made into movie

The Mortal Instruments

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

The Mortal Instruments series is very addicting, it’s almost like crack. Well, not really, or maybe, I don’t know, since I have no idea what crack is like!

I hadn’t really heard of the series or been interested until I saw a trailer for the movie. To be honest, even then I wasn’t that interested. It wasn’t until I did some research and read the descriptions of the books that I was intrigued.

At first, I was planning on reading only City of Bones so I could watch the movie. And that’s where my addiction started. I think I stayed up past 3am reading one night, even though I had to be up early (7:30am) for a conference call in the morning.

After the first book, I decided that I should take a break and space out the remaining books over a few months. However, after about 10 days, I caved and read City of Ashes, the second in the series. City of Ashes, City of Glass, and City of Fallen Angels, collectively lasted 5 days. I held out for another 5 days before reading City of Lost Souls, and I seriously frightened my husband (and my dogs) when I shrieked in horror when I discovered that City of Heavenly Fire (the sixth and final book) isn’t published yet and won’t be published until MAY of 2014. These are not the best books. They are not super thought-provoking or enlightening. What they are is easy to read, fun, and just all around entertaining. If you like paranormal, young adult, teenage romance, angels and demons, vampires and werewolves, faeries, any or all, you will probably like these. I haven’t read the Twilight books (and I currently don’t have any intention of doing so), but I imagine those are similar.Clary, our protagonist, is a soon to be 16-year-old girl. While out with her best bud Simon one night, Clary witnesses a murder. Or at least, what she thinks is a murder. But the body vanishes into thin air and how exactly can you explain THAT to the cops?

Soon Clary discovers that the “murdered” boy wasn’t human, but a demon, and the murders were Shadowhunters, super-humans with super human powers bestowed upon them by the angels in order to protect humankind and rid the earth of demons and evil forces. Along with Shadowhunters, Clary learns that “all the stories are true”, meaning that all legends, myths, etc. are actually the truth. Werewolves, vampires, faeries, warlocks, all true. Angels and demons, all true. Other dimensions, also true. Home to the demons. There are some people who believe it would have been best if the series had ended with book three. And it seems like it was originally written as a trilogy, and expanded to six books after the success of the first few. I’m not sure if I agree, but I did enjoy the first three the most.  I rated City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass as 4-star books and City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls as 3-star books.

It seems that Clary gets dumber and dumber as the series progresses. There’s a saying that love blinds, but this takes that to the extremes. As she goes through her own training to become a Shadowhunter, I was really hoping she would grow and become even stronger and independent. Instead, the opposite happens. She starts doing the stupidest “why on earth is that girl doing THAT” things. I suppose, that because, in the end, it all works out, it’s ok?? On the plus side, the other characters do develop a lot more as the series goes on. In between reading City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls, I rented the movie, which covers only the first book, City of Bones. I have to say this is one of the worst movie adaptations that I have seen in a long time. I think if I had seen the movie first, I would not have had any desire to read the novels. The characters are very one-dimensional in the movie. Now, they are not the most well developed fictional characters ever, even in the novel, but the movie just does a terrible job with the character development. Basically, there is none. Then, significant plot elements are changed or skipped, or revealed at different times or by different characters. I think as someone who hadn’t read the novels, it might not have been that bad, but it was sort of confusing. My husband admitted that in places the plot didn’t make much sense or was hard to follow. It seems like the movie studio wanted more action, so there’s a great big battle scene at the end that was completely not in the book. The entire ending, actually, is different. That’s really annoying, and it makes me wonder how they will correct that to follow the plot for City of Ashes. The movie is filming in and should be released in 2014.


(for the books, the movie gets 1.5 star)

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 3 / 5

This is one of those books, that for whatever reason, is considered a classic. An American Classic. WHY?

Why do teenagers across the country suffer through reading this in high school? I had to read this in school, and to be honest, it was a lot like The Scarlet Letter. I just wasn’t old enough, or mature enough, and didn’t have enough life experience (Thank GOD!) to understand or appreciate the subject matter.

Now, roughly 20 years later, I actually understand this book. Back in high school, I would have summarized the novel as “some creepy guy who likes to throw parties and has a thing for the girl next door.” I guess that’s somewhat accurate, but really misses the point.

The Great Gatsby is actually about a guy who throws parties, but not because he likes parties. The purpose of the parties is to get a girl, Daisy, back in his life. Turns out, she’s his new neighbor’s cousin, and an introduction of sorts is in order.

To be honest, I can’t really say that I liked or enjoyed this novel any more now than I did 20 years ago. I just understand the themes and concepts. Back then, I don’t think I understood, really, the meaning of adultery, or how awful almost all the characters in this book turn out to be.

We went to see the movie, and the movie is entertaining, sort of. I really loved the special effects. The CGI of New York City circa 1920 was amazing. My husband liked the movie because he likes Carey Mulligan. I didn’t think she was particularly inspiring in this movie, nor was anyone else, except perhaps Leonardo.  He’s come along way since Growing Pains.

Anyway, after having read this twice AND seen the movie, I’ve had enough!

book review: Safe Haven

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Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

My rating:  4 / 5

I don’t read a lot of chick lit.  Well, less than 5 books per year?  And since I usually read 50-75 books per year, I’d say that’s not a lot, right?  And I’ve never read a Nicholas Sparks novel before.  After seeing The Last Song on a flight to Romania a few years ago, I started watching his movies.  I think mainly I’ve been watching on them on airplanes, and really, what else do I have to do for 12 hours on a plane?  For some reason, even though I don’t read a lot of chit lit novels, I LOVE chick flicks.  And so far, I have really enjoyed each of the Nicholas Sparks movies I have seen, with The Last Song being my favorite (c’mon, it’s got singing, so of course I love it!).  Based on how well I liked the movies, I thought I’d try out one of the books.

From what I’ve read, this book (and the recently released movie, which I have not seen yet) is not your typical Nicholas Sparks story.  There is an element of danger in this novel and it deals with somewhat deeper topics than I’d expect in your typical chick lit, and I think, overall, it was really well done.  As for the story, I don’t want to give anything away — so go read it!   🙂

book review: Les Miserables

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Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

My rating: 4 / 5

I really had a love/hate relationship with this book. I loved the idea of reading it, but hated actually really reading it. Mostly, I think this was because of the overall length of the novel. I kept thinking of how many other books I was missing out on reading during this time.

This novel is of epic proportions. Hugo left nothing out in this grand portrayal of nineteenth-century France. The story is part drama and part thriller added on top of a historical fiction.

The stories and the lives of the many characters are delicately woven into a historical recount of France in the early 1800s. Jean Valjean is the central character, a man who has suffered and paid for his sins many times over and just doesn’t seem to catch a break. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t say more on this.

The writing, the story, all fabulous. There are characters you will love and quite a few you will hate. Some moments will make you cheer and others will break your heart.

My one biggest disappointment is that Hugo spends so much time discussing the Battle at Waterloo, convents in France during this time period, and other things with little bearing or added value for the overall story. This, combined with an uncompelling story for Marius (who I believe the reader is supposed to love), was the only letdown for me.

I have never seen the musical, and I waited until I finished the book before seeing the movie, which is based on the musical. I will not review the movie here, but if you haven’t read the novel and have seen and loved the movie or the musical, I would highly recommend reading it!