The Fault In Our Stars Review

A heart-warming and heart-breaking novel, The Fault In Our Stars is definitely a tear jerker, for a multitude of reasons.

Written by the famed John Green, also known for titles such as Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable book, with incredibly endearing characters, from Hazel’s mother to Augustus Waters himself.

The book is based largely on another, made up book, An Imperial Affliction, and its author, Peter van Houten, both of which Augustus and Hazel almost revolve around, with quotes from the ‘book’ interspersed throughout their conversations.

One of the more prominent of these quotes is ‘pain demands to be felt’, and although it’s morbid, I quite like it. It kind of defines and personifies pain; it’s greedy, selfish and doesn’t care about others.

Pain has a massive part to play, with both emotional and physical agony running like a river throughout the book. Green allows readers to experience what it might be like to have cancer, and how it affects not only yourself, but those around you. There are advantages to being terminally ill, but also devastating disadvantages too. TFOIS portrays Hazel as a bit of a cynic with an almost dark sense of humour, but that’s why I love her character. She describes herself as having ‘a touch of cancer’, and makes light of her debilitating disease, but isn’t exactly mean with her humour.

I think the relationship that Hazel and Augustus develop is illustrated beautifully. Over the course of the book, they grow closer and closer, despite Hazel trying her best not to fall in love with Augustus, because of her terminal cancer. They have such an amazing understanding for each other, and illumine the others life. It’s almost a perfect love story. I mean, it would be, if it weren’t for the ‘touch of cancer’.

The tragic end had me in tears for the remainder of the book, and I then proceeded to (shamelessly) cry myself to sleep. But within the heartbreak, there is also a sliver of happiness to be found.

The Railway Man Review

Hard-hitting and incredibly emotive and inspiring, The Railway Man is something everyone should read or watch. Starring Colin Firth, Jeremy Irvine and Nicole Kidman, it’s a truly affecting film.

Firth plays the part of Eric Lomax, a WW2 engineer and railway enthusiast, perfectly. He’s charming at the beginning and exceptionally admirable at the end. Firth is very convincing as Lomax, right the way through the film. Jeremy Irvine, who plays the Young Eric Lomax, had, undoubtedly, a more difficult job. He not only had to act as Eric, but also act as Colin playing Eric. Not only that, but he agreed to pretty much starve himself for 2 months for the role, and endure some very real waterboarding for the film.

The movie was much better than I expected it to be, and has definitely given me a lot to think about. It’s one of those films that you don’t forget easily, and stays with you for a long time afterwards; the best kind of films, in my opinion. Eric Lomax was an honourable and admirable person, and I can’t help but think that if were more people like him in the world, more generous with mercy and compassion and forgiveness, then maybe the world would be a better place. Eric could so easily have had his revenge on Nagase, a Japanese Army officer and interpreter, but he refrained, and became good friends with his worst enemy, up until the day they died.

The picture was directed amazingly and the minimalistic soundtrack emphasised every second of the film. With powerful eastern music and long stretches of silence, the film was both suspenseful and very emotional and hard to watch at times.

I can’t even begin to comprehend the suffering of so many races and religions that is caused by war, but I definitely feel as though The Railway Man has given me an insight into a part of WW2 that I didn’t even know existed. It’s definitely worth seeing, or reading Eric Lomax’s autobiography, from which the film was inspired.

On a lighter note, I saw my old Year 6 teacher at the cinema, and I’m glad I was sat down so she couldn’t tell me how much I’ve grown.

Obsessions

It has come to my attention that I have developed a a strong liking for several film franchises over the Christmas holidays, which have been heightened even more recently; being ill has given me the excuse to mope about the house all weekend watching films.

I’ve always kind of liked the Harry Potter films and books, but I managed to watch each of the eight films at least twice over the holidays, and the result of this is a rather worrying attachment to the series. ITV showed all the films over the holidays, most of which I watched, as well as ‘Behind the Scenes’ side shows, and now I can quote a line from the films/books in almost any daily situation.

It’s a similar situation with the Lord of the Rings films, as well as The Hobbit. I watched An Unexpected Journey a while ago, but didn’t have much appreciation or understanding of the film. Then, on my Dad’s birthday, the two of us went to see the second instalment, which ended on a ridiculous cliff-hanger. I’ve never read the book before, and had no idea if and how Smaug would meet his end, and whether the Dwarves would reclaim the mountain. So I read the book, and I now understand the two films much more. I do think they could have made two films, however, instead of three; I felt some scenes in Desolation of Smaug were a bit drawn out and violent. The Lord of the Rings films are another of my new obsessions, Legolas and Gimli and particular. I’ve never seen the films or read the books, as I thought they were boys’ films and girls wouldn’t like them and that they were rubbish. But I proved myself wrong. After enjoying the Desolation of Smaug, I thought LOTR would be worth a shot. Especially as the three Blu-Ray discs were on sale for a grand total of £10.

Having read The Hobbit by this point, I got really into the first film, although I didn’t know all three films were around the 3 hour mark. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the trilogy, and I’m actually quite surprised at the amount of humour there was in the films, particularly with Legolas and Gimli, which is why I think I’ve grown to love them so much. Although Legolas isn’t exactly hard to look at.

I don’t really know what the purpose of this post is supposed to be, I think it’s just because Harry Potter and LOTR are on my mind a lot, (for better or for worse, I have no idea) especially as I have many tracks from their respective soundtracks on one of my Spotify playlists, which I’m listening to as I write this. I think I was just trying to say we all have different obsessions, whether we’re proud of them or not, and mine have had quite a quick onset.

They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE-1RPDqJAY

Happy New Year!

I usually don't get very bothered about the beginning of a new year, as I rarely make resolutions, much less stick to them. But this year, as I sat in front of my TV watching the fireworks go off on BBC1, I felt an overwhelming sense of panic. Whilst my sister was checking that the cat wasn't too scared of the fireworks, I was sat there trying not to think about what 2014 will undoubtedly present to me.

There are some things that I'm looking forward to and I wish would arrive sooner, but there are others that know are going to come all to quickly, namely sitting my GCSE exams, getting my results and starting 6th form.

The event I'm looking forward to the most is going to see the Strictly Come Dancing Live tour, the tickets for which were in my Christmas stocking. I got way too emotionally involved in the recent series of Strictly; I cried at a pre-recorded results show. At that point, I realised I was taking the show a bit too seriously. Nonetheless, I am more than excited to be seeing some of my favorite celebrities and professionals live in February.

I'm also half looking forward to my 16th birthday. I feel really materialistic saying this, but I do quite enjoy birthday, especially as there is a tradition in my family to have a Chinese takeaway for each birthday meal. My Dad's birthday is the 23rd of December, so we have Chinese for tea, and have the leftovers on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas dinner on Christmas Day.

But I'm also slightly scared to turn 16. I know it's an irrational fear, but I feel old thinking about it. There are so many things that you're free to do, legally, once you're 16. You can even get married. I just feel as though being 16 weighs you down with a load of decisions and responsibilities that I'm not prepared for, but that't probably just me being me; a worrier and an overthinker. 

There's also the dreaded exams. Back at the beginning of Year 10, June of Year 11 seemed worlds away, but now it's a harsh reality. In about 5 months time, I'll be sitting exams that basically sculpt and mould the rest of your life. After getting my mock exam results back, I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, especially now that I know I was a mark or two off a higher grade in some subjects. My results weren't even that bad, but I think I felt like the exams went pretty well and didn't get the results I thought I was going to get. I just hope I don't feel disappointed come results day in August.

Once I've gone through the GCSE exams and results, I'll have 6th form to look forward to and worry about. I'm kind of excited to be going into more depth in Biology and English Literature, as they're subjects I genuinely enjoy and find interesting, and I'm willing to work hard at. I'm also keen to start Psychology, as it's always been an interest of mine, so I'm looking forward to learning more about the human brain. I am nervous about the undoubted increase in workload, however. It's not that I don't want to do it; I'm more worried about whether I'll actually be able to do it, and to get all homework in on time. I guess we'll have to wait and see. For now, I'm focussing my worry on my GCSE's.