Book to Movie Comparison: Into The Wild

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

The book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer follows the true story of Christopher McCandless's journey to Alaska to live alone in the wilderness, the people he meets along the way, and his eventual death.

The book was adapted into a movie directed by Sean Penn and released in 2007. Like the book, the film shows the triumphs and failures that Chris went through on his journey of life and death as he tried to survive alone in the wild. 

You can preview or watch the movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WydJ1w31OEI


Here are my thoughts: 
Firstly, I recommend reading the book before watching the movie.

The book tries to present the facts to the reader, even though Jon Krakauer admits that he is a bit bias, and give as much information as possible about Chris's story.

Emile Hirsch plays Christopher McCandless in the film. I think this was a good choice, he looked quite a bit like Chris did in the pictures I've seen and did a decent job of portraying Chris in the movie. I think that the casting for the movie was done very well.

For me, a lot of the movie seemed fake. I knew that the overall story was true, how Chris left his home to travel and eventually goes to Alaska, but I also knew that in a lot of the scenes we don't know exactly what Chris said to certain people or what he was thinking. Even if the people he talked to along his journey were interviewed, a memory of an event is not always 100% accurate. Because I knew that a lot of things in the movie were things that just could have happened, and didn't definitely happen, it made it not seem so real.

I feel like the movie was clearly made in a way that Chris's family approved of. In the book it is obvious that Chris struggled to deal with finding out that his parents had been lying to him.  The movie shows the family grieving over Chris leaving them, even showing Chris's father sitting in the middle of the street clearly in agony over the loss of his son. It also makes it seem like in the end Chris has forgiven his parents, which I believe is how his family wanted themselves to be depicted as.

There are several things in the movie that were clearly added to make it a better story. For example Chris's romance with Tracy who was played by Kristen Stewart. In the book it was only briefly mentioned that Tracy had a crush on Chris.

I feel that the movie depicted Chris as somewhat crazy for wanting to leave the comforts of society. For example, one scene shows Chris talking to an apple that he is eating and makes jokes about it. I think the book never said one way or another whether he was crazy or not. The book simply presented the facts to the reader so that people could form their own opinions about Chris. Jon Krakauer did give his own opinion, but I don't think it does much to influence the readers' opinion. I felt that the movie was trying to force an opinion onto the audience by depicted Chris as crazy.

Overall, I liked the book better than the movie. I think it was a decent adaptation of the book, however I wasn't thrilled with it. I rated the book 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads and I think I would give the film a 3 out of 5 stars if I had to give it a rating. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't the greatest movies ever and I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would.

J'Adore VoxBox

Hello!

I recently received my J'Adore VoxBox from Influenster. I received these products complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster. My box came with a 18.05 oz. bag of Hershey's Kisses, Boots Botanics Shine Away Ionic Clay Mask, Frizz Ease 3-Day Straight Flat Iron Spray, KISS Looks So Natural Lashes, and 4 teabags of Red Rose Simply Indulgent Teas.

I have tried the tea and I am enjoying it. It is the Creme Caramel flavor I also got the Lemon Chiffon flavor, but I haven't tried that one yet. I will probably purchase this for myself. It is very good.

I'm not sure when I will be able to use the fake eyelashes. I have pretty long lashes naturally and fake ones are not something I wear. I might save them for a special event and do a review on them when I try them out.

I'm going to try the flat iron spray, but I'm not too excited about this because I have naturally straight hair and this is meant for people with curly hair that flat iron frequently. I'm not sure how much it would help my hair...

I am excited about the Hershey's Kisses, who doesn't love chocolate?

I am also excited to try out the clay mask. I think masks are fun to use once in a while and they are also good for your skin. You can expect a review of this product in the future.

Overall, I'm excited about my J'Adore VoxBox. I can't wait to try out and review the stuff I got.

Divergent Final Trailer

This trailer makes me so excited for the movie to come out! I really like Shailene Woodley as Tris. She is not exactly what I was picturing as I was reading, but I think she is a great actress and, as far as I can tell from the trailer, will make a great Tris. I do wish her hair was a little blonder, in some spots it looks really blond but in others it looks more brown to me. That's sort of a small thing to complain about I guess. I like that we get to see so much of the world around them and see so many of the characters. It kind of bothers me that a lot of things were not in order. For example the part with her in the chair with the needle at the beginning of the trailer is after she has become dauntless, not before. I do think this will be a pretty faithful adaptation of the book. It seems like they included a lot of things directly from the book. I can't wait to see it!

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

So, the Divergent movie is coming out really soon (March 21) and of course I had to read the book before the movie comes out.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

 In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris, and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves . . . or it might be what destroys her.

I rate this book...

5 out of 5 stars

What I thought...

*Non Spoilers Section*

This book is a dystopian, it is in the future. In this world, when you turn 16 you take a test that is supposed to help you decide which of the five factions you will spend the rest of your life in. This test did not work for the main Character, Beatrice, and she has to make a choice without it's help. Each faction has different beliefs and when you join you have to go through tests to be initiated into the faction. The faction Tris comes from is all about being selfless. Tris has to decide whether she really is selfless or if she is selfish and brave instead. Her choice changes everything.

I loved the main character. She was tough and brave. She did so many things that I didn't expect.

This book was full of action from start to end. I did not want to put it down. I needed to know what happened next. I can't wait to read the second one. I highly recommend it.

*Spoilers Section*

What would you have done in the test at the beginning? I like to think that I would do the same this as Tris did, but I'm not sure. Did you expect her to pick Dauntless as her faction? I wasn't really surprised that she did. I couldn't picture Tris staying in Abnegation her whole life. It just didn't seem to fit her personality, even though she was raised there.

If I were Tris I don't think I would have been able to survive initiation into Dauntless. I would probably lose all my fights. The simulations made me wonder how many fears I would have to face if I had to. Probably more than Tris had to and definitely more than Four/Tobias.

I was not expecting Tris's mom to be from Dauntless. I just assumed that she was originally from Abnegation and stayed there. I didn't realize until just before Tris did, I was like oh my gosh! She must have been dauntless if she knows where she's going and knows what happens there.

I also did not expect Four to be Tobias. I had completely forgotten about Marcus's son leaving Abnegation for Dauntless until right before it was revealed and Tris figured it out.

I love that Four/Tobias doesn't want to have just the one trait from his factions, he wants to have all of them. And he has tattoos to represent this all along his back. It so sweet that he lets Tris see them and he won't let anyone else. I love Tris and Tobias together. I think they both have a lot of things that happened to them in their lives up to this point and they fit together well.

What did you think of the ending? I was surprised that both of her parents died. I wish we had gotten more information about their pasts before they died, but there are two more books so, who knows what could happen (unless you read them already then you probably know). I feel like it ended kind of abruptly. I feel like it ended right at the moment where the climax was happening. I can't wait to read the second book.

Bookish Resolutions

Hello everyone!

I know it is February now, but I thought I would share with you my reading resolutions for 2014. This year I have joined Goodreads to help keep track of the books I'm reading, but I also like writing them down by hand. Last year I read 23 books. I know that for some people this is a lot and for others this isn't very many at all. I decided that I really wanted to read more this year because reading is something that I enjoy doing and I think it is fun.

I have set my Goodreads reading challenge to 52 books for this year. That's one book a week. I think this is very doable for me, but also a bit of a challenge. Currently, according to Goodreads, I am 9 books ahead of schedule and have read 14 books so far in 2014. I think this is a great start and that it's good that I'm ahead, because chances are there will be times when I'm busy and don't have as much time to read as I do right now.

You can expect to see lots of book reviews in the future! I won't review every single book, but I will try to do as many as I can.

If you are interested in seeing what I'm reading, here is a link to my Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/27256136-rebecca

The Fault in Our Stars Movie Trailer

I am so excited for this movie to come out. I read the The Fault in Our Stars by John Green because my friend recommended it to me back when it first came out and I loved it. After watching the trailer I immediately picked up the book again. I just finished re-reading it this morning and I will probably read it again right before the movie comes out on June 6th. I just about never reread books, but I think this is one that I could read over and over again and never get tired of. Re-reading the book brought back all the emotions from the first time I read it. I smiled, laughed, and yes, cried.  I can't wait to see the characters I read about and fell in love with come to life in the movie.