Saturday, 19 July 2014

Review on Bentwhistle the Dragon #2 A Chilling Revelation



After narrowly escaping the clutches of the evil Manson, Peter Bentwhistle is slowly recovering from the ordeal. However, things are far from over, as after as visit to the King, Peter, along with his friends Tank and Gee Tee are drawn into a plot involving a dragon named Flash, who narrowly escaped a mission in Antarctica that had gone horribly wrong. What is going on in Antarctica? Are there dragons who plan on committing reason? And most importantly, what has happened to Manson and the missing pieces of laminium? An evil plot is brewing, and it is up to Peter and his friends to stop it before innocent lives are lost. But will they be able to do it in time? The countdown begins as the friends race to save both humans and dragons alike
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I loved the first book in this series, and was looking forward to reading the sequel. This book is just as action packed as the first, delving even deeper into the realms of the dragon world. There are new and exciting characters, and even new creatures. I particularly loved Flash, an ex member of the Crimson Guard who Peter, Tank and Richie soon become good friends with. As he had been a part of the Guard his whole life, I found it interesting and funny that he got excited over simple dragon activities such as laminium ball matches. The laminium ball was one of my favourite parts of the first book, so I loved that this sport made a comeback in the sequel. I also loved the twist of events at the New Zealand match, making it that much more exciting and suspenseful. I thought that Peter's grandfathers story line was interesting, but I was slightly disappointed that this was left about three quarters of the way through the book to focus on Peter's story line. I felt that this could have been left in a more suspenseful place than it was, as Peter's story was left on a huge cliffhanger, but his grandfather's was not. 

I also felt that a lot of questions were put forward, but non of them were answered. I realize that these will probably be all cleared up in the next book, but felt that a couple of plot points could have been cleared in this book. This could potentially be confusing, as there are so many problems that need to be resolved in the last book that I felt Cude could have resolved some of the minor problems and only saved the bigger problems for the final book. That said, I loved the book overall, and as it reached it's climax, I found myself reading into the night, as the book was too suspenseful to put down. I look forward to the final book and seeing how everything is resolved.







Thursday, 17 July 2014

Thoughts on The Fault in our Stars movie



So I realize I don't usually write movie reviews as this is meant to be a book blog, but I had had to write a review on the movie adaptation of one of my favourite books, The Fault In Our Stars. I'll admit, I was nervous about watching it. Although I had heard good things about it, I was still worried that it would not live up to my expectations. I have been disappointed with so many book to movie adaptations that I thought there would be at least one major point I would be annoyed at. However, this was not the case and I was extremely happy with it. Shailene and Ansel are literally perfect as Hazel and Augustus, bringing the characters I loved so much in the book to life. There were more comedy moments than I thought there would be which I loved. Isaac was also perfect, and I think Nat Wolff should be getting a lot more credit for his performance. After reading the book and knowing what would happen, I thought that I would not cry over the movie. However I started crying about 20 minutes before the movie ended and barely stopped until the end. The majority of the movie theater was in tears, which shows how well these actors portayed the story and the emotions of the characters. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who has not yet seen it, but of course, remember to read the book first!