Fast Book Reviews: Divergent

Welcome people, I'm here with another fast book review for you, Christmas edition! Well not really, but it is a book I read on Christmas day so it counts haha! This time I'll be reviewing Divergent by Veronica Roth. I've had this book on my shelf for quite some time, but I had to study so I couldn't read it, but now I'm free for the holidays and I'm all back on it. Thanks for reading!

In Divergent we are presented with a post-apocalyptic world that has been splitted into 5 factions that represents different core values. Those that believed the world failed because of selfishness formed Abnegation. Those that believed it was due to ignorance formed Erudite, always seeking for knowledge. Those who felt that lies were the cause of the problems formed Candor, pledging to always speak the truth. Those who felt aggression and power-hunger were the cause became Amity. And finally, those who felt that cowardice was the root of the problems formed Dauntless, the faction of the courageous and strong.

Every year, every 16-year-old has to choose to what faction they're gonna belong for the rest of their lives, and this could mean having to leave your family behind. So we meet Beatrice, a girl from Abnegation and learn a little bit about how life in her faction goes by. But during her preliminary test to see what faction is recommended to her, something goes wrong.

We are then taken into her journey through the initiation process in one of the factions and met Four, a handsome, really mean and a bit scary instructor. But nothing is what it seems and the book is full of twist and turns, it doesn't have a dull moment. Some of the "plot twists" are a bit obvious and that is one of the things I have to criticize, but it's one of the few.

The book is really fast paced, you can't put it down, and you never get bored of a chapter or a situation and that is an extremely good thing. The characters are really well developed, specially the main ones, and most of them have surprises that you found out as the book progresses.

Beatrice "Tris", the protagonist, is amazing. I really like her independence, her will to do whatever she needs to do, and that she accepts the reality that is thrown upon her and acts according to it, she doesn't even think about giving up, it's not an option. She represents the values that the faction where she was born inculcated in her, but she adapts to new rules or at least try.

The love story in this book is amazing. Is not that kind of sickish love that makes you want to throw up. It's cute, and funny, and extremely hot. Let me just say, Tris is a lucky girl ;) IT makes you want more, NEED MORE, and ugh OTP right here.

The last thing I wanna say, and it's something that made me really love this book, is one of the differences between it and a lot of other dystopian novels. It has to do with the fact that the government doesn't force the citizens to do something, the can choose by themselves what they want to live by, they chose to live like this, and this makes you realize that there isn't a need for a dictatorship government for problems to arise. And the fact that I believe all of this problems didn’t' came after a war necessarily, they came to be after the constant seek for peace, I believe they got too carried away looking for ways to make peace that they cross a line and  then it was impossible for them to return.

Overall it's a really well paced and written book, that I would recommend to everyone who likes dystopian themed novels and action books with a bit of love. Oh and YAY for the female heroin!

Favorite book quote: “We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.” ― Veronica Roth, Divergent

Bits of inspiration

Do you know that feeling when you find a song that you totally relate to and makes you feel all warm inside? That song that it's like listening to your strugles, your story? That song that teaches you something, that makes you realize what path you should follow? That feeling is one of the best feelings ever!

It happened to me recently. It doesn't matter what type of music you are into, the lyrics are what matter, and the way you relate to them. So today I just wanted to share with you the last song that made me feel like that. 

I don't know if everyone is familiar with The X Factor, and the artists that come out of it. I know the whole prejudice that people have with them, and a lot of opinions against but I want all of you that are reading this to take a minute and listen to this song, and read the lyrics because I can understand if you don't like the sound or the type of music, but the lyrics and their voices are freaking amazing, so yeah... 

I'm talking about the winners of the 2011 UK X Factor, Little Mix. Their second album came out last month in the UK and on youtube (?) and their sound is much more mature and fresh and their harmonies and the fact that they write their own songs is admirable. But I want to focus on one of the songs, which is actually their second single, called Little Me.



I'm just asking for 5 minutes of your time to watch the video, and listen to the lyrics. This song has so much meaning to me, and as the girls said themselves, it's about what you would want to tell your younger self about how to face the world, and the problems we all encounter. I hope you feel as touched as I felt because it's an incredible feeling :) 

"I’d tell her to speak up, tell her to shout out, talk a bit louder, be a bit prouder. Tell her she’s beautiful, wonderful, everything she doesn’t see"

Age crisis - Part 2.

So in case you were wondering I'm having another age crisis. Or the same age crisis. At this point I don't even know.

I started working at a bank, the most important in my country, and everyone tells you that it's a job for life, that I'm going to be really happy there and my life would basically consist of it BUT I'm not sure I want that. Sure I was the one that applied for the job, and it's an amazing job, don't get me wrong. Everyone is so nice and I'm learning a lot, and saving money for the trips I wanna make, but I know for a fact I'm not made for it.

I want to be an actress ok? It's so hard to say it. I don't know if it's because of the way people look at you when you tell them, or because I know it's most likely not going to happen. Ever. But I can't help to dream about it, and it's killing me. In my country you can't live only working as an actor, because the market is not big enough and it's really difficult to be taken seriously. So basically my dream consist on going to the States or London and study acting, but for that I need a support, a job, a career and I'm not sure about any of that.

What I don't want is to wake up one day and realise I'm 40 and I'm still in my country, still working at the bank, and really unhappy. I know, I'm only 20, but this is the age to give acting a go, not 30, not 40. 20's are the best age for that and there is where the key of my crisis is, the feeling that I'm never going to be able to accomplish my dreams. I don't believe in giving up, but sometimes it's so difficult...

GOD I HATE BEING AN ADULT.

Age crisis, life decisions and Jonas Brothers

This is going to be a rant full of crying and feelings because I'm emotionally unstable right now. 

So I'm a huge Jonas fan. I've been there since 2007, support them through everything, fighting for them to come to my country, being in the management of the fans club, etc, etc. I literary grew up with them, and I'm going to be forever grateful for everything they help me through, even though they probably don't have idea. They came to my country this year, 2013, the same year in which they announced their break up. I'm not going to say I was surprised because I could kinda feel we were going there, but I expected it to be after the new CD, the one that fans have been waiting for freaking 4 years.

Don't get me wrong, I love them, I always will, but I don't agree with the way they managed things. What I mean is that the least they could do was releasing the album, at least on iTunes, so the fans could buy it and appreciate it. Maybe do a goodbye concert somewhere meaningful, I don't know, all I know is that this wasn't the correct way.

Why am I writing this now? Well today they released the album called LiVe for the Team Jonas members, which I am, and I downloaded it. It includes 10 live songs, and 5 studio version of new songs that would have been on their V album, and you know what? THE SONGS ARE FUCKING AMAZING. I swear I can't believe they didn't promote this, GOD it's so freaking good, I want to punch them right in the face and make them release the whole album. I don't understand, I guess it was timing, but I can't believe they did this, at this particular time. There is no need to say that I was like really upset about the whole break up and it made me think about a lot of things and ask myself a lot of questions about my life.

For example I realize I am 20 years old. I don't know where my teen years went, they passed by so quickly and I am now trying to act like this adult but on the inside I still think and feel like a 16-year-old and I'm trapped there, between I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-to-do-with-my-life and I-only-want-to-be-on-the-internet-all-day-long and now I've got this new job, a very important one may I add, and I'm freaking scared, UGH AND I'M THINKING ALL OF THIS BECAUSE THE JONAS BROTHERS FUCKING BROKE UP.

Anyway, in case you didn't notice, I'm in like this age crisis, and yeah. Hope I'm not the only one, and if you are going through the same, talk to me pleaseeeeeeee, I need someone who understand me

Movie review: Catching Fire

OH MY GOD. I guess those are the words that sum up the movie for me.

I've been meaning to type this review for a couple of days now but it took me seeing the movie twice and thinking about it for two more days to finally get to it. I still can't put my thoughts in order so the review is probably gonna be all over the place, sorry about that.

I should probably tell you first that I have read all three Hunger Games books a couple of years ago and of course I love them (how could you not?) so my expectations for this movie were pretty high and I'm pleased to say that it is totally better than I expected. Oh and there’s going to be a picture at the end of the review from a scene in the movie. If you haven’t watched the movie yet and don’t want spoilers don’t scroll pass the SPOILER ALERT message.

As a fan of books, I'm not so critical when it comes to movie adaptations because I understand that it is not easy to create something that pleases if not every, the majority of the book fans, simply because directors and screenwriters are not in our heads. I also believe that a big part of the adaptation has to do with how much of the world was described on the actual book and how much was open to imagination. But this movie OH MY GOD.

I have to start with Jennifer Lawrence's performance because it was just pure gold. She's an amazing actress and anyone that tells me that she's overrated I don't know what the heck you are watching. She's sincere, fresh, she is Katniss. I just can't imagine anyone else playing Katniss the way she does. She made me cry and laugh and her expressions made the whole movie x100 times better. And the last 10 seconds of the movie, watching her face go from pain and desperation to the I'm-going-to-fucking-kill-everyone face deserves a freaking Oscar I swear. The other performances were amazing too, everyone was really believable and on point with their characters. The stand outs in my opinion, besides Jennifer, are Elizabeth Banks and Jenna Malone. Jenna is an AMAZING Johanna, I was happily surprised by her.

The movie as such is awesome. The scenarios, Hawaii, the arena was just like I've pictured it in my mind, the way it tells the story of the rebellion, the districts, the capitol, the woods, every single thing. The message of the book, something that could have easily been lost in the movie, shines throughout it and watching that was awesome. 

I love how they fixed a lot of the things people did wrong in the first movie. For example, as a result of not having Madge (in my opinion the biggest fault of the first movie) Katniss had to see the streaming of the rebellion in the districts somewhere, and they came up with the train idea which I think was really clever. The only thing that I really missed in the movie was Haymitch’s story because it is, after all, what gives Katniss the idea of how to end with the arena but I guess they couldn't put everything there. 

The quotes from the book, OMG so many. I love them, I love when that happens. And all the little things, the pearl, the 'favorite color' conversation,  so similar to the book. A real gift for the book fans.

Oh I almost forgot, Liam, Josh and Sam are freaking hot!

I really don't know what else to say besides how grateful I am to Francis Lawrence and the people who wrote the script, to the actors and to Suzanne Collins. Also thank you to Lionsgate for giving the movie more budget so it could be THIS cool.

I would recommend this movie to everyone, I think that the message behind it is so important and the fact that a heroine like Katniss is a role model for young girls shows you that not everything is lost. I really think you should watch this movie if you haven't yet, like really. 

Best scene: Hands down the elevator scene. Jennifer’s face is just priceless.

SPOILER ALERT: 

God I love her!

Fast Book Reviews: Billy and Me

Hello world! Second fast review of the blog and I'm really excited about this one! First of all sorry about my lack of updates, I've been studying a lot for university (I'm studying translation) and I've also been reading quite a lot. I first heard about this book in one of Carrie Fletcher's videos on YouTube but when it appeared on my GoodReads recommendation list I knew I had to read it. I started it the day after finishing a trilogy and the least thing I wanted to do was read about other characters BUT it caught me immediately. So without further ado here is my fast book review for Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher:

At the beginning of the book we met Sophie and the first thing I noticed about her is that she's so easy to like that it's impossible to not feel for her. As she tells her story in a very endearing way, the feelings only grow fonder and although there are some times you want to scream at her, mostly you agree with her.

Giovanna Fletcher presented us with a really cute easy-to-read story about every girl's dream basically. A girl who, without knowing, falls in love with a movie star who's filming a book adaptation in her small town. What makes this book so much better, and set it apart from the other current romantic novels is the darkness that it has. Sophie has a secret, something that affected her life so much that shaped her into who she is. I felt really connected with Sophie, and I don't know if it was because I have a similar life story (not the part about the handsome boyfriend anyway) or because of the way Giovanna wrote her, either way it was just really sentimental to read. 

It has so much character development that it's insane, but in a really good way. The relationships between the characters change by the minute, they grow or deteriorate, but the change is there. It's not a plain story, it's really full of twists and turns that you don't expect.

Finally, another thing that I really enjoyed was the truth on everything. How people behave around her when she became the movie star's girlfriend, and how that behavior changed from when she was just Sophie, although she never really changed, not in that way at least. How there are mean people, and maybe people around them don't realize they are mean or don't want to see it. How someone deals with different life changing situations, a lot of them, in a really short period of time. It was all really well described and the message powerfully transmitted.

So, I would recommend this book to anyone who fancy a good love story, or just like to read about people and relationships and about a girl's life being turned upside down in one single action. This book is beautiful and deserves all the support in the world.

Favorite book quote: “Love makes life worth living, not money” ― Giovanna Fletcher, Billy and Me

Fast Book Reviews: Delirium

So this is a new section called Fast Book Reviews, where I'm going to write really small reviews for some of the books I read and if you like we can discuss some things about them. So yeah, here is my reaview for Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I've just finished Pandemonium (the second book of the trilogy) yesterday but I want to start with Delirium, so without further ado, here is my small review for Delirium:

In Delirium, Lauren Oliver introduce us to this world in where love is a disease and every bit of humans lives is controlled by the government and it just feels so real that it scares you.

The writing style is really good and easy to follow, though I have to say that the book is a bit heavy towards the middle, it pick up a lot in the last 80-100 pages and it just blows your mind.

What I like the most about it is that it leaves you thinking. Thinking about love, and about how it affects everything in the world, human relationships, books, movies, the nature, everything. Thinking about how governments could be in the future, and a little bit about how they are now, because the lies, hiding the reality and the loss of freedom is something that's happening in our world, today.

I really like the characters in general. I had some problems with some of them at the beginning but as the story goes on you start appreciating them (don't wanna say "love", they'll think I'm infected).

The ending is something else. All I'm going to say is, feel happy that you are going to read this book when the next book in the trilogy is already out, because having to wait for the second one, must have been insane. 

Overall Delirium is a really good book, it leaves you think about all the messages that it has and wanting for more, and it only can get better on the next one... 

Favorite book quote: “Love: a single word, a wispy thing, a word no bigger or longer than an edge. That's what it is: an edge; a razor. It draws up through the center of your life, cutting everything in two. Before and after. The rest of the world falls away on either side.” ― Lauren Oliver, Delirium