing, perfect, whatever good adjective comes up in your head, it belongs to this book series. It is mind blowing; and is you like  young adult fiction, you should really, really read this book, or even if you don't really enjoy reading that much; there is also a great movie, though, I recommend you read the book first. the movie is called City of Glass and it has great actors in it, such as Lily Collins as Clary and Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace. So enjoy, reading this book is defenitely worth it.

The Cast 

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon review!!

Hey Everyone,

in Australia, we are currently in the holidays between term 3 and 4. So this is giving me a lot of great reading time, which means that i can finally read a long book that i have been dying to read for ages but have never gotten a chance to read because it took too much time and concentration. As you may have already figured out, the book im talking about is OUTLANDER!!!!!

Before you start reading, you must know that there are SPOILERS in this summary! If you don't want to read the biggest spoiler, do not read past the photo of the Scots :)

Enjoy! 

Summary: After separation by their work in World War II, British Army nurse Claire Randall and her husband Frank, a history professor, go on a second honeymoon to Inverness, Scotland, where Frank conducts research into his family history and Claire goes plant-gathering near standing stones on the hill of Craigh na Dun. She faints when investigating a buzzing noise near the stones; upon waking, she encounters Frank's ancestor, Captain Jack Randall. Before Captain Randall can take her into his custody, he is knocked unconscious by a Scotsman who takes Claire to his party. When the Scots try to repair the dislocated arm of their comrade Jamie, Claire uses her superior skill to relocate Jamie's arm; whereupon the men identify themselves as members of Clan MacKenzie, and Claire eventually concludes that she has traveled to the past, and represents herself as an English widow who is traveling to France to see her family. The Scots do not believe her and take her to Castle Leoch, where Claire searches for a way to return to her own time.

The Scots see Claire as a "Sassenach", an Outlander, ignorant of Scottish Highland culture. Her medical skills earn their respect; but the clan chieftain, Colum MacKenzie, suspects her of being an English spy. Colum sends her with his brother, Dougal, to collect rents and solicits donations for the Jacobites. This is overseen by Ned Gowan, a lawyer from Edinburgh made part of Clan MacKenzie. Captain Randall tells Dougal to bring Claire to him for questioning. To keep Claire from Randall, Dougal tells her to wed Jamie, which she does. Torn between her attachment to Jamie and the thought of Frank, Claire tries to return to Craigh na Dun. When prevented, Claire accepts the position of castle healer, in which she relies on her medical experience, and befriends Geillis Duncan, the wife of a local official, who shares her love of medicine. Eventually Claire and Geillis are charged with witchcraft while Jamie is away, but Jamie returns in time to save Claire. Just before their escape, Claire realizes that Geillis is, like herself, from the future, when she sees asmallpox vaccine scar on Geillis' arm. Geillis also sees Claire's scar.

Claire relates her predicament, and Jamie takes her to Craigh na Dun. When Jamie allows her to decide whether to stay with him or return to Frank, Claire prefers to stay, and Jamie takes her to his home of Lallybroch, where they share a happy peace with Jamie's sister Jenny and her husband, Ian. Though Jamie is still a fugitive from the British army, he reclaims his position as Laird of Lallybroch until one of his tenants betrays him and he is taken to Wentworth Prison, where Captain Randall is stationed. Claire and the clansmen attempt a jail-break, but fail and Claire is captured by Randall, who threatens to have her raped. Jamie offers himself in Claire's place, and Randall ejects Claire into the woods outside the castle. Claire tells Randall that she is a witch and predicts that, after his marriage, he shall father a child, but never see it. Thereafter Claire is befriended by Sir Marcus MacRannoch, a former suitor of Jamie's mother. While MacRannoch's men distract Wentworth's main guard, the clansmen drive a herd of agitated cattle through the underground halls of the castle, trampling a man. They rescue Jamie, who has been assaulted physically and sexually by Randall, and take him to MacRannoch's stronghold, where Claire tends the worst of Jamie's wounds. As soon as Jamie is capable, they and Jamie's godfather, Murtagh, escape to Saint Anne de Beaupre's monastery in France, where Jamie's uncle is Abbot. As she and Jamie emerge from a sacred hot spring under the Abbey, Claire reveals that she is pregnant.

Originally Published: June 1, 1991
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Original Language: English
Followed by: Dragonfly In Amber, Voyager, Drums Of Autumn, ABreath Of Snow and Ashes
Page count: 640
Main Characters: Jamie Fraser and Claire Randal 


So, as you can probably tell by the summary, this is an amazing book with an amazing storyline! the characters are great too, specially Jamie (and just letting you know, he is mine. jks). There is so much action and then again so much romance in it. the book just grabs you from the second you start reading it; this is probably because she travels through the stones in one of the very first chapters, but its still amazing. 


Im just gonna write down some reasons why you should read this book and some reasons why I loved it:
1. as I said before, the Plot of the Story is great. Very different to any other books Ive read before. 
2. Characters. It may sound lame, but in this book, you get to know the characters so well because it is such a long book and so many things happen to them. And I specially like one character... you can pobably work that out by yourselves. 
3. Time Traveling. I mean! who has never dreamed of travelling through time. Well Diana makes this dreams come true; the book makes you travel to the 17 hundreds, which is in fact a time where lots of things happened in Scotland... and that leads me into the next point.
4. Scotland, Scots, War. yes! all of this things are part of the book. 
- Scotland: i personally love it. Everything about it is amazing (maybe not the weather...), but anyway. the accent, the traditions, everything about it is amazing. And I specially like the book because it takes place in the Old Scotland (1700s) which sound like a stunning place. 
- Scots: can we just talk about their kilts! 
- War: in case you didnt know, there was a war between the scots and the english during the 17 hundreds and that is exactly when Claire lands. the is the middle of the war. And can I just say, the is an English woman walking around Scotland during a time of war. Suspicious... yeah, thats what the scots thought
5. For any age. There is something about this book that makes it suitable for any mature reader. I often read YA books, but i still loved this book, which is an adult book. I dont know why that is, but I just thought it was amazing even thought it wasnt supposed to be read by someone my age. I am sure that adults who enjoy reading would love reading this book and any young adults that like reading long book would like it too. 


For all of you people who do not enjoy reading that much, you can still find out what is Claire Randal story by WATCHING THE TV SHOW.
The TV show is so, so, so good. Its really similar to the book, i think one of the best if not the best book to TV show adaptations I know and I have watched. And the last reason why the TV show is so great, is because the actor are stunningly good! 


Jamie Fraser is played by Sam Heugham



 Claire Randall is played by Caitriona Balfe

 Frank and Jonathan Wolverntorn Randall are played by Tobias Menzies





Hopefully this Post has encouraged you to read or watch Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. 


Please leave any book recommendation in the comment box below :)

Where She Went book review

Hello Readers!

Because I haven´t done a book review in a while, I decided to do one now. This book review is going to be about one of the books that I have read recently, Where She Went by Gayle Forman. I read this book for the BookTubeAThon, which was extremely fun. I will write more about it soon in another post... So, I really loved this book. It was a really nice short read and like all of the books by Gayle Forman, it was beautifully written. 

Here´s a summary:

It’s been three years since the devastating accident … three years since Mia walked out of Adam’s life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard’s rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia’s home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future—and each other.

Told from Adam’s point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

And here are the 3 reasons why i think everyone should read this amazing book:

1. A continuation of book #1. The ending was so… wide open. It could have went anywhere, and I prefer when there is a definite resolution. I don’t wanna come up with the “ending” myself. I’m not a fan of “left up to interpretation” endings. What if my conclusion is wrong? I always have that “what if…” worry . *sigh*
2. A more mature story in regards to the characters (as this book occurs three years after the “incident”) – so now everyone involved is pretty much an adult.
3. More of Adam (I adored him in book #1) Adam. The ultra famous rock star. Need I say more? The whirlwind of his stardom, the chaos, the demands, and his ever-broken heart that instead of healing, just continues on it’s downward spiral.