The Book Thief ; Movie Adaptation Review

Recently, there has been a book-to-movie adaptation of The Book Thief, the book I recently read. This past Easter weekend, I decided to watch the movie in spite of some not-so-swell reviews of it.

For the most part, I really enjoyed it - as much as one could enjoy a sort of tragedy such as this. But first, I will indulge you in all of the flaws of the film. For one thing, the movie seemed quite polished and depicted 'Heaven Street' [the street which the story took place] as rather whimsical and with frequent NAZI flags and symbols - tons of them, really - placed throughout. I understand the reasons for their placement, it just appeared to be a little much at times. Back to the polished-ness of the film; they didn't show any hunger or suffering of the family and what a strain helping the character, Max, had been on their lives. With this, many of the side plots, while inserted, were brief and didn't have the same charm or lasting effect as in the book. But that's to be expected, as there was only a 2 hour time frame, give or take, and if you were to put in every detail, it would even exceed Lord of the Rings movie standards.

Now, for the positives. The actors and actresses did an excellent job portraying their given characters. Sophie Nelisse embodied Liesel Meminger down to the bone. I especially loved how the kept true to the novel with Death narrating the story, as it set the tone very well for the story. The ending was not so brutal as the book, which I am thankful for in some ways, but was still a definite tear-jerker.

I would recommend this book and movie to anyone interested. The story of Liesel Meminger, our spunky heroine, is worth learning - no matter how many tears are shed in the process.

Mark Zusak

Mark Zusak, author of The Book Thief and other titles, was born in Australia, 1975. His first book - The Underdog - was published in 1999 and has two companion novels; Fighting Ruben Wolf and When Dogs Cry.

He has been majorly successful since The Book Thief came out in 2005, the novel reaching the number one spot all over the globe and staying at the top five for a while. Also, it has won several awards an has been translated. This past year, the novel was made into a movie.

The Book Thief

I just started reading The Book Thief a while ago, and my first impression was how amazing the writing was. It was very poetic, unique, sorrowful and expressed the author's tone strongly. I especially admired the fact that Death himself was the narrator. He spoke of the three moments he saw 'the book thief' [Liesel Meminger], which were three points in time Liesel witnessed the death of someone or was affected by their death.

It was an interesting decision for the author to decide to, instead of focusing on a Jewish Holocaust victim, write about a German girl that met all expectations but still had a rather tragic life. I like her character and think that it was a very good and original idea to write about her. So far, I would reccommend this story.

Book Recommendation: Project Fat Suit

I would rate Project Fat Suit by Liz (not_present on Wattpad) at a 8.5-9/10 or rather, 4-4.5 stars. This is because the plot is different and original (and not at all as weird as it may seem). Plus, the characters overall appeal to me personally since I can relate to them all so well and they are so real with flaws and their own individual personality. I also like that they aren't characters that you completely fall in love with or automatically hate because they are so dynamic and you really get to know them more like they are real people than just 'characters' which adds to the story even more.

This book, while it is a Wattpad novel (a popular writing website) and not yet complete, is very complex and really interesting-a read that will have you interested from the very beginning.

It is basically about a girl, Serena Davidson, who-since her mother's passing and her transfer from homeschooling to public school one year ago- has decided to wear a fat suit to Willow Heights, her high school, everyday. She claims to those who know the secret that its for her acting career, but could it have something to do with her mother?

One day, she goes to the grocery store without her suit on-and what a mistake that is- and meets Trent who immediately recognizes her as the fat, ugly, horribly mean Serena Davidson. Only one problem-she isn't fat. From there, the story begins. An unlikely friendship forms between the two, along with a few more people along the way who find out her dirty little secret. They discover the true Serena; a vegetarian, animal-loving, volunteering and overall caring girl.

So the question is, why does she hide her real self to become her alter ego? And will she ever decide to drop the facade?

Find all of this out and more when you read Project Fat Suit. Even though it seems like I told you everything, I really only told you the main parts, trust me. It gets complicated, quickly.

You [probably] won't regret it.

Tone and Mood of Project Fat Suit

The tone of Project Fat Suit by Liz (not_present) on Wattpad towards the main character, Serena Davidson is lighthearted, kind, and a little bit sarcastic and humorous. The overall tone of the book thus far is kind of heartwarming and comical, because there is a lot of family-like, cozy moments and humor in nearly every line-as shown here:

"'So, have fun?' Liam asked me teasingly. 

'Oh, loaves of," I said

'Loaves? You mean loads?'

'No, loaves of...because it was a pretty crummy time.' Truthfully I just mispronounced loads, but I didn't want the opportunity to make a good pun go by" (Liz, 39*).

 The mood is a little somber but still plenty humored at times, and really bittersweet overall such as the moment where Serena visits her mom's grave and Trent (also referred to as 'Uranus') comforts her or when she had to help Sammy, Trent's  little brother, when he finds out that his parents are in fact not on the moon but are dead and never coming back.

"'Hey,' I said, squatting own to Sam's height. 'Even though they might not be around anymore, they're always still in your heart, right?' I asked him, poking him in the chest. 

 Sam just nodded, through tears.

I turned him around and pointed at the moon. 

 'The moon's always here too, reflecting in the sun's light. So if you keep remembering them, like how the sun's always shining, they'll always be there, looking at you, like how the moon always catches the sunlight.'

Sam turned around again and wiped off his tears. 'But what about solar eclairs?' 

 I stared at him for a second. Oh, eclipses? Dang, this kid is too smart" (Liz, 31*).

A time when a character swayed the beliefs of others was in chapter forty six, when Trent/Uranus was talking to Serena about the fat suit that she parades around in at school and how he relates the situation to The Breakfast Club after they watch it.

"'No, don't you see, Rena? The people at our school just see you as what they want to see you as. They want to see you as your other self--the bad parts. That's not going to change, even if you are kind to them and take off your suit. The only way to get people to change is if they themselves decide that they don't want to be brainwashed anymore and want to change. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that you're true to yourself at all times and that does not include your suit and **iness,' Uranus told me, not taking his eyes off of mine for a second" (Liz, 46).

*-Chapter number, as pages are not completely defined on this site so there is no specific other than such.

Dead Beautiful Characters

The Characters in Dead Beautiful are very 3-dimensional and original with each their own mysterious past. Renee, the main character, starts out as a sunny California girl with two ordinary teacher parents, an ordinary boyfriend, and an ordinary best friend. Is that foreshadowing kids? Why yes it is. Oh look, an excerpt from the sypnosis on Goodreads;

"On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she'd ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder." (Goodreads) 

So basically, the gist is she's just a normal teenage girl. But wait, there's more. After the funeral, her grandfather sends her to a boarding school where the story really begins [because no, the death of her parents did not have much involvement other than being the reason she was sent there- and maybe a few other spoilers I am not willing to deal out as well]. 

The reason I love Renee however, is not because she is quote unquote 'normal' in the beginning. It's because of the depth to her character with her special talent of finding dead things [and the fact that she also found her dead parents, and that they're dead. Yeah that plays in as well], of her snarky and sarcastic sense of humor that we hear throughout her narration, and how she's actually a pretty good sleuth when it came to solving the mysterious deaths and reappearances around campus. Coming to the school ended up helping her discover some things about herself that she never knew before. When she was back in Cali, she was just another girl and now she's much much more. 

Another amazing character was her love interest, Dante. He was a very interesting character and hard to grasp at times because he was so mysterious and elusive, along with being handsome and smart and all of those wonderful things. One thing I noticed as the book went on was how vulnerable he really was, and that's why he was so gaurded [well, and the fact that he was...that his secret was...you know just read it]. 

Along with all of this, there's Eleanor and Nathaniel. I loved them since they were really wonderful friends, and how Eleanor was so sweet and caring, especially given her popularity. One would think she'd be your typical snobby rich girl but we find out she's much more than that with the pressures of following family footsteps and living kind of in her brothers shadow. The hard part was when she disappeared for ten days-and may or may not have come back undead. 

Nathaniel is an entirely different story, being kind of geeky and a little bit of a loner but so loyal and trusting/trustworthy himself. He's really there for his friends and manages to come through. 

Overall, this was a great book and I recommend it to girls. I mean if you're a guy and you want to read this, knock yourself out but girls are kind of the target readers so. 

Chamber of Secrets Character Names

The names of the characters reflect their personality. Lucius Malfoy for example. 'Mal' is the Latin root for 'bad', along with Lucius echoing Lucifer. Along with that, Professor Lockhart's name connects to his personality as well. Lockhart could suggest being secretive or guarded, which he is with his secret identity and figurative 'locked heart', ergo Lockhart. Even Dumbledore, whose name happens to be bumblebee in old English. He is an wise and old wizard who strives to protect his community and students and preserve the culture and peace of Hogwarts.

Chamber of Secrets Theme Analysis

The Book Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets is about Harry, frequently referred to as 'the boy who lived' in the first novel, and his troubling second year at the imfamous Hogwarts; school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It starts with the night they [Harry, Ron and Hermione] attend a death-day party for their friend Nearly-Headless Nick. On their way back from the dungeons where the party is being held, they discover the dead cat of the caretaker who's blood spells out 'The chamber of secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware." Under such inconvenient circumstances, the students are released from their dinner at the dining hall and the trio is discovered there.

They have to find out who exactly the heir is, and who wrote the message. But it doesn't end there, Tom Riddle's diary is uncovered and Harry can see him writing to him magically. On top of that, a mysterious force is turning students and staff to stone [not quite literally, but they are frozen in time] and this claims Hermione as well. This makes it more urgent to discover who is behind this.

Along with everything else, a new proffessor is at the school, a celebrity at that. He is very arrogant and full of himself, as many celebrities are. Harry and Ron suspect he is keeping something from the students, but aren't quite sure what. As he has had all of these adventures written in his books and can't seem to prove himself as having actually done those things outside of that.

A big theme in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is that its important to show tolerance of differences among a community. The way 'mudbloods' [wizards with non-magical ancestry] were treated worse than the pure-blooded, almost 'pedigree' like wizards. This is displayed with the slytherins who tend to stick their noses up at anyone who isn't a pure-blood. They hate mud-bloods, half-bloods and muggles alike simply because they are not as 'pure' as them. The Dursleys also demonstrate this, with their liking of being humans and 'normal' where as the wizarding world is completely ridiculous in their eyes and they are truly quite terrified of magical people.

Throughout the book, Draco Malfoy especially shows his clear disliking of the muggles and mud-bloods-due to his background as a slytherin student who tend to be described as rather snooty and arrogant, along with being strange looking and plainly mean. He even called Hermione a mud-blood when he snapped at her in one of their arguements. People were clearly taken aback by this and Hermione was embarrassed.

"'It's about the most insulting thing he could think of,' gasped Ron, coming back up. 'Mudblood's a really foul name for someone who is Muggle-born--you know, non-magic parents'" (Rowling 115). This quote shows the reaction to him calling her a Mudblood.

Harry Potter and friends try to make the point of how preposterous it is to hate people for whether their family is all pure or not. Because Hermione is a muggleborn, and Harry is a half-blood this is especially important.

So, this shows that it doesn't matter where people come from or if they are the richest or the poorest, the most magical or the least, all that matters is the person they are on the inside.

The Chamber of Secrets Characters

The characters in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets each come back after undergoing their summer vacation and are surprised with the strange happenings about the school. Harry's summer was particularly dreadful, having had to spend it with his Uncle and Aunt and snobby cousin who appear to enjoy his misery.

Through the book, Harry and friends Hermione and Ron have been blamed for all of the strange occurrences due to the highly inconvenient and merely coincidental evidence against them [i.e.; Finding the cat, Colin Creevey being stunned after he frequently annoyed Harry]. This frustrates them and they decide to solve the mystery to clear their name, but no one seems to trust them.

Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets Summary and Predictions

I am about half-way through the book, and I predict that the new teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, has something to do with all of the children turning to stone [because you can never trust a teacher at Hogwarts] and also because he has all of these wild stories and 'experiences' but he hasn't, so far, been able to demonstrate any further knowledge of the things he teaches the 2nd years about.  I also predict that Draco also has a part in it because of the discussions he had with Crabbe and Goyle [his friends] and how said he knew how to open the chamber of secrets.