Book's Crumbs

13 Reasons Why

My sister came back from her holidays with the perfect gift for a book nerd like my: the bestselling novel 13 reasons why by Jay Asher. I've to say that I was probably the only person on earth not aware that this popular book was going to be transformed into a Netflix hit.

"I hope you're ready, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why."

Told from Clay point of view, the story revolves around Hannah - a girl who recently killed herself. After her death, Clay receives set of cassette tapes on which Hannah explains the 13 reasons why she decided to kill herself. And since he is listening to them he must be one of the reasons why.

This book is extremely compelling, it catches your attentions from the first few lines - almost impossible to put down. I needed to know what happen, when was Clay coming into Hanna's story? What has he done? And all the others characters, in which way have they affected Hanna's life?.
The plot makes you think and inquiries your teenage self, what if it was me? how would I've reacted? I answered some of those questions, I compared myself to her and came to the conclusion that even though we related to difficulties and life in different ways, I can understand her feeling. Hannah might come off as bratty, selfish and ofttimes over-sensitive. But you should remember that she is a teenager and we all were a little like that. Also, anyone who did experience depressions knows how hard is to see positives things and how easily you can be put off balance.
As Hannah says it's a snowball effect, it can start off as something small but builds upon itself becoming bigger and bigger. That is why we should pay attention to what we do and how we behave with other people because our action can be the push to speed up the snowball. This is what I think the book wanted to point out, our little selfish action can truly affect someone else.

Some other things I liked less, like the way in which famle sexuality was presented. Being Hanna's rumors true or false, hers and society view was old-fashioned and wrong. She didn't deserve to be slut-shamed even if the rumors were true, the book doesn't point out how women should empower their own sexuality, which is something that it still a taboo nowadays.
Apart from this, it's a page-turner and a beautiful reading. I'm also checking out Netflix series and let me just tell you that it looks amazing.

4/5 STARS

Netflix 13 REASONS WHY Trailer:

DRACULA (1992)
directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Probably the most famous and well-done movie adaptation of Dracula is Coppola's one. Has it claims from the title, this is a very straight adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel (REVIEW-->HERE).

The movie follows with the book well enough, straying only to streamline storyline to save time, and draws from it in aesthetics. The events and style mirror the journal/letter structure of the novel but don't follow it entirely. The main addition to the plot was certainly the love story between Mina and Dracula. While in the book Mine is repulsed and disgusted by Dracula, in the movie we see how the attraction starts from their first encounter. Dracula thinks of Mina as the reincarnation of his deceased wife, and that why in the movie he comes to England. Their relationship is heavily sexualised, as any other interaction with the women, where Stoker portraits a more chaste image.
Coppola shows us also how Dracula came to be, while in the book, apart from knowing that he was a conqueror, we are never explained his point of origin.
Other small different that can be overlooked since they were mainly made to make the movie streamline more fluid.

I loved the costumes and the settings, to which is shown a particular research and attention. The acting can seem a little scratchy for our modern standards but it still effective and Gery Oldman was able to bring Dracula - excuse the oxymoron - alive.
Coppola's movie takes considerable creative liberties with the source material. However it's clear that Coppola was really familiar with the novel, brings to action a keen reading of it. It's not only an interpretation or a tribute to Stoker's novel, but also to the gothic genre.
In some way, he made Dracula even more gothic. He explicit the sexual content and humanized Dracula through romance, getting rid of the Victorian taboo while leaving their presence and presenting a more complex character not only driven by ambition and thirst for power.

I enjoyed Coppola's reading of the novel and I would certainly recommend the movie but at the same time, one of the features I love most about Dracula was in fact that he was dehumanized, a monster inside out.

BOOK vs MOVIE --> BOOK WINS!

Trailer: