Yesterday I was able to go to an Advance Fan Screening of The Fault in Our Stars Movie with my sister. Afterwards I sat down and took time for me to put together what I really thought about the movie.
First off, the movie was incredible, Shailene Woodley is so talented and so truthful, I had no qualms about her as Hazel, I really cannot fault her at all. The reviewers are right when they say this adaptation is authentic and respectful to the book. That doesn't mean it is exactly the same it matched up to everythig perfectly in my head. But it felt the same. It felt like how I felt when I read the book. The biggest difference I would say, was Augustus...

Ansel Elgort did not play Book Augustus. I don't care how controversial that is because the girls in my cinema were getting very worked up. Gus in TFIOS is sexy and smouldering and mysterious and very out together. He hides his goofiness even though that's the part Hazel loves most about him. Ansel was all goof, but it worked. I think we can all agree Gus is pretentious, but when a serious, good looking boy s pretentious he can come across as a douchebag. But with Gus being kind of goofy, it allowed us to still like him in a visual medium. We know in the book he's awesome because it's written down, but the direction can't just put some writing at the beginning going

That's not how films work, as you may have noticed. But the film was faithful and there were these incredible and beautiful sequences. The journey up the Anne Frank House was lovely and with the voice over you can see the moment Hazel isn't scared anymore. And the moment Gus tells her he's sick and the moment he's dying and the pre-funeral and egging the car. All the bits I wanted were there, all the quotes I'd spent so long wrapping myself in for comfort were there. This is not a movie for Hollywood, this is a movie for readers.

This then got me thinking about how TFIOS is currently the number 1 movie in America, and how for my 18th Birthday, I asked my Grandma to take me to New York so I could buy a Signed, American, First Edition of the book. I didn't know then, that this would turn out to be my favourite book. I didn't know that for the year I begged everyone I knew to read it that within a year after that I would be in a cinema surrounded by crowds of people who loved the story just as much as I did. I didn't realise that loving a book, a solitary act could expand and become something social and wider, something that brings people together not sets them apart. Nobody ever reads the same book, you take something different away with each individual and yet we were all there, together, celebrating what we all took from it.

When we all stood and clapped at the end. I started thinking about Norway. Don't worry this is relevant. Norway translated the poetic, Shakespeare reference title to literally "FUCK FATE". And as I stood in a place with so many people, shouting and whooping at a film I thought about how no one could see this coming. Who could have predicted this? Hollywood doesn't make films about sick people and let that not be the defining aspect of their characters, things like this don't happen. But TFIOS gives a great big, middle finger to fate and demands it will do what it wants.

They say that all films are destined to let the book down, but FUCK FATE! The book is still better, but I have not seen a more faithful and touching adaption than I did yesterday.





Seriously, go see the movie. It is so good.

#feelitfirst

Warning: Spoilers (duh)

 We are the Liars.

We are beautiful, privileged and live a life of carefree luxury.

We are cracked and broken.

A story of love and romance.

A tale of tragedy.

Which are lies?

Which is truth?

 I literally just finished this book and was going to do this review tomorrow but my oh my, I could not wait.  I cannot express the need for you to know nothing about this book. If you haven't read it, go away, read it and come back and we can talk about it. If you spoil the ending for yourself it will not be the same.

THERE ARE SPOILERS! DON'T RUIN IT FOR YOURSELF!

Okay now we have that out of the way. OH MY GOD! That ending right. I got a feeling a few chapters before because it was getting pretty morbid and I just got that feeling I tend to get before people die in books.

Quick review: after TFIOS this may be my favourite book ever. I devoured it. I just couldn't put it down. I even met one of my best friends new boyfriend and had the book under my nose. I was just carrying it around for 2 days in case I got a chance to read it. As you can tell, I am pretty character based when I read a book. I like narrative and style but generally I am characters driven. That's what pushes a book over the top from good to great for me. And my god was this book great.

Cady is delightful. She is so real and flawed and I am just pulled into her voice. She's privileged and quite frank a little selfish. The journey of the novel is basically based around an accident she had 2 years prior. She remembers nothing from that summer 'Summer Fifteen' and has suffered from terrible migraines and pain ever since. Her journey to discover what happened and why her friends 'The Liars' ignored her ever since is tragic and beautiful. Gat and Cady have a very complex and not remotely typical love story going on. Each member of The Liars was enchanting and heart-wrenching. They were all so funny and bounced so well off each other. And they felt real. Like I could bump into them in the street. Much like Cady I was dying to know the truth and my mind was buzzing with theories relating to Gat's girlfriend and drowning. But I never truly saw the twist end coming. Yet it made so much sense.



My favourite part of the book by far was after she remembered. The guilt and the way she told the story of the left behind princesses was a thing of beauty. Lockhart uses  these fairytale-esque retelling throughout and they escalate and escalate until that final one. In the end I loved 'The Liars' as much as Cady did. I felt her pain, the family politics, the confusion and angst. I felt it all.

Lockhart also has this incredible way with words. She could utter beautiful paragraphs and phrases, tragically lovely metaphors that just swept me up and make me want to turn my body into a book so I can wear the words upon my skin. I cannot recommend this book more.