Film Review: The Scorch Trials

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Release date: 11th September 2015

Director: Wes Ball

Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Aiden Gillen, Giancarlo Esposito, Patricia Clarkson

Runtime: 131 minutes

Genre: Science-Fiction, Dystopia, Action, Thriller

Watched in: 2D

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is the second film in the Maze Runner series, based on the book by James Dashner. It is very different to the book, diverting from the plot quite substantially, although this isn’t necessarily a bad thing anyway.

The film carries on moments after the first film finished as Thomas and the survivors from the Glade are rescued from WCKD by a mysterious alternative group. After discovering a truth about their rescuers the Gladers escape from the compound they have been taken to into the Scorch – outside where the world is like a desert and Cranks (basically zombies, at least in the film anyway) try to attack them. Their aim is to reach the Right Arm (a rebellion group in the mountains).

Once I got over the fact that it was very different to the book I read (something which is probably a good thing to accept when going to see any film based on a book to avoid disappointment) I enjoyed it and found it very exciting and gripping. The Cranks were done extremely well and were absolutely terrifying, and would have been even more scary if I hadn’t been anticipating it from having read the book! All of the CGI/special effects stuff was very good.

The acting was good, considering what the actors had to work with – in the book the characters aren’t fleshed out that well.

Although it didn’t bother me too much that the plot was quite different to the book, the end section didn’t make much sense and ended in a completely different way to the book, meaning I’m not sure what they’re going to do in the last film.

It was a good film, but I preferred the first one, which isn’t that surprising as I preferred the first book to the second book. If you haven’t read the book then it’s an exciting film, and if you liked the first one you’d like the second one. Though I would avoid it if you’re getting tired of YA dystopia film adaptions…

Book Review: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

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Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science-Fiction

Publishing Info: May 2011 Simon Pulse (first published 2005)

Pages: 348

Star Rating: 3/5

Back Cover Summary:

Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she’s completely popular. It’s everything she’s ever wanted.

But beneath all the fun — the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom — is a nagging sense that something’s wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally’s ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remembers what’s wrong with pretty life, and the fun stops cold.

Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life — because the authorities don’t intend to let anyone with this information survive.

I wasn’t really aware that this book wasn’t very spectacular until the end, when I looked back and realised that not much had happened in it. Pretties is the second book in the Uglies series and I definitely liked the first book better.

As stated in the previous paragraph while I was reading it I was reasonably hooked and wanted to keep reading. But when I finished I felt fairly underwhelmed.

The plot was good, I’ll give it that, and there were several twists that I really wasn’t expecting. It kept me on my toes at certain points. Some new aspects of the world were revealed but weren’t explained fully (but perhaps this will come in the next book as the revelation came towards the end of the novel with not much time for explanations).

Tally went through some changes but as a result of the plot (no spoilers!) rather than actual character development. It kind of annoyed me how whenever anyone argued with her she just wouldn’t explain why whatever had happened had happened and then moped that said person didn’t like her when she should have just told them. This girl never learns. I liked her in the first book but by the end of this one I was starting to get kind of bored of her sameness and lack of character development.

The other characters were okay but nothing spectacular. Surprise surprise a love triangle reared its ugly head (excuse the pun there) which seems to be near impossible to avoid in YA literature. However, it wasn’t a completely pointless love triangle and was kind of to do with some memory loss stuff but it still ended up with Tally going ‘ooh who do I choose’ in the last quarter or so which was really annoying.

Overall I enjoyed it but it didn’t blow me away and I didn’t love it in the same way I loved the first one. I’ll read the next two books in the series because I’m curious about what direction the plot is going in but won’t keep my expectations too high to avoid potential disappointment.

To read my review of the first book, Uglies, click here. Read my review of the final book, Specials, here.

Book Review: Hunger by Michael Grant

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Hunger by Michael Grant

Genre: Young adult, science-fiction, dystopia

Publishing Info: 2010 by Egmont

Pages: 608

Star Rating: 4/5

Back Cover Summary:

It’s been three months since everyone under the age of fifteen became trapped in the bubble known as the FAYZ. Things have only gotten worse. Food is running out, and each day more kids are developing supernatural abilities. Soon tension rises between those with powers and those without, and when an unspeakable tragedy occurs, chaos erupts. It’s the normals against the mutants, and the battle promises to turn bloody.

But something more dangerous lurks. A sinister creature known as the Darkness has begun to call to the survivors in the FAYZ. It needs their powers to sustain its own. When the Darkness calls, someone will answer — with deadly results.

This is the second book in Michael Grant’s Gone series, and I liked it about the same amount I liked the first one. It was good and kept me gripped but it wasn’t spectacular.

In terms of pacing the first third or so was quite slow and I was wondering what the main plot line of the book was going to be. Once it got going though it was very exciting and made me want to keep reading. I also didn’t predict exactly what direction it was going in so there were some surprises which was great.

The first book had a lot of characters, but this book introduces even more for you to try and keep track of. Thankfully, I’m quite good at remembering which characters are which but I can imagine some readers getting the characters mixed up when there are so many of them. On the other hand I do like that there are a lot of characters because you get to see lots of different characters viewpoints and how different people are coping with being in the FAYZ.

Some of the characters brought forwards from the first book develop further in this book but most of them are just the same as in the first book. There isn’t much character development going on. Sam’s character is done really well and we see how the pressures of being in charge of Perdido Beach get to him. But most of the characters show very little change and development.

Plot holes. This is the biggest issue I have with the book. The end action sequence is filled with two gigantic plot holes. I think the problem is there are so many characters that the editors, and Grant himself, forgot that three of them even existed and were even at the final big fight scene. Did he forget he’d sent those characters there in a previous chapter? This gaping hole just annoyed me to no end and left me stunned that the author or editors hadn’t realised.

Overall I did enjoy it and in the end gave it four stars because it really did keep me gripped, but I did find that there were some problems with it. I will carry on and read the next one because Grant has managed to keep my curiosity going.

Overused Clichés in YA Fiction

M.T.Wilson @ The Last Book on the Left2 Comments

As much as I love YA fiction some of it is just so repetitive and similar. It may be marketable for books to be this way but it just gets kind of annoying.

1) The love triangle. It’s just been overused and has become boring and off-putting for many readers. Nobody ever seems to do anything different with it and it’s got to the point where I just find it so irritating.

2) The nice girl falling for the idiot/jerk character. Really? Why would the MC even want to go out with this guy? It just doesn’t make any sense. Perhaps she considers him for a while but I can’t fathom why she would actually pick him to be with.

3) The character describing themselves in a mirror. Just no. Who walks up to a mirror and describes their appearance in detail? Unless it is character/plot relevant (e.g. they have bags under their eyes from lack of sleep due to *insert life issue here* or their skin has turned pink overnight).

4) The main character is the chosen one. They have been picked out by a higher force and there’s some kind of prophecy involved. See Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Matrix, Star Wars, Terminator, and the list could go on…

5) Dead or non-present parents. Unless it is plot relevant or plays some MAJOR role in the arc of the main character why are there never parents around? And if they are around they’re always really stereotypical and 2D. This is especially in realistic teen fiction stories because the most likely scenario is their parents are going to be around ignoring them for convenience just annoys me.

6) Good vs. Evil. Now, I’m not saying we should ditch this completely. Sometimes it’s nice to just read a simple good vs. evil story.

7) Insta-Love. For a start love at first sight is not biologically possible, only attraction at first sight. You love someone when you have got to know someone and they have got to know you and you understand each other. You can’t know that from the first moment you see them. Insta-attraction is, however, definitely possible.

8) The “strong” female character. A strong heroine does not constitute making a girl do man stuff. What makes a strong character is the same for male and female characters. They have to be rounded, believable, have back story, have a character arc etc. Just making a warrior of the female gender does not make that character a strong female character.

9) The girl who is super pretty but believes she is ugly. To some extent this is kind of realistic for many people. But it has just been overdone in fiction now.

10) Everyone is super attractive. Not everybody is super hot and looking like a model. Yes, some characters may be pretty/handsome, but that’s not everyone in the world! One of the things I love about Jane Eyre is that emphasis is put on how neither Jane or Rochester are at all conventionally attractive and that they fall in love because of their personalities.

These are just some things that annoy me whenever they crop up. Do something new people! /rant over

Book Review: Moment(s) by Lisa Terry

M.T.Wilson @ The Last Book on the Left3 Comments

Moment(s) by Lisa Terry

Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, New Adult

Publishing Info: Self-published January 10th 2015

Pages: 218

Star Rating: 4/5

Back Cover Summary:

Scottish rocker Julian McLane lives life as normally as possible. But fame can be lonely, which might be why he’d spent a year looking for the girl he caught making a wish behind the concert arena. His fans aren’t happy to share him now that he has found Emilie—too bad their violent displeasure only pushes the couple together.

Emilie needs protection from rabid fans, so Julian convinces her to tour with him and his prank-loving bandmates so his security team can watch over her too. Julian thinks their coupledom is as right as a love song. But something’s very wrong about murder victims wearing the band’s concert bracelets. Someone seems intent on downsizing the fandom.

Julian holds a twisted mess of clues about the killer’s identity, with every day bringing a different theory, and he’s beginning to think finding the killer means losing Emilie forever.

Moment(s) is a mix of romance and mystery, with a string of murders in the background of the romantic dealings between Julian and Emilie. Despite there being some issues with the book I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I’m going to deal with that issue at the start so we can get it over and done with. Basically, the book needed more proofreading. Reading a self-published book I’m expecting there will be some typos and things as the writer doesn’t have access to the editing team as someone publishing under a publisher. However, there were a few too many obvious typos in almost every chapter that could have easily been ironed out through a proofread. The last couple of chapters before the epilogue also needed more work as it was just very confusing and was nowhere near as polished as the first half of the book.

Now we’ve got that out of the way let’s talk about the actual story. I thought the plot was good and there were plenty of twists that I didn’t see coming. I also liked the mix of romance and mystery, I thought that combination of genre worked really well in this book.

The characters were great and all very likable. The interactions between the band members was realistic and humorous and just so well written. I also liked the slow build of the relationship between Julian and Emilie and thought their relationship was written very well. It was a bit predictable that they would end up together but the mystery going on in the background meant there was something to keep me reading.

I had some issues with the gymnastics described in the first half of the book. In addition to performing their songs the band also do some gymnastics on stage. I get that they are doing things that gymnasts wouldn’t normally do as they are outside the competition environment but some of it just seemed unrealistic. It was hard to visualise but at one point they were going directly from one piece of equipment to the next but given the structure of the equipment I don’t see how they could be placed close enough together for them to be able to swing from one to the other.

Overall I feel like the story had the potential to be a better novel than this. It perhaps needed a little more time to be edited before it was published. However I did thoroughly enjoy reading it and would definitely recommend it. I will be reading more books by Lisa Terry.

Book Review: The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

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The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science-Fiction

Publishing Info: August 1st 2011 by Chicken House (first published 2010)

Pages: 359

Star Rating: 3/5

Back Cover Summary:
The Scorch Trials picks up where The Maze Runner left off. The Gladers have escaped the Maze, but now they face an even more treacherous challenge on the open roads of a devastated planet. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them. Can Thomas survive in such a violent world?

The Scorch Trials is the second book in The Maze Runner series and carries straight on from where the first book left off. The back cover summary is rather vague so I didn’t really know what to expect. I shan’t say too much as I don’t want to spoil it! Although I enjoyed the book and found it gripping I didn’t like it as much as the first book. I’m not sure why I just liked the first book much better.

 The plot is basically a repetition of The Maze Runner but in a different setting. The characters are still being watched by WICKED and have to do some stuff to survive. Essentially it’s like they’re in the next level. It is very different to the first book though and the characters have different dilemmas and enemies. Dashner does suspense very well and I found myself keeping turning the pages. The pacing was good, there were some slow moments but it always kept me hooked.

 The characters from the first book were good. But the new characters weren’t so good. Like I found with the first book whenever a character was introduced they were just a name and their personalities didn’t really show until far into the book. I understand that you have to get to know characters but I should still have a sense of what they are like from the beginning through their body language, how they talk and the decisions they make.

 In terms of the characters that carried over from the first book I would have liked to have seen them developed more. I didn’t really get a feel of how everything they had been through impacted on them as people. I guess they don’t have much time for reflection as once again they’re running for their lives but I would have expected some change in them after having been through all that.

 I guess there’s not much I can say without giving spoilers for the first book and this one as well. There’s so many twists and things that I don’t want to spoil anything as the suspense and mystery of wanting to know what is going on is the best aspect of these books. Overall I enjoyed it and will keep reading the series but it wasn’t as good as the first one. I really liked how it kept me guessing and I never knew what was going to happen next.

 Click here to read my review of book 1, The Maze Runner.

Film Review: Spy

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Release date: 5th June 2015

Director: Paul Feig

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Miranda Hart, Jude Law

Runtime: 120 minutes

Genre: Comedy, Action

Watched in: 2D

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I wasn’t sure if this film would be my sort of thing as I wasn’t a fan of McCarthy’s Bridesmaids (though I haven’t seen any of her other films) but being a massive Miranda fan thought I would check it out if only to see Miranda Hart on the big screen. In Spy McCarthy’s character, the deskbound CIA analyst, has to head out into the field when their field agents covers are blown and prevent the sale of a nuclear weapon.

A lot of the time comedy films are chuckle-worthy but not laugh-out-loud-worthy. This film was absolutely hilarious though and at times I couldn’t stop laughing. It was thoroughly entertaining but it also had a great plot to carry it as well. It was pretty fast paced and there wasn’t a dull moment at all. It was so packed full of action and laughs that I want to see it again! The digs at classic spy films such as James Bond are great too.

The acting was excellent. McCarthy was very funny obviously and Miranda Hart was great too. At times I thought Melissa McCarthy was a bit over the top though in the delivery of a couple of her funny lines and the use of the f word was a bit over the top too which is why I docked a 0.5 off my rating but for the most part it was very funny. From the sounds of it she plays a pretty similar role to previous things she has done but I haven’t really seen any of her other films so I can’t judge on that. The big surprise though was Jason Statham who was amazing. Typically I associate him with action films in which he plays a serious/dark character so I was quite surprised to find he would be in a comedy film. He was great at it though, his character was so funny and possibly my favourite character of the lot.

This is another short review as I can’t think what else to say because I loved it so much! It really was excellent and full of laughs. Highly recommended!