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febbraio 27, 2017

A Darker Shade of Magic (1#) by V.E Schwab - Review

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A Darker Shade of Magic
by V.E Schwab


After reading Vicious I had to pick up her high-fantasy series and I was not desapointed. Victoria Schwab makes music not with mathe and notes, but with words and letters. creating a beautiful symphony that makes you look back at the classics and at the same time forward with original plot and atmosphere.

Schwab created a multi universe, where there are four London existing simultaneously. The boring, non-magical Grey London,ruled by one mad King---George III. Kell's Red London, where he was raised along side with Rhy, the heir to this flourishing magical empire. White London, a corrupted city where magic is power, and the one to willed it are draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London, dead, sealed off from the rest, where magic had took evil form and consumed the city and its people. 
The only people capable of travelling between on London to the other are the Antari. Kell is one of them, ambassador of the Maresh Empire, he carries the correspondence between the royals of each London.But mail is not the only thing he is carrying in between worlds. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, bring small object to willing to pay for a glimpse of the world they will never see. A small innocent hobby, until he smuggle something he shouldn't have. 
He will soon cross path with, Delilah Bard, who will rob him, than save him and in the end force Kell to bring her with him to another world for a proper adventure.

"I'm not going to die," she said. "Not till I've seen it."
"Seen what?"
Her smile widened. "Everything."

The plot flows like a river, perfectly. Every word is chiseled to fit in a larger scheme, it's crafted perfection. Beautiful.
The world-building is genius. Simple and a complicated, the concept of four London is not nearly as confusing as I thought, everything explains it self while reading it. And while I usually find some plot-holes in this alternate reality kind of plot, This time I couldn't find any, it's totally bulletproof.
The characters, are close to perfection. And here I'm repeating myself , but I simply can't find any other words to describe it. Perfect, perfect and perfect!
Kell is mysterious, a darkish character without exaggeration; while Lila stuck me for her badassery, and her energetic personality despite being surrounded by violence and cruelty. A life-force. But what I loved even more where the interactions between them: no insta-love, no insta-friendship, everything is built on the evolution of needs and opportunity.

Victoria Schwab is for  sure one of the most talented fantasy writer I ever read (with  Leigh Bardugo, of course).

 5/5 STARS

To celebrate the final installment of her trilogy that come out this month I'm doing a FREE GIVEAWAY : a paperback copy A Darker Shade of Magic. Read the rule to enter ----> HERE.

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febbraio 27, 2017

FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY - Enter to win a copy of A Darker Shade of Magic by Victoria Schwab!

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The last and final book of A Darker Shade of Magic, A Conjuring of Lights, by V.E Schwab is just been released this month. If you have been following my reviews for a while you will know that she is one of my favorite author of all times.
The book for this Free Giveaway is the first installment in the series A Darker Shade of Magic in the english paperback edition (as in the picture). The Giveaway stands only for Europe (UK included). To enter you will need only 3 easy steps:

1- Follow the blog, click on the link SEGUI. 
2- Like the Blog Facebook Page.
3- Send a private message to the FB page with your name or if you don't have a facebook account send a mail to the blog page or leave a comment down below, letting me know that you wanna enter the giveaway. 


If you will be selected as the winner, you will get a text on facebook or in your e-mail asking for your chosen delivery address. The contest will close on the 31st of March 2017. If you have any question leave a comment below. GOOD LUCK!!


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febbraio 26, 2017

50 SHADES DARKER, starring Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan and Rita Ora, directed by James Foley - BOOK vs MOVIE

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Fifty Shades Darker
directed by James Foley




Fifty Shades is literary and movie phenomenon that still gathers a high attention from the audience. Either you've have read the books and loved/hated them or are just interested in seeing what the fuss is all about, the movies are picking up everyone interests. Just in the USA it gross out (to the 22.feb) almost twice the estimated budget of  $55.000.000, in Italy is been out for more than two weeks and when I went to the cinema, last Wednesday, the cinema room was almost full.

I read the books mostly under the suggestions of some of my good friends and the general attention that the series was getting. I really couldn't see and understand why people went crazy over it, I did find the book obnoxious and not even well written, I kept on wondering why other good erotic novels weren't able to gather such attention. Nevertheless nowadays it has become such a big topic that everyone knows at least summarily what the series is about.

Let me give you the general synopsis of this book: 
Fifty Shades Darker is the second installment in the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy, the novel was originally written as a Twilight fan fiction (it probably gets from there: the stalking, the obsession and weird fetish). The plot revolves around Literature student Anastasia Steele, whose life changes forever after she meets handsome, yet tormented, billionaire Christian Grey. Their relationship, in this second movie, moves from a purely sexual one to a sentimental one. While Christian wrestle with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her. 
The plot is really simple and seems to move through conventional steps and characters that function just has a background to the steamy sex scenes.


Having not liked the book I was hoping for the movie to be a bit better. But although Jamie Dornan delivers a more elaborate and sensible performance than in the first movie, this sequel as the books still has a weak plot line and dull characters' portraits. The settings and the actors' performance in general from Dakota Johnson to Bella Heathcote ("Victoria Winters" in Tim Burton's  Dark Shadows)  and the singer Rita Ora were worthwhile, but such a good cast was wasted over a lame story. 


What was suppose to be a dramatic-romance movie, had instead a soap-operish feeling. It made me laugh out loud in the most inappropriate moment, some scenes were so bad you couldn't help but genuinely laugh. It was the cheesiest, corniest, most awkward-comedic movie I ever watched.
Surely this series gained so much success also for the fact that it is so controversial, probably E.L James' favorite say is: good or bad, it doesn't matter if they talk about it!

I don't really feel like declaring a winner between the movie or the book, but I know the book in some ways makes up for the massive plot hole that we find in the movie. BOOK WINS!

MOVIE TRAILER:


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febbraio 24, 2017

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer - Review

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Winter 
by Marissa Meyer



 "The young princess was as beautiful as daylight. She was more beautiful even than the queen herself."

For how much I wished there were more books, I'm happily I was finally able to conclude this series and have a sort of closure.

 In this final installment one events follows the other quickly without giving you almost time to take a breath; It's fast-paced, heart-pounding and a quite entertaining read. It was a quite long book (p.820), and still it was a really quick read.

This is the fourth installment in the Lunar Chronicles series ( Cinder 1#, Scarlet 2#, Cress 3#, Feriest 3.5#), taking as a start point Snow White's original story. The book starts off from Cinder, Thorne and the rest of the crew still  wanted criminals on both Luna and Earth, orbiting unseen in space they need to figure out quickly  how to break out a civil revolution on Luna and put an end to Levana's tyranny and their are gonna need a hand from the charming princess Winter.

"She was prettier than a bouquet of roses and crazier than a headless chicken. Fitting in was not an option."

Winter is loved by the people for her kindness and natural beauty; she despise her stepmother, and knows that Levana won't approved of her feeling for her childhood friend/royal guard, Jacin. We already got a good shot of him in the previous book at which end he sold out Cinder and her friends to the Commonwealth, quite a controversial character, definitely different from everyone else.
This is the real prestige that Meyer's books have, every character is unique and equipped with a complex personality. Jacin is fundamentally, from my point of view, selfish in comparison with the other characters he cares only about his princess and it's like that from the beginning to the end. I didn't feel his involvement in the squad as much as for the others, he felt like a temporary addiction, in it just for personal advantage. His crazy princess surely, makes the fun in the couple.
Winter stopped using her Lunar ability to defy her stepmother and have, in a contorted way, more control over her life, but by not using her Gift she is slowly going crazy. Her exchanges with Scarlet were one of the most funny of the book after Thorne's, their friendship was quirky and smart, really really fun to read. In this grand finale we are reminded that romance isn't everything and friendships is as important.

"Did you see any rice in there? Maybe we could fill Cinder's Head with it"
Everyone stared at him.
"You know, to ... absorb the moisture, or something. Isn't that a thing?"
"We're not putting rice in my head."

Marissa Meyer was amazing in orchestrating all the different plot and subplot, making them inter-wine and then finally converge with grace and effectiveness in this last book. The characters were has always right on spot, the true lead of the series. In fact if we consider that settings and background have little space in the book, what left are just the characters, speeches and actions that are able to keep the reader glued to the pages without time to spare.

I'm always surprised at how the author was able to pick up this traditional stories and build around and inside of them, so that you are still able to recognize the plot line but at the same time living a totally different feeling and story.
We all know that usually a fairy tales end with a Happily Ever After, but what really mattered in this book was not the ending but the road that took us there.

"And they lived happily to the end of their days"
-fin-
4.5/5 STARS

BOOK TRAILER:





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febbraio 10, 2017

Book to Movie Adaptation - 2017

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BOOK TO MOVIE ADAPTATION 

TO WATCH OUT FOR IN 2017




This are the 6 books I'm eagerly waiting to see on the big screen this year, some of them have been my favorites for a long time and some are on my 2017 TBR . But without any further do, let just go ahead and jump right in!

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness


I loved the book,(--->REVIEW HERE), Patrick Ness is one of my favorite writers. The book/movie tells the story of Conor (Lewis MacDougall), a child whose mother (Rogue One heroine, Felicity Jones) is terminally ill; one night, he is visited by a giant tree-like monster (Liam Neeson), who stated that he will come back each night and tell him three stories.
The movie premiere as already been held in already on September 10, 2016 at the Toronto International Film festival, it was released than in the UK on the 1st of January, 2017. I'll still have to wait for the italian release, that should be on the 18th of May.
The movie already had such a great response from the book-community and critics. I really can't wait to watch it!

(TRAILER HERE)

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly


The story is about the true story of the unsung heroes of the NASA - the black female mathematicians who quietly enabled the biggest achievements in space in the 1960s.
I always like a good "girl-power" book, it got on my TBR for the movie trailer, and I will check it out for sure before watching it in the cinema.
US release on the 6th of January, in Italy the 8th of March.

(TRAILER HERE)

Fifty Shades Darker by E.L James


Valentine's Day is near and what better way, for a single like me, than going to the cinema for Fifty Shades of Grey's sequel to celebrate it!
US and Italian release on the 9th of February 2017.
I can't say I'm excited to see this movie since I didn't like either the books or the first movie but it's a blockbuster I know I will be in the cinema...

(TRAILER HERE)

Wonder by R.J Palacio

Tells the story of Auggie Pullman (Jacob Tremblay), a boy who is born with a facial deformity, and his struggle to fit in at a new school. Also Auggie mom will be played by Julia Roberts, something to look out for!
Hopefully the movie will be released this year, they are still in the post-production, no trailer but just the US release date: 7 april 2017.
I really liked the book (-->REVIEW HERE), an easy read that did make you meditate on the important theme of diversity, a perfect read for middle school kid.

The Circle by Dave Eggers


The Circle is about a young women, Mae Holland (Emma Watson), who takes up a job at a Google-like tech company where she quickly climbs the corporate ladder.
The plot had my hook from the breaking of every privacy criteria, something that nowadays we have to consider more frequently. Also the movie is starring Tom Hanks as, for what I was able to guess, the Corporation Leader.
I will surely check out the book before the movie!
US release date 28th of April 2017.

(TRAILER HERE)

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie


No pictures or trailer out yet, but it's expected to be released for the 20th November 2017, in the US.
All we know is that: the classic mystery follows fictional detective Hercule Poirot as he pursues a murder on a famous train. Kenneth Branagh will be directing and also acting as Poirot, alongside with Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley and Michelle Pfeiffer, just to mention some.
I think it's a good opportunity to finally read this classic.

This where the movie I'm hoping to see as soon as possible, but what about you: Which is the Book to Movie adaptation you are waiting for this year?


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febbraio 10, 2017

Mio Fratello Rincorre i Dinosauri di Giacomo Mazzariol - Recensione (Italian review)

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Mio Fratello Rincorre i Dinosauri
di Giacomo Mazzariol




Un libricino breve che è riuscito a racchiudere in queste poche pagine grandi sentimenti.
Con naturale semplicità racconta la storia di Giacomo Mazzariol e suo fratello Giovanni con "un cromosoma in più". Mio fratello rincorre i dinosauri ci porta attraverso la crescita di queste due persone e più di ogni altra cosa ci fa vedere come il loro rapporto cambi ed evolva, fino alla completa comprensione.

"Avevo impiegato dodici anni a vedere il mondo con gli occhi di mio fratello; e ve lo giuro, quel mondo non era affatto male"

Vediamo crescere Giacomo, la sua meraviglia nei confronti del fratellino appena nato, la sua paura del giudizio degli altri quando si fa più grande, la vergogna di non saper difendere il fratello e infine il completo inglobamento delle due anime. Giacomo e Giovanni si fondono come le loro camere, entrano ed escono ognuno nel mondo dell'altro.  Amano.

"Aveva il mio stesso numero di libri. Al posto della Fattoria degli animali aveva Gli animali della fattoria"

 Un bellissimo spezzone di vita, pieno di musica e film, raccolto in poche pagine e con una scrittura semplice che riesce ad esprimere al meglio la complessità della vita.

5/5 STARS

 Il libro nasce grazie a Joe principalmente, ma anche alla grande popolarità che il loro il video The Simple Interview ha raggiunto su Youtube.






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febbraio 09, 2017

A Dirty Job (Grim Reaper #1) by Christopher Moore - Review

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A DIRTY JOB #1
by Christopher Moore



It took me sometimes to finish  it, the uni's exams session did break up my TBR, anyways I finally got sometime to relax and enjoy my readings. 
This book caught my eye in the bookstore for the creepy title and cover, and I was a goner once I read the sinapsis. 

Our hero, Charlie Asher, is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, a Beta guy inside out. He is married to a brilliant, pretty women and they are about to have their first kid. But when his wife dies, other deaths follow. People start dropping dead around him, he hears whispers from under the streets and see darks presence in San Francisco. Something is changing, seems like ,Charlie Asher, has just been recruited for a new job: as Death, or to better say it one death. It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.

A Dirty Job is a good mix of genera, we have death merchants, hounds from hell, grotesque monsters and an impending doom. Everything has a good hint of humor, all the characters are quirky and they always have a smart comeback.
But all the quirkiness and irony, that are just right on spot in the first half of the book, are a mashup of bad humors and are repetitive and boring in the second part. 
The writing style is good from start to finish, he is really good in creating funny dialogue, but it loses some of that easy going vibe while you get to the end.

Overall it's a funny book, it's a good laugh, easy and relaxing to read. I'll probably check out some of his other books!

3.5/5 STARS

Book trailer:


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febbraio 06, 2017

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, starring Emily Blunt, directed by Tate Taylor - BOOK vs MOVIE

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THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
directed by Tate Taylor



I liked the book (-->REVIEW HERE), it was a page turner, engaging, full of suspense and mystery. The perfect summer read. So I can imagine that Fans of the book weren't probably happy about the changes made in the adaptations from book to the big screen. Whatever was shifting the destination from the gloomy London to New York, or cutting out Rachel's drunky sex scene, which I was eagerly expecting, the movie did a selection of what to bring on the screen and as it usually happens things got left out.
Yet having wait quite a long time after the book to watch the movie, I found myself enjoying it. It was able, nevertheless the changes, to bring back to the surface all the feelings that I had while reading it. What did definitely catch my eye was the outstanding performance of Emily Blunt, she was able to portrait perfectly Rachel, the drunky heroine of the book.
I've got to say that in the book I pictured Rachel as ugly, Emily Blunt can't get anything near the definition of "ugly" but the way she wears the character is perfect. Just some cracked lips, watery/red eyes and the unhealthy color skin were able to give the exact appearance of an alcoholist. Of course nothing would have worked if it wasn't for her amazing acting skill. 


She is the solo lead of this drama, while the other female characters, Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett) and Anna Watson (Rebecca Ferguson), don't leave a bigger impression than they do in the book. Haley Bennett female heroine in The Magnificent 7 (2016), is suited for her role has the intriguing Megan, but her character doesn't' come across as strongly as in the book.


What the move is lacking is the ugliness and humanity that did emerged from the characters in the book. They had perversion, obsession and fears; they felt real and well characterize on a psychological level. In the transposition to the big screen, the deepness of the characters was a bit lost, but they still managed to do a good job.
It's a really contemporary movie so the photography and the costumes are great for the suburb metropolitan background. I did appreciate how they tried to display Rachel's memories and drunken sight, blurry and moved, it did really gave the right idea.
If I had to choose between the book and the movie: I will say that the book is able to give a full and complete experience while the movie does this only in part. Still a good movie, you should definitely check it out.

BOOK WINS!

 Movie trailer:



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