Very Honest Girl Online Audible Review || Blogmas Day 18

 So probably the most controversial book out there at the moment/ever is Zoe Sugg's Girl Online. Firstly I'd like to set a disclaimer that I do really like Zoe as a person, I've watched her videos for years and years from when she only had about 500 subscribers and I really enjoy them. However, I was very dubious when I heard Zoe was writing a book because it all seemed to come from nowhere and happen very, very fast.

The big controversial thing that has come out is that Zoe had a ghost writer behind her book. Again, I have mixed feelings about this. I can understand that she would need help considering she is not an author but she does write a blog so I feel she would have been capable of writing a novel had she been given longer to do it in. Also I feel that the fact that she had a ghost writer should have been stated by her personally rather than having the awkwardness of the press spilling the beans before she did. However I'm not overly surprised because I did have suspicions that she would have had help considering it's something completely new to her.

I got a free book download with Audible so I thought why not download this one and see what it's all about and I really wanted it to surprise me because like I said previously I do really like Zoe. Firstly the book is narrated by Hannah Tointon and I feel it would have been so much better had it been narrated by Zoe herself. With her being such a big youtuber we're so used to hearing her voice so hearing someone else tell the story just didn't sit right with me but I know it's what most authors do but that being said Zoe isn't an author...

The storyline is about a girl called Penny who suffers from anxiety and cyber bullying so turns to an anonymous blog online where she can share all her thoughts and feelings. In the story Penny flies to New York to help her mum out with a wedding she's planning and she meets Noah who she falls in love with. This story had so much potential to turn out amazingly because it had different elements that I feel are important to be shared and normalised such as anxiety, cyber bullying and the turmoil of being a teenager. It even contained the well known issue of getting into a relationship and dealing with the jealousy of your friends and low confidence with friends that put you down instead of making you feel happy. However, it just didn't work for me.

The book is definitely aimed at a fairly young audience, I would say that if you're over the age of 14 then you'd probably struggle to read this without cringing. I think the target audience for this book has been age 10-14 possibly 15 at a push. The use of words like 'awesome', 'epic' and 'yolo' are just not really words I'd expect to see in a book especially now that it's come out that it has been written by an author. I actually wouldn't have been surprised if the book had been written by Zoe herself because it just came across like an 12 year old had wrote it. There were good parts of the book too such as the blog posts, I really enjoyed that bit and feel if they'd kept it in blog post format it might not have been such a flop.

The most annoying bit for me however was the fake, overly done American accents that are in the audible version. Obviously this wouldn't be a problem if you're reading the book in paperback form but I found the audible version cringy, awkward and just plain irritating to listen too.

It makes me sad to say this but I honestly had to force myself to listen to it so that I could write a full review on it. I find it pretty disheartening that Zoe can put her name to a really poorly written book and get it in the shops when so many authors work for years on good pieces that never make it to the shop. I find myself asking do Penguin really think this is a good read? Probably not! but I'm pretty sure they see the £££££ signs that they can make if they publish a big name like Zoe's.

However, this book did start to perk up a little, about twenty chapters in I did want to listen and to find out what happened but it still did have quite a few cringe moments and I still don't think it was very well written. I definitely wouldn't call it a page turner. I think Zoe must have had some level of contribution towards the book as there were many bits that sounded like she had written it:- 'cinnamon candle', 'fairy lights', 'everytime you say something online think will this make someone happy', 'chamomile tea' and many other very Zoe like things. My personal thoughts are that she has sat down and said to someone what issues she wants to be in the book, where it should be set and little bits and pieces to go through it unless of course the author tried to sound like Zoe. I guess we will never know the full truth!

I still love Zoe and her videos and that will never change but I really wouldn't recommend this book to anyone unless you're extremely bored or very young!

Have you read it? What did you think of it all and the ghost writer situation?

Lots of Love,

♥

The Book Thief Film Review

Image taken from Google.

Hey lovelies,

 On Saturday night I went to the cinema to see my all-time favourite book in film form. I've literally been waiting for this film to come out since I found out it was being made into a film in October so it's no surprise that I went to the cinema the day after it was released! I enjoyed the film so so much that despite the amounting mounds of uni work I have to get through, I just had to write this for you.

 If you haven't read the book then The Book Thief is about a little girl who's sent to a foster family in Germany during World War Two because her mother is a Communist so it was not safe for her and her little brother to remain with her anymore. Sadly her little brother dies on the train journey to the foster family's home so the brother is given a burial by the side of the train tracks where the grave digger drops his little black book. Liesel picks this book up and this is the start of her love for books. When she gets to her foster family, the foster father does his best to make her feel at home, he really understands her pain and they have a joke together about Rosa, her foster mother who is a stern character. Hans, the foster father had been in the first world war and during this war, a friend of his took a bullet for him and Hans had always told his wife who is a Jew that if she ever needed anything he would help her. So when Kristallnacht (night of broken glass) came, someone approaches the Jewish wife's house and says he can only take one so she sends her son Max. Max turns up at the Hubermanns house where they hide him in their basement from the Germans. Hans teaches Liesel how to read from her gravediggers handbook and she later reads at the rich ladies house up the street who see's her stealing a book from the burning of books on Hitlers birthday. When she can no longer go to the ladies house for books because her husband dismissed her from her duties of delivering the laundry that Rosa did for them, she takes to climbing in the window and stealing them or 'borrowing' them as she calls it.

 The Book Thief the novel is narrated by death so this was the one thing I was scared about, that the movie would cut death out and just tell it from the characters perspective- it didn't! I was thrilled with this as I think it really does add to the edge of the story and brings it home to you a lot more and adds to the overall eerie ness of the story. Although one thing I'd definitely have changed is have death be narrating alot more throughout the film as he definitely is a smaller feature in the movie than he is in the book. 

 I thought the actors were chosen really well and Sophie Nelisse who plays Liesel was the perfect choice with her blonde hair and round innocent eyes and Geoffrey Rush was amazing at playing Hans Hubermann for giving that humerous edge in times of terror. The actors did an incredible job with their very realistic German accents so much so that they often sound more German than Nico Liersch who plays Rudy in the film and is actually German. The character of Rosa was played by Emily Watson and she was brilliant at showing the harsh, rough foster mum but then you see her warm over the film. The film definitely made me appreciate her character a lot more because at the start she just seems like a witch but then as you get to know her you see that she is a nice woman who's just struggling under the pressures of war time life and providing for her family. 

The location they chose for Himmel Street (heaven street) was the ideal set, it was gorgeous and truly looked like how you would imagine a town under Nazi ruling would be: a quaint town with Nazi flags hanging from every window. I think the addition of actual German words being thrown in was a very good touch, it's not so much that you don't understand what's being said but enough that it creates a realistic 'German' feel.

 I read quite a few film reviews before I saw the film that said the film was too 'sickly sweet' and that it 'sugar coated' a Nazi Germany but I don't think that is a fair statement at all. It does show the terror that the people living in Nazi Germany had to face and I think that even in that horrific time people would still have had small moments of humour and joy!! Such as the scene where they built a snowman in the basement with Max so that he could feel real snow and experience a bit of the outdoors. There are bits that were so scary that I actually flinched and jumped and it shows how much the film had gripped me that I was feeling their fear. I think it showed just the right balance of fear and violence because people know alot of violence went on but it doesn't mean they necessarily want to see people bleeding or being shot. The director has done such a good job that you don't need to see it because you know that it's happening without actually being shown. It's getting a lot of people comparing it to Schindlers List and how it's not as realistic as Schindlers List. Well of course it isn't because Schindlers List is a real story whereas The Book Thief is fictional based on real life events. 

 There were a few scenes which really stood out for me and one of these was when Rudy paints himself black and goes running to pretend that he's Jesse Owens (a black athlete). When he's at home in the bath, his father asks him why he would do such a thing and Rudy says because he wants to be Jesse Owens, the fastest man on earth. To this his father answers you shouldn't want to be black and when Rudy asks why his father simply says 'because I said so'. This really stuck out to me as it portrays very well the extent that the Nazi's managed to corrupt people's minds, so much so that they didn't even understand or have reasons as to why they were to think this way. The second scene that really stood out to me was when Max was lying in the bed at the Hubermann's and he wakes up to see a Nazi uniform in front of him. You can almost feel his panic as he scans up the body expecting to see a soldiers face but is instead greeted with Liesel's smiling down at him. Wearing the Nazi jacket ofcourse because all German children were forced to wear the Nazi symbol.

 One scene that I would criticise only slightly is the very end scene after Himmel Street has been bombed and Liesel comes out to see all the bodies lying there. If a bomb had blown up an entire street then you wouldn't expect whole, non-bloodied bodies to be lying there completly in tact would you. However, as a squeemish person I am glad there was no gore and I'm glad in a way they didn't because it allows the film to remain a PG certificate. I think this is really important because if children watch it, they will be interested to learn more about the history of the war and I think it's so important that children learn about the past. Why? Because if you don't know about the past then how can you expect to learn from it? So I definitely think they've done a good thing by keeping this film child friendly.

 This film is certainly an emotional rollercoaster and at about 5 different points in this book I had tears rolling down my cheeks and I was so sure when the lights came on I would have serious panda eyes. To my surprise my make-up was exactly as I had applied it (even my eyeliner?!) if that's not a testimony to how good the products I use are then I don't know what is! I think Liesel is definitely the character I relate to the most because I too have such a deep love of books and reading. This film is great for a wide variety of people I loved it, Gary thought it was really good and my mum and dad have also been to see it and both loved it too. Believe me, it takes a lot for a film to impress my dad!! I would definitely give this film 10/10 and I'm so happy that they've done such an amazing job of turning my favourite book into a film. 

 One quote that isn't to do with this film as such but I stumbled across it recently and it really stood out to me so I wanted to share it with you was this:- 

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."

This quote was said by protestant pastor Martin Niemoller shorly after World War Two. This stood out to me so much because it's true, if we stand by and watch bad things happen to other people because it's not happening to us then who will be there to help us when we have our downfall?

Have you seen the Book Thief or read the book? What are your thoughts on it? and if you haven't then get yourself to the nearest book shop and pick it up! and then on your way back pop into the cinema and give this a watch!

Lots of Love,

A x x x

Bookworm!

Helloo my lovelies,

Bit of a different blog post from me today but one I hope interests you all the same! Something you might not know about me is that I am a complete and utter bookworm, I loved English at school and I absolutely love reading. I think it's really nice to just relax, sink into a book and be taken to another world and completely forget about the one you're in right now. So I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on two books that I have read over the festive period.



The first is 'I heart Christmas' by Lindsey Kelk which as I'm sure you guessed from the title, is all about Christmas. The book is set in New York and it's about an English girl who's moved to New York and her crazy life in the run up to Christmas. I had never read anything by Lindsey Kelk before but I'd heard positive things about this book so I was excited to read it and see if it lived up to it's reputation. It really does, if you're into light, fluffy chick flick type books then you'll love this one! Although it's past Christmas it is still a great read and you can actually pick it up really cheap (around £3 in Sainsburies/Tesco's etc) and Waterstones have it on buy one get one half price at the minute. Lindsey Kelk has a series of 'I heart...' books that are actually about the same characters so I have since purchased 'I heart Hollywood' and 'I heart New York' which i can do a blog post about after I have read them if you wish. One of the main things I loved about this book was it was actually published just last year so it mentions a lot of current things that keep you engaged such as Jimmy Saville and Candy Crush. It literally had me in hysterics multiple times (which was slightly awkward when reading in public!!) and at other points I wanted to cry for people in the book. It's a really easy book to get into aswell which I was happy about because I hate having to force myself to read about 4 awful chapters until I get into the good stuff! I don't want to tell you too much about the book in case you want to read it so I'll just tell you a few main points and that it's definitely worth picking up! The main character in the story is Angela Clark and she gets moved into a new position at work, moves house, has a manic best friend to keep in line and her friend from England arrives on her doorstep with her toddler. On top of this Angela's pernickety parents are coming over for Christmas and she has to get everything sorted on time so everything runs smoothly. I looooved this book and I can't wait to read more of Lindsey Kelk's books!

Inside 'I Heart Christmas' by Lindsey Kelk

Jenny Colgan's 'Christmas at Rosie Hopkins'  Sweet Shop'

  The second book I read was by Jenny Colgan and it's called 'Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop'. This is actually a sequel to one of Jenny Colgan's other books but she stated at the beginning that you don't need to have read the first book to understand this one, which I hadn't so I was quite happy about. However, I do think this book took me slightly longer to get into than the other one did, mainly because I took a while to get to grasps with the characters and who did what etc but once I got into it I loved it. I actually finished this in a couple of days because I got so into it, I just couldn't put it down! It's set in a little picturesque village in Derbyshire that i imagine in my head to be something quite like the scenes of Emmerdale. The main character Rosie lives in the village and works next door running her Aunt's sweetshop, who is now in a nursing home. In the story her family come over from Australia and a big tragic event happens in the village which causes all the characters to pull together. You really get a sense of the community feel in this book and you can totally picture yourself in the village with these people which is always the sign of a good author! This book also had me in tears for the characters at points but then really happy and relieved for them at other bits. Again I would definitely recommend reading it if you're into girly, light reading. I actually picked this up for £6.50 at Sainsburies after Christmas so quite a bargain for a hardback book! It also has really big font which I like in a book cause it just makes for easier reading (not so great for travelling around with though). I actually hadn't read any Jenny Colgan books before either but I'm definitely going to look into picking more of her books up (my mum has just finished one that I'm planning to steal soon!)

Inside Jenny Colgan's 'Christmas at Rosie Hopkin's Sweet Shop'

Finally the book I'm reading currently is Calling Mrs Christmas (yes yet another Christmas book, only one more after this one I promise!!) which I'm loving so far and will happily do a mini review thing on after I've finished it if you wish?! I promise I will let go of Christmas soon, I just want to finish all my Christmassy books before I start on my non-Christmassy ones.

If you'd like me to do more posts like these then let me know either in the comments or by liking it on bloglovin or google plus! Have you read any of these books? What are your favourite books?

Hope you're all well,

A x x