Battle Royale

I feel as though I was quite late finding this book. My mum got me it for Christmas last year and I decided to make it the first book I read...



I could not put it down. I know that is probably an over used term but if there was ever a time to use it then it is now!

The first few pages are just them on the school bus and the main character pretty much names ALL of the children. Do not let this put you off. I was panicking, worrying if I didn't remember all the names then I wouldn't understand something later on in the book but this isn't the case.
Another thing I don't want you to judge this book on is the film. I LOVE films and I am open to film adaptations of books but I feel this film just did not do this book justice. Houshun Takami is an amazing writer and the way he portrays the characters is a talent I rarely find. One character may only last two pages but you forget they've only just come into it and you're upset they are gone. In the film I feel as though they didn't portray this as well. There were a lot of quick deaths to some meaningless characters. I understand film's can't do this as well as books can without the actors saying their feelings out loud but it still effected my enjoyment of the film. As far as an action film goes, I think it is good. I feel the film is more for the action whereas the book is more for the characters.

Anyway, back to the book, there are some AMAZING characters. Even the bad people are so interesting you don't mind their chapter because you still enjoy reading about them. Some of the character have stuck with me months after I finished reading it. I feel like I don't want to say too much as I don't want to give anything away.

I don't know if this is the right thing to do but I'm also going to mention The Hunger Games... I actually read The Hunger Games first (well the first book, still haven't read the second or third book) and I did enjoy it. Yet I've just never found myself recommending it to anyone. A lot of my friends have it ready to read and when I see it I always say 'That reminds me! You should read Battle Royale!' I have nothing against the Hunger Games and I know it is a trilogy and I feel I can't comment properly until I have read all three but if I had to pick a favourite then Battle Royale would win hands down. There is some very BIG similarities to them both and to be honest I was a bit peeved off at The Hunger Games at some parts because it was unnecessary. One little bit I want to mention is when Rue tells Katniss to whistle and the Mockingjays will copy and that's how they will find each other and set fires and stuff (I can't quite remember the details). This happened in Battle Royale! I just feel if I was going to write a book with the same back drop as Battle Royale I would try to not make it so similar.

The below picture is of the back page in the book. It made me laugh. We now know so much about Yuji Oniki.

I guess I just want to finish by saying go and read this book please! If you've read it let me know what you thought of it and if you've seen the film then leave a comment too as I would love to see what you think of either one of them. I feel like I have gone on A LOT here but it is in my top five books and I had to do it justice. :)!

Chasing Mavericks

Hello!

Welcome to my blog. I'm just going to get straight into it!

So me and my friend have an unlimited card for the cinema and we basically go and see anything. I'd seen Chasing Mavericks advertised a few weeks ago and the first thing that came to my mind was 'It's about surfing... I'll pass' my friend wasn't bothered about seeing it either. Then when it came out we had seen everything else that we wanted to see and being the cinema addict I am I searched the listings frantically one day to see if there was ANYTHING on. I came across this and went and watched the trailer again. It was like watching a completely different trailer. I saw past the surfing and I saw the real story behind it. I picked up my phone right away and called my friend who agreed to go and see it with me. I was expecting it to be heartwarming and a little bit cheesy but in a good way. I was looking forward to an easy going movie with some awesome surfing.

When we were at the cinema I turned to my friend and said 'I really hope this is good, I'm wooting for it.' She replied 'Yeah.. Me too.' I thought to myself, 'she really doesn't want to see this movie'. Anyway it started and I decided I liked the main character straight away. I was glued to the screen for the first half and only then did I pause for a few seconds to ask my friend what she thought. She turned to me and said 'it's amazing, I love it' I agreed and we turned back to the screen. We watched the rest and started discussing it as soon as the credits started rolling. She even went on to say that it was the best movie she had seen this year. Now I personally couldn't put it above certain other movies I have seen this year but it is definitely joint first with them.

Now I don't want to big it up too much because I don't want anyone to go expecting more than it could be in reality but I do want to ask you to give this movie a chance. Try to look past the fact that it is about surfing (a 32 foot wave at that) and to go and see it. I've never surfed but I do think it's a pretty cool sport and I would love to have a go but you definitely do not need an interest in surfing to go see this movie! I could go on and on about how good it is but I would be here all night. Just do me a favour, if you do go see it because you read it here or if you have already seen it, let me know what you think. :)!