The Pure way to addiction

The Pure way to addiction

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Julianna Bagott got it right

Pure is a story that is dirty and covered in a post-apocalyptic dust. The world is gloomy, ugly and dangerous. At least the part that Pressia happened to live in, together with the majority of the apocalypse survivals. She is only 16 but she has to fight for her right to live. Even if the life is worse than the worst nightmare. As rightfully stated on self.com,“Pure makes The Hunger Games look like a garden party. ”

It is a great book. The first part of the trilogy written by Julianna Bagott is a masterpiece. It is a great representation of the futuristic young adult novel – the new trend that took over the magic and witches.

The book should not be read by the very young ones. The images of deformed people and the horrible reality that the characters live in might be too much to handle by a sensitive 10-year old. The ugliness of the world of the future makes you feel uncomfortably terrified. The author creates the world which, even though set in the future, is still strongly connected to the world we live in. The people who survived the apocalypse might have changed in their physical appearances, but they are still driven by human emotions that are so close to ours. Julianna Bagott shows us how a person of today would feel when trapped in an irreversible and inevitable future of Pure. 

The characters are very real and not generic at all. They have both the bad and the good sight. There are only a few characters that could be easily classified as the villains.

I loved the book. I cannot wait for the next parts. I also like the series website . I am not sure about the trailer. I only saw it after reading the book and I think the visual impact is not strong enough, at least in the first part, where we meet the main character. Let’s hope that they will do a better job in the movie. The rights to the book have already been bought. It will be produced by the same person as the Twilight movies. I hate the Twilight saga. The producer will have a chance to redeem herself.

The Casual Vacancy in North West

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Kids will hate me but I can't wait for the end of Summer

The Book Page published the list of 15 most awaited publications of next fall. I cannot wait to get a hold of two of them. Which ones?

1/ J.K. Rowling The  Casual Vacancy.

For all of you who have been too busy living their own lives and missed a major change in Joanne’s life – the famous “Harry Potter” author, the first writer to earn over a million pounds on books, decided to change the genre. Yes, there is an adult novel coming! I cannot wait to see what she’s going to come up with this time. But I am definitely not the only one. The novel has already been a cause of a widely discussed controversy. Non-English publishing houses will not be allowed to see the book before its world premiere (27^th of September). Due to a very high risk of piracy (really, the whole world wants to see it!) the foreign publishing houses will only be able to start translating the novel after it’s available on the bookshelves. They will have to hurry like crazy to make if for Christmas. Let’s hope it is not going to influence the translations.

But where is J.K. Rowling taking us this time? Well, we will travel to a small, English town, where a sudden death of Barry Fairbrother shakes everything up. What are the hidden secrets? Why do they hate and love each other? What is the conflict between rich and poor, young and old?

It seem like a very ordinary idea, but so did the story of a boy who becomes a wizard when you first heard of it. I believe that Joanne is not going to disappoint us. Can’t wait!!!

2/ Zadie Smith, NW

Zadie has been quiet for so long. Doing many things, mostly teaching, she has not published more than a story for six years now. But she is back. Her new novel tells a story of four friends who grew up in Northwest London, where all houses are the same and where all young people dream about escaping ,night after night. All the character we start our journey with have managed to move, but it does not mean that their lives are now perfect. Especially when a stranger knocks at the door of one of the friends. What does he want? Why is he there? We will have to wait until the 4^th of September to find out.

The reason why I really cannot wait to read it is easy: I loved her first and third novel (White Teeth and On Beaut), but I was not a fan of the second one, The Autograph Man. So will it turn into a pattern and will the forth one disappoint me or will Zadie seal the deal and turn me into her faithful fan? Let’s see!

And how about you? Are you also waiting impatiently for these titles to show up on your shelves? 

The Hunger Games by Suzzanne Collins 

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The  Parks and Recreation guy wasn't right.

I finished the first part of the Hunger Games trilogy. I usually start with the book and end with the movie, just like the Park Ranger from Parks and Recreation:

But in case of The Hunger Games I broke the rule and went to the cinema first. I knew about The Hunger Games trilogy earlier, but I am not a fun of post-apocalyptic stories with guns and air thickened with death. But I got dragged to the movies (“two tickets for one” deal on Thursdays did it) and enjoyed it truly. Seeing all those kids running around and killing each other against their own will was like looking at a car crash. You want to turn your head away, you want to pretend it’s not there and stop looking, but you can’t. Just like the main character’s friend ,Gale, who wanted to boycott The Hunger Games, but couldn’t. Just like a boxer's wife, he needed to look at the boxing ring.

There was one thing that the movie left me short of – I didn’t get a full grasp of the love story. Was the main character, Katniss, honest with another competitor, Peeta, or was she just playing games? If she’s into Gale, then what she did was just cheating. On a post-apocalyptic TV! Almost like Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, just a bit more classy. But I guessed Katniss should be forgiven. But will she be? It was all too unclear to me. Many might think that when there’s guns and arrows flying across the screen every 5 minutes there's no need for a deep and profound explanation of the characters’ love lives. Many, but not me.

Leaving the cinema I thought that the best way to find the answers to all this, let’s face it, quite irrelevant yet so annoyingly unanswered questions, is to check the source itself. And it worked.  I’m not going to say everything here, because I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but right at the beginning we find out that Gale and Katniss have never defined themselves as an item. Oh no! They are just friends. Now, did it change anything for you? For me it did!

I also found out so much more about the whole “bread in the mud” story as well as the cave days of Katniss and Peeta (yes, there were days…).

Nevertheless, all this shortcomings of the movie made me happy. I could go through The Hunger Games adventure twice. Even though I saw the movie and knew the end, I found reading the book truly exciting. So much was missed in the movie that it just lost the ability to spoil the book.

I decided, however silly it might sound, that I will wait with the other books until I see the next movies. I am sure that if I read the books now it will kill the movies for me. And after seeing the first part on screen I know that it will not work the other way around. This is how I’m going to double the fun. And once again the theory that books are always better then movies had been proved right.

And, dear writers, may the odds be ever in your favor!

The Hunger Games by Suzzanne Collins

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13  3/4 by Sue Townsend 

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I can't believe I didn't know you before.

I just finished reading the first part of the Adrian Mole’s diaries. I know, where was I for the past 20 years, right? I guess I was hidden in the land of compulsory school readings and academic papers, which I both love, don’t get me wrong.  I still read all Harry Potters books throughout my high school and college years. I also read many classics and overhyped new novels. Loved them, like every decent person would, but I missed on Adrian Mole, which is surprising, but – on the other hand- very lucky of me.

So many books deal with deep, meaningful topics. Topics that change your overall view on the world, that show you the other sides of our boring, day to day existence. And that’s good. Books are supposed to teach us and bring us to places and times that we could not have reached if it wasn’t for them (often simply because those places do not exist our dimension). Yet, sometimes I do wander if it’s not just an easier way out. However strongly you might disagree, I believe that it is easier to create a whole imaginary world and imaginary characters than to describe an average, boring Joe who needs to face the problems that we all do in a way that makes it impossible to put the book down.

Adrian Mole, the main character of a series of books written by Sue Townsend, the rest of them is already packed in a box with my address on it, waiting to be brought to my house by a mailman. They all tell the life story of Adrian Mole, a young, English boy, whose life is full of smaller and bigger annoyances, most of them caused by his “funky” family and the fact that he is a (self-described) intelligent. Adrian, amazing Adrian, writes about his life in his journal that we are allowed to look into. He has a dog, he has a girl he fancies and he has a life that makes us feel so much better  with the fact that our boss forgot our name again.

“The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” is a book that made me look silly in bus nr 111. Nobody likes a freak who giggles on her way to work. But the book is funnier than all the good TV shows that are on. Seriously, I stopped watching all the shows I love just so that I can finish the book. You start – you can’t stop. I recommend, strongly.  And can’t wait to read all the other ones. I’m sure his life went great from now on…

The time before the mailman comes is filled with “The Hunger games”. Yes, I’m behind again.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend