Runaways Volume 1 | Review

Title: Pride and Joy
Series: Runaway
Genre: Graphic Novel, Superheroes
My Star Rating: ★★★★☆
Blurb:

All young people believe their parents are evil ... but what if they really are? Meet Alex, Karolina, Gert, Chase, Molly and Nico - whose lives are about to take an unexpected turn. When these six young friends discover their parents are all secretly super-powered villains, the shocked teens find strength in one another. Together, they run away from home and straight into the adventure of their lives - vowing to turn the tables on their evil legacy.

This was the first graphic novel/comic book I'd ever read and I'm pleasantly surprised.  A few months ago my dad bought me a small selection of marvel comic books as I'm a big fan of marvel films and he thought I might enjoy what they were based on. I did, however avoid them for a while as I wasn't quite sure how to approach it, yes I could read books but would I understand it fully? I didn't like the idea of there being no description. As it turns out you don't need description, that's what the pictures are for (seems kind of obvious now I think about it). It felt like I was watching TV.

The storyline was great, a group of children who only know each other as family friends discover their parents are super villans, they then go on to discover secrets their parents had kept from them and realise power they never new they had.

The illustrations were nothing special but at each chapter mark there were great pictures of the characters, drawn in a different style.

Each character had clear and individual personalities, my favourite character was probably Nico, a goth girl that wasn't stereotypically moody and I also like Karolina as I feel she had a lot of morals and the most realistic reaction to their situation as well as some great character development.

I am about to order volume two and I can't wait to see what happens next.
Love Always,
Freya

A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin | Review

Title: A Game Of Thrones
Series: A Song Of Ice and Fire
Genre: Epic Fantasy
My Star Rating:★★★★★
Blurb:

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand his honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must ... and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty. The old gods have no power in the south, Stark's family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.

A Game Of Thrones is a big book. Big books ,to many, are daunting. People think these books will be dificult to read with big words and long chapters. A Game Of Thrones isn't. I agree that the writing style would be a bit much for a small child but then again a small child shouldn't be reading this book at all. The chapters are of a good size and in order to get through this book you just need to dedicate some time to it and take it a chapter at a time. You'd be suprised at how fast you can read it.

It is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. Every so often I would stop reading and take a moment to appriciate the sentence I had just read. However one of my pet peeves with this book was that half the chapters began with "(insert character name) was breaking his/her fast when...". 

There are eight different character perspectives. First is Ned Stark: he is the Lord of Winterfell, an honourable man and close friends with King Robert Baratheon. Next is Ned's wife, Catelyn Stark. Then there children Arya, Sansa and Bran aswell as Ned's bastard son, Jon Snow. From King's Landing we have Tyrion Lannister: a dwarf, the son of one of the most powerful men in Westeros. Then finally Daenerys Targrayen, a thirteen year old girl who wants to go home, accompanied by a brother who wants the iron throne.

The plot of this book is very clever. It's almost like several seperate stories but they all intertwine in such interesting ways.

The first time I tried to read this book I found it very difficult to picture what was going on. It was like I was reading the words but they weren't registering with me at all. It had been recommend that I watch the HBO TV show before reading the book and I did. After watching the show, the book made perfect sense to me. There was, however, a downfall to this. Because I had watched the show and new exactly what was going to happen this book took me a long time to read. I didn't have any interest in finding out what happened next because I already new.

Overall this was a great book and is becoming one of my favourites so I hope you like it too.
Love Always,
Freya

The Maze Runner | Film Review

Title: The Maze Runner
Adapted From: The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Genre: Dystopia
Director: Wes Ball
My Star Rating: ★★★★☆

On Friday night I went to an advanced screening of The Maze Runner. The general UK release is not until the 10th of September. 
As a film by its self it would have been amazing, compared to the book however, it could have been better. Lots of things happened in a different order, details about the world were changed and characters died in the wrong way. 
Let's talk about casting choices first. I loved Dylan O'Brien as Thomas, but then again I love Dylan O'Brien in general. From his time playing Stiles he has evidently perfected the "panicked" look. My favourite actor in this film was Thomas Sangster as Newt (otherwise known as fit guy from Game of Thrones). I loved that Newt kept his British accent as fake American ones are unbearable *cough* Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower *cough*. He was funny and even when crying he was inhumanly good looking.
I liked the film's pacing, sometimes when a story is condensed into a short amount of time it can seem rushed and in some ways an insult to the book when so much is left out or glossed over as if it is unimportant. I didn't feel like The Maze Runner had this problem.
I good test to see if a film is any good is "did I cry when someone died?" and I did. The key to an effective death scene is not the death its self but another characters reaction or way of dealing with that death and they did this perfectly. 
I loved the set, it was a lot prettier than I imagined. The fields, the gardens and the shelters they slept in all looked great and nothing looked out of place. You could believe that these people had built this for themselves in the time they had been here. I did have one problem with the maze, a lot of the time the walls weren't very high and it didn't seem like much of a maze.
I didn't like the grievers, they were supposed to be giants slugs with spikes but instead they were mechanical spiders with what (at first glance) looked like a human head.
Although most of my friends were disappointed with this film I thought it was really good. Maybe this is because analysing book to film adaptations is a hobby of mine and I realise why this changes have to be made during the adaptation process. I hope it did well in box office and that they make the sequel and if they do I can't wait to see more of this world on the big screen.
Love Always,
Freya