You Should Be Reading: Gone Girl

“The question I’ve asked more often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I supposed these questions storm cloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?”

It may have been all about the young adult dystopias over the past few months, but if you want to get yourself into something different then you should be reading Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

Published in 2012, Gone Girl is a New York Times Best Seller premised around the seemingly happy married couple, Nick and Amy Dunne. Introduced to the readers as your average husband and wife, Nick and Amy are a couple that you quickly warm to. But when Amy mysteriously disappears, the truth of their marriage slowly unravels. Realising that everything wasn’t as perfect as it seemed, the spotlight of Amy’s disappearance soon turns on to Nick, as he becomes the focus of an intense media circus. But is Nick a man capable of killing his wife? Was their marriage really that bad? Or is the truth far from the whole story?

Set to be directed by David Fincher and starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike the lead roles, the film adaptation is set to be released on 2nd October.

Book v Film: The Fault In Our Stars

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”

Based on the New York Times’ Best Seller and the fifth novel by author John Green, The Fault In Our Stars is directed by Josh Boone and follows sixteen-year-old cancer patient Hazel (Shailene Woodley) who, encouraged by her parents, begins to attend a cancer support group. Here, Hazel meets the witty seventeen-year-old Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), an ex-basketball player and amputee. Over shared experiences and their love of literature, the two subsequently fall in love and take a trip to Amsterdam to visit their favourite, albeit reclusive, author. Exploring the highs and lows of being in love, The Fault In Our Stars, more importantly, details the extravagant highs and frequented lows of being in love and having cancer.

You Should Be Reading: The Hunger Games – Mockingjay (Part 1)

“It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”

Suzanne Collins’ young adult trilogy The Hunger Games has to be one of the most popular series of novels at the minute. Set in the dystopian and post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, the novels follow lead heroine Katniss Everdeen, a young girl living in the poorest of 12 districts who, volunteering to save her younger sister, is forced to compete in The Hunger Games. Set up by the government in order to maintain peace, the annual televised games see 24 young representatives fight to the death in a specially designed arena, until only one remains.

Once again directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role, the film adaptation is set to be released on 20th November.

You Should Be Reading: The Fault In Our Stars

(Written for Rife)

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”

The Fault In Our Stars is the fifth novel by author John Green. Originally published in 2012, the story follows 16-year-old cancer patient Hazel, who, forced by her parents to attend a cancer support group, meets and subsequently falls in love with the witty 17-year-old Augustus Waters, an ex-basketball player and amputee.

Set to be released on 19th June and starring Shailene Woodley as Hazel and Ansel Elgort as Gus, and directed by Josh Boone, the film adaptation is set to be one of 2014’s most bittersweet romances, exploring the highs and lows of being in love, but more importantly the extravagant highs and frequented lows of being in love and having cancer.

Book Review: The Hobbit

“Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.”

Written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien and originally published in 1937, The Hobbit is a children’s fantasy set in a time “Between the Dawn of Færie and the Dominion of Men”. Centring around the character of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who is sent on a quest by the wizard Gandalf, alongside Thorin and his band of dwarves, to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasure from the dragon Smaug.

On their journey, Bilbo and the dwarves encounter numerous creatures, including trolls, goblins, and rock-throwing giants, as well as elves, gigantic eagles, and a strange creature called Gollum. Through Rivendell, over the Misty Mountains, and through the black forest of Mirkwood, the story comes to an end as dwarves, men and elves must band together in the Battle of Five Armies.