February Round Up!

Fifty Shades Freed

Divergent

World War Z

Labor Day

Pretty Little Liars

What did I learn this month?

• I (again) need to pick up the pace. I only read 5 books this month (again)
• I can get through about two books a week if I really set my mind to it. 
• About 6 books behind on my book challenge :[

S.

Oh You Pretty Little Liars...

I've been a loyal viewer of the Pretty Little Liars television series ever since it first aired back in 2010. After watching it for four years I'm more confused than ever. I'm not sure who to believe A is. It went from Toby to Ian to Mona to Ezra and now to Mrs. Dilaurentes herself. I figured it was time to read the books thinking they would shed some light on this crazy show. I heard rumors that the books are completely different than the actual series which could be completely awesome or completely annoying. Either way the books are turning out to be quite interesting. This first book chronicles Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily after their BFF Alison goes missing and turns up dead. This first book is pretty well translated in the first season of PLL. I feel like I'm reliving all of A's crazy shenanigans over again, but I like it. This book gives subtle hints at Mona being A which is pretty clever and I'm happy the show at least stuck to that aspect. There are some pretty big differences in the way the characters are portrayed and the tone of the book in general though. Emily and Spencer are portrayed just like their characters on screen but in the books Hanna is much more slutty and Aria is much more of bitch. The tone of the books is much more adult. The fact that Hanna is slutty, they talk about thongs and blatantly about sex. They smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. Even the sexual stuff between Jenna and Toby is watered down in the show. In the show I just remember Toby and Jenna "kissing" but in the book Toby "molests" Jenna. It's very different but I like the more adult tone of the book and I'm looking forward to the rest of the books.

After reading the first book in this series I had to see what was going to happen next. Flawless is the next installment in the Pretty Little Liars series. This is where I believe the book and television show start going in different directions. There are a couple things that stay the same but most are different. I personally don't remember Sean and Aria dating in the show and I don't remember Hanna being so crazy when it came to Sean, but I do remember Toby and Emily going to a dance. These are minor changes that make a big difference. The craziest thing about this book that will effect the rest of the series is the fact that Toby dies in the last part of the book. Can we say #mindblown!? I did not see that coming at all. Getting back into this series has made me want to go back and re-watch the entire series to see what they changed and didn't change. I also fell like the books are all running together like I'll forget if something happened in the first or second book. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing. Either way the series is turning out to be pleasantly awesome. I picked up the third book today so look out for the review about that soon!

S.

World War Z & Labor Day

I heard rumors that this book was completely different than the movie that came out starring Brad Pitt, and it turns out the rumors were really true. It's as if the movie just took the title of the book and decided to make a hollywood zombie movie out of it. I have to say the book wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. I think the idea of stories chronicling the "Zombie War" is a cool idea but when I actually read the stories, I wasn't that interested. I'd say about 75% of the book was filled with military stories. Granted, I do love the military and stores about it, but these just didn't hold my interest. The two stories I liked the most were told by actual civilians who had made it through the "Zombie War". There was one military story I liked that it encompassed actual action and not just special tactics used in the war. The story was about a woman names Christina who's plane had gone down, all her other plane mates had died. Christina was able to get a radio signal and she had the help of this anonymous woman whose job it was to help military officials. After Christina was rescued, we find out her radio had gone out before her plane even crashed and there was no person who actually existed on the other end of the radio. I'm not sure if it was by the hand of God or just her hallucinating but that was an amazing/trippy story. Another story was about an Asian man who was so wrapped up in his computer that he never realized that his parents were gone. He spent three days climbing down from his nineteenth floor apartment with sheets. To this day he still does not know what happened to his parents. Besides these two stories I felt like there was something missing. It's like the when the punchline of a joke is missing. The reviews said this novel was supposed to be chilling but there was something missing from the eye witness accounts. Even though this book is obviously a work of fiction, I was amazed at how someone could write an entire HISTORICAL novel without any real facts. The way Brooks wrote about each instance with such depth was pretty amazing. I'm not sure if i could ever do that. 

(Okay, this is going to be a really short review). I must say, this might be the first time I liked a movie more than its original book. I read this book because I recently saw the movie version of it starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. I cried three times. I am not a movie crier but this one really got to me. The entire movie was beautiful from beginning to end. Both the book and movie are about the love, the loss of love, and making a home where you'd least expect it. This book is filled with beautiful quotes and the movie took those quotes and put them on screen. The fact last I loved the movie so much is making it hard for me to talk about the book. The book was forgettable, the movie will stay in my heart for a long time. 

S.