Music: More Songs!

Hello there!

Sorry for the long time since I last posted; I have just started school again, and it's been a hectic two weeks of working, studying for quizzes (already, sigh), etc.

So I have time for a quick post today, and this time it's a new list of songs I currently listen to on repeat!

Plastic Jungle - Miike Snow

Sail - AWOLNATION

New Low - Middle Class Rut

Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons

Stripped - Shiny Toy Guns

What the Water Gave Me - Florence + the Machine

That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now, but it should last for a little while. I'm going to try to get back into posting at least once a week, if not more!

(I also have a facebook page now, so you can like me there if you want.)

xx Emma

Divergent

Review Time!

This time, it's Veronica Roth's Divergent - a thrilling dystopian novel in which sixteen year old Tris must make decisions that will change her life for ever.

There have been a lot of dystopian type novels lately, and although I read some, I don't read too many of them. But that's probably just because my library doesn't have too many of them, and I don't buy too many books, if only because they're so expensive here.

Anyways, whilst I was in London, I did, as mentioned earlier, some serious book shopping.

One of the books I bought was as you've probably figured, Divergent.

I wasn't entirely convinced if I would like it or not when I bought it, but it seemed interesting so I chose it. I started reading it once I got back home, and finished it in under a day.

For me, it's a good book if I can get into it enough to read it all in one go without feeling the need to stop reading and taking a break.

Divergent was well written, and I really did enjoy reading it, but I had a few issues with it; the main one being that several loose ends were not tied up, or even given any thought. The book was really mostly about Tris' new life with the Dauntless faction (having left her old faction, Abnegation, behind). And whilst that was all well and good for me, the author kept raising questions that made me want answers to them - answers that were never given.

One example of a question like that was "Why are they closing the gates from the outside?" Was it to protect the city from unknown dangers (and what would those dangers be?), or was it to keep everyone inside? None of these questions were actually answered, or even adressed more than just to be asked, and that was quite disappointing.

It detracted a lot from the rest of the book, in my opionion, because I kept on waiting for at least one of them to be answered and explained.

But other than the loose ends, the book was good, exciting, fastpaced and original. I loved the idea of different factions, and then having to choose, because the idea is something I haven't really seen much of before. I've read something along the same lines once, but I cannot for the life of me remember what book it was.

Anyways, I definitely recommend the book, because it's a great read!

xx Emma

Listening to: Rox in the Box - The Decemberists

Movie Monday: Sweeney Todd!

Let me begin with this: I am a total Johnny Depp fan. It's pretty bad, really, but I can't help it. He's very good-looking considering he's over forty years old. *swoons*

And I love Harry Potter to the moon and back - both the books and movies.

So imagine my joy when my friend told me about the movie Sweeney Todd - how had I not known about this earlier? - I knew I had to see it. And then, not so long ago, another friend was sleeping over at my house so we went to rent a movie. And to my utter amazement and joy, I saw that they were selling Sweeney Todd for five dollars! So I bought it. And I have not regretted it since.

By the time we had watched no more than ten minutes of the movie, we were both breathless and squealing. Because yes, my friend and I are both total dorks. I mean, Johnny Depp alone is awesome enough, but then he's joined by first Helena Bonham Carter, then Alan Rickman, and then Timothy Spall! But it doesn't stop there! Because not much later than that, Sacha Baron Cohen is singing opera and shaving a man at the same time. Again, swoon.

At one point, my dad came into the room just to ask if everything was okay - apparently he had heard us screaming. Oops.

So here's what I'm trying to say: if you haven't watched Sweeney Todd: the demon barber of Fleet Street, DO IT. And do it now. Because it's awesome. And amazing, and every other positive adjective that applies to the situation. Because movies don't get better than this. Not to mention that it's a musical, so wait, actually, it does get better.

And that concludes Movie Monday - come back in a week to hear me geek out about another movie of whatever kind!

xx Emma

Listening to: Climbing Up the Walls - Radiohead

Gone

Gone is the first book in a series of four by Michael Grant.

I initially chose the book because they had a three for two deal at a bookstore I went to in London, so I needed another book to read. What had caught my attention was the highlighter yellow sides of the book (I'm a sucker for those kinds of books - whoever said not to judge a book by it's cover didn't know what they were talking about), and so I picked it up, read the back, and bought it.

Gone is a revisit to a Lord of the Flies style plot, although modernized to fit the world of today. All of a sudden, everyone over the age of fifteen disappears, leaving the FAYZ, or Fallout Alley Youth Zone in chaos. It's an interesting twist on the classic novel, and certainly exciting and intense.

At the same time, it is clear that the book is meant for slightly younger ages. It's definitely not a young adult novel, and is consequently not written as such, but for a light, fast read, the book is great.

Personally, it didn't make enough of an impression for me to want to buy the rest of the series, but I would for sure borrow the books if my library had them. Grant approached the Lord of the Flies theme from a new angle, and added his own touches - the science-fiction elements, for example. Some of the teens began to develop powers of different types, and there were several more teenagers who didn't turn savage and try to kill the ones who disagreed. However, the leader of the 'evil' teenagers is indeed power hungry, and consequently traps the hands of all of the teens with powers in blocks of concrete.

The book was a fast read, which was nice, but was still challenging enough to read that I didn't get bored by it.

For younger readers, this book is great - for older ones, not as much. Like I said, it was written from seventh grade and up, so the vocabulary wasn't too complicated. If anyone has read the sequels to Gone, leave a comment and tell me what you thought of it!

xx Emma

Listening to: Jocasta - Noah and the Whale

I Am Number Four

Another book I read this summer was I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore.

I thought that whilst it was a relatively easy read, it was also a very exciting one, and I finished the book the same day I bought it. The book was well written, and with a creative and original plot-line that didn't remind me of any other books - something which is somewhat difficult to avoid nowadays.

I enjoyed the quick pacing of the book, and the little plot twists that keeps the reader on the edge of his seat the entire time. Like the dog, Bernie Kosar: until the end, I kept thinking that he was a Mogadorian spy dog of some sort. Little did I know that he wasn't evil after all. Which was a nice surprise for me.

My two biggest issues with the book were one, the big size of the text and two, the character Sarah. Firstly, I don't like reading books with really big text sizes; although this is only a personal thing - I just don't like it because it makes the book seem like its audience is for smaller children, instead of young adults/teenagers. But that's a matter of opinion, and really doesn't have much to do with with the book itself.

Secondly, the thing that I didn't like about I Am Number Four was the 'gorgeous' Sarah. Her character was very one dimensional - except for a paragraph describing her when they first met, there wasn't much description except for labeling her as gorgeous. It made her seem like a very flat, stereotypical popular blonde girl, except for that this one started taking pictures.

That's what I really liked about the movie adaptation, which I watched not very long ago: it fleshed out Sarah's and Mark's backstory slightly more, and more believably, than was done in the book. My main problem with the movie was that none of the details about Lorien, and what happened to it, were really explained, so the nine Children of the Garde may as well have been gifted humans, instead of aliens.

Either way, both the book and the movie were excellent. Exciting and tense, I Am Number Four was a fast paced, interesting and captivating book, and I recommend it to anyone who likes any sort of action and science fiction book!

xx Emma

Listening to: Satellite - The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

Welcome!

Hello everyone!

I'm Emma - 16 years old, an avid reader and, when the time permits, a writer.

I adore music, fashion and shoes.

On here I will be (as often as I have the time to do so) reviewing books, and occasionally movies, too!

Hope that you all enjoy.

xx Emma

Listening to: Two-Headed Boy, by Neutral Milk Hotel