Tag: spoilers

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

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I really enjoyed this book. I watched the Hulu adaptation probably about a year ago and really loved it, so I’ve had this book on my list to read for awhile.

The show did a really good job adapting the story for the screen. There were definitely a few changes made, but I don’t think they messed with the story much at all. I did think it was interesting that the author never specifically mentioned Mia and Pearl’s races, yet the show made the decision to make them African American. It’s interesting to me that they did this because I feel like it hinders where the story could have gone.

***MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD***

Something that was really interesting in the book was how Izzy felt that Mia could have been a better mother to her than Elena. She loves spending time with Mia, she listens to the things that Mia teaches her, she even at one point says that she fantasizes that Mia is her mother.

Honestly because I watched the show first I pictured Mia and Pearl as being African American, so reading this was the first time that I realized that oh, if she thinks she looks enough like Mia to possibly be her daughter than that means that Mia must be white.

I’m sure that race was changed in the show to draw even larger differences between Mia and Elena. I thought Kerry Washington was perfect in the show, so I wouldn’t change it, but when adaptations do this I feel like we need to question the change and why it was made. Wouldn’t it have been more shocking to Elena that a woman who looked like her chose this lifestyle? Did we really need to make a black woman this sort of nomad who’s perceived by Elena as being unstable with the way she lives her life? The book already deals with elements of race, so did it need this added layer of racism?

It’s definitely interesting to think about and adds more to the discussion when reading the book, but I can’t help but wonder if doing this was really necessary to the story.

Also, I feel like it really hinders them from creating a second season of the show. At the end of the book, Izzy is headed to Mia’s parents’ house. She knows everything about Pearl and Mia’s brother and her parents from the file her mother kept and she’s looking for Mia by going to her parents.

If I was a writer for the show and wanted to create another season, I could definitely see a situation unfolding where Izzy (who’s around the same age as Pearl) tells Mia’s parents that she’s the baby. It would definitely create a conflict and force all of the characters to come together again, but since they have different races this wouldn’t be something that they can do now.

Maybe they have other ideas, and I don’t think the show has been renewed yet, but I do wonder if this was part of the conversation. Anyone else think the same?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

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After reading The Order of the Phoenix, I needed a break from the Harry Potter world. Like I said, that movie was never my favorite, and the book was just as hard for me to get through. It was a good book and I did have a better appreciation for it by the end, but it is not the best one of the series.

I took a break and read a few other books, as you may know if anyone actually does follow this blog, but I’m not one to give up on something I’ve set my mind to!

I’m so glad I decided to pick the Harry Potter books up again and read the Half-Blood Prince. This book was sooooo much better than the last one. It was way more action-packed and I was excited to read it every day. I actually finished this one pretty quickly once I really got into it.

I thought it was interesting how the romantic relationships really started to develop in this book. It makes sense that as these characters get older they’ll start developing romantic feelings for each other. I actually really like Harry and Ginny together in the books. It’s funny, because I always see how people say they shouldn’t have ended up together in the movie, but with the book it totally makes sense.

The one thing that did annoy me was how obsessed Harry became with stalking Draco. Like, I know he was right, but it was just so annoying to have to get through.

I know it’s a major story line in the last book, but I wish that Dumbledore would have taught him more when they were hunting for the horcrux. He just did it all by himself and didn’t really explain it all to Harry, which wasn’t helpful at all.

I think because I knew that Dumbledore was going to die, it didn’t really upset me when it happened in the book. I’m sure it would have been shocking and upsetting for anyone who read it before the movies came out, but I was more upset about Fang being in the burning hut.

This book definitely made up for the last one, and I’m so excited to read the next one!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

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Full disclosure – I can never get through this movie. Literally, I’ve never watched it the whole way through without falling asleep. The good thing about this is that I had no idea what to expect from the book!

I did feel like this book dragged a bit until the end. I didn’t know what happened to Mr. Weasley at all, that was horrible. I felt so bad! Also, Umbridge is the worst. I thought I hated Lockhart, but she’s worse.

I did know that *SPOILER ALERT*

Sirius died. I felt so bad for Harry every time he thought about living with him and finally to be with someone who cared about him, knowing that he was going to die. It was horrible when it actually happened and there was so much action leading up to it. It was actually kind of hard to follow.

I did really like this one, it’ll probably never be my favorite, but it was still a good one.

 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

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Okay, okay…I know I said I really liked the first two…but this one is my favorite out of the three BY FAR. It was so so so so good.

I LOVED that Harry finally gets to learn more about his parents. It seriously made me so happy for him to find out how similar he is to his dad. It really makes you think about the times that you have with your parents and the common interests that you have and how heartbreaking it would be to not experience those things. I seriously loved it.

There was so much more to this book than what they had in the movie. I’ve actually been watching each movie after I finish the book to compare, which has been really fun to see and to compare it to how I’m imagining things in my mind. You also catch little details in the movie that you may have missed before because you just didn’t know about it before reading the book. I really like that.

I’m so sad that it’s taken me this long to read this series. I’ve really missed out, they’re so good.

I’m also sad because I’ve seen the movies and I know how things are going to end for some of the characters. Reading about how happy Harry is when he thinks he can go live with Sirius makes me feel so bad, knowing his fate. I hate that, but I’d actually rather be prepared for it than shocked and upset when it happens in the book.

An Update! *Finally*

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I finally finished A Dance With Dragons! Whew, I can’t believe it took me that long…AND that it has taken me so long for a new post.

I could say sorry to my followers (though I’m not really sure how many of you actually pay attention to my posts and reviews *if you do I truly appreciate it!*), but really I need to apologize to myself. I love to read and the past few months I let the stress of school and work get in the way of it.

The fact that A Dance With Dragons was the book that I was “Currently Reading” when I started this blog is embarrassing. I flew through the other books, but to be fair, I was on a break and had absolutely nothing to do. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but this last semester of college was really stressful. Even though I slacked off in areas of my life that I enjoyed, I’m proud that I graduated with a 3.65 GPA in my final semester as a college undergraduate.

And even though I wasn’t able to get through this book as quickly as I thought I would, I’m also proud to say that I didn’t stop reading it altogether. Many nights when I was so stressed to the point of wanting to cry, I made myself turn off the computer and read at least one chapter of ADWD. It was an escape for me and allowed me to have 30 minutes where I was completely immersed in something other than school.

ANYWAY…I’m going to start talking about what I thought of the book, so if you haven’t read it STOP READING NOW. Seriously, SPOILER ALERT!!!

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A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin

Wow…just, wow. This book was incredible and so many things happened that I can’t even believe. I absolutely loved it and once again GRRM makes me feel like he’s some sort of crazy, evil, creative genius. As someone who loves writing and hopes to be a writer, he just blows my mind. Seriously, how can someone come up with this many plot lines? And they all are completely necessary and essential to wherever this story is going to end.

SERIOUSLY, I’ve never read a chapter from any of the books in the ASOIAF series and thought “GRRM could have done without this, it was a pretty pointless chapter.” These books are so detailed and all of the story lines are so well thought out, that even though I think I know where things are going, I’m shocked and I’m not mad about any of it.

Something that really made me think about all of this was when *SPOILER* Jon was stabbed after announcing to the brothers that he was going to return to Winterfell. After I got over my initial shock (Jon got stabbed! Is he dead?! This can’t happen!), I went online to see how others had reacted. I stumbled upon a site with the theory that Jon is Azor Ahai reborn (salty tears and smoking wounds, plus Melisandre’s visions). I had never even thought about that, but that wasn’t even the craziest thing about it. The site listed all of the theories surrounding Azor Ahai, and I had only thought there were two of them (Stannis and Daenerys). To have so many characters listed under the theories, there had to be some serious planning on GRRM’s part.

Everything has been planned out with so much detail, it’s no wonder it takes him so long to write these books. Reading the ASOIAF series and seeing the theories have made me fall in love with reading and writing again. I can’t wait for The Winds of Winter, and I look forward to seeing what GRRM does with the crazy world he created.