Bookish Academy Awards

Hello!

Last weekend was the Oscars so I decided to take part in the tag circulating Booktube and list my Bookish Academy Award winners for the books I read in 2014.

Best Actor - Best Male Protagonist

Liam from The Darkest Minds: The finale was released last year and holy cow did I love it. The Darkest Minds is one of my favorite series and Liam is such a comedic, sarcastic, badass, wonderful protagonist.

Best Actress - Best Female Protagonist

I'm tempted to say Ruby from The Darkest Minds but since I already listed Liam, I'm going with Karou from Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Karou is a kickass female protagonist who doesn't let anyone stand in her way and I want to be her best friend.

Best Cinematography - Best Plot Twist

I can't remember any plot twists so...

Best Costume Design - Best Book Cover

Just look at it. Need I say more?

Best Supporting Actor - Best Male Sidekick

Kenji Kishimoto <3. I love his and Juliette's relationship in this series. He's badass, sarcastic, funny, and I want more of him.

Best Supporting Actress - Best Female Sidekick

Zuzana is seriously the best friend ever. She's adorable, she has a great relationship with Karou, and she lightens up the intense story as well as furthers it.

Best Original Screenplay - Most Unique Plot/World

I have never read anything like If I Stay. If you don't already know, the book follows Mia, a girl who recently was involved in a car crash and lost her parents and her brother. Throughout the book she is in a coma and debating whether or not to wake up. I thought the story was incredibly unique and  loved it.

Best Adapted Screenplay - Best Book-to-Movie Adaptation

I reread TFiOS for the movie and it was fantastic. I've only seen the movie once but I thought it was a brilliant adaptation. It stayed very true to the book while also creating an understandable and well made movie.

Best Animated Feature - A Book That Would Work Well in Animated Format

Amulet is such a fun, creative graphic novel and I think it would be an amazing animated movie.

Best Director - A Writer You Discovered For the First Time

To All the Boys I've Loved Before was the first book written by Jenny Han I read. I've since read her Summer series and I love all her books. They're sweet, unique contemporary romances that don't include all the cliches normally found in romance. The characters are wonderful as is the writing.

Best Visual Effects - Best Action in a Book

I'm going to cheat a little and choose a manga series for this one. Attack on Titan has beautiful art with outstanding action scenes.

Best Musical Score - Best Music in a Book-to-Movie Adaptation

The score in Mockingjay was amazing. It perfectly complemented the film.

Best Short Film - Best Novella

Night of Cake & Puppets, the novella to Daughter of Smoke & Bone was adorable. It followed the first date of Zuzana and Mik and was magical.

Best Picture - Best Stand-Alone

I'm not one for paranormal books, every one I've read just wasn't a good experience, but The Coldest Girl in Coldtown was great. Vampirism is such an overdone topic but this book gives it a fresh spin. I was captivated by the plot and the characters and I wish there was more.

Best Documentary - Best Historical Fiction/Non Fiction

I had to read this for school and I really enjoyed it. The writing is wonderful and it's a very interesting perspective of the Vietnam War. This book is historical fiction but it feels a lot more like non fiction (in a good way).

That's the last one! Thanks for reading :)
Hana

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If I Stay Movie Review

Hey guys!

So today I saw the movie adaptation of If I Stay.

I would give it a C+/B- (7.5/10 stars). It wasn't the worst book-to-movie adaption but it wasn't the best. While watching it there was a lot of awkwardness. The transitions from past to present were awkward, Chloe's acting was awkward, and the voiceover was awkward. I think the best way to have presented the movie was to just have it be confusing in the beginning and then clear things up in the end instead of having Mia narrate. Another problem I had was that there were a lot of continuity errors and some of the logic didn't make sense.

I also didn't like how they made everything overdramatic. For the most part I liked Jamie's acting but sometimes he could be too dramatic. Additionally, some of the character changes that were made I didn't understand. For example, in the movie Adam was extremely selfish at times and it just didn't make sense. Kim was also downplayed too much. In the book she was a big part of the story but in the movie it seemed like her only purpose was to show that Mia isn't a total loner.

While all of these things added to the poor execution of the movie, my biggest problem was how they centered around the romance. Instead of focusing on Mia and her Choice, they focused on Mia and Adam's relationship. I felt that the book really wasn't about the romance and was about her Choice. Another thing that upset me was the ending. (Spoiler) I feel like instead of making the Choice herself, Adam made it for her. Adam wasn't the only reason she chose to stay, but the movie made it seem that way. (End Spoiler)

There was a lot I didn't like about the movie, but I did like some things. The (many) kissing scenes were great and there were a few scenes that I genuinely enjoyed. However, I do think the movie could have been a lot better.

Thanks for reading!
Hana