The Books That Have Shaped Me Into The Reader I Am Today.

Every so often in life you come across one of those special books, a book that has a revolutionary effect leaving you permanently marked for the better. One that resonates with you, forces you to challenge your own thinking or opens up a new world you were unaware existed. I am sure every reader has come across at least one of these books, whether it was the first they ever picked up, or a story that was there for them exactly when they needed it. As an enthusiastic bookworm and student, I like to think every book I pick up has influenced me in some way, however, there are certainly some that have had a bigger effect than others!

I was super excited when I saw 

DAY 24 Book You’re Most Embarrassed to Say You Like/Liked.

*Sigh* Okay, it’s confession time.

You see, I have a deep dark past… 

Breaking Dawn Part 2 Film Review

Ohhh my freaking god. What did I just witness? *cue crazy eyed look*
As a person with a love hate relationship with The Twilight Saga, I was pleasantly surprised by how good Breaking Dawn Part 1 was. Unfortunately this time I was pleasantly horrified, and well….a little bored to be honest.
Still, it’s weird to think that this was REALLY the last film in the series. As one of my friends put it ‘Wow, when we walk out of this cinema Twilight is over, our teenage fangirling years are over’.
There are a lot of great memories I have in relation to Twilight. Friendships formed, endless laughs and inside jokes, and a lot of traditions, but I am definitely ready to move on from it.

Plot
So we left the last film with Bella (Kristen Stewart) giving birth and being turned in to a vampire. Shock! Horror! What a cliffhanger! (Actually sarcasm aside I have to give it to them, it was good.)
We begin part 2 with Bella reveling in her pale immortal awesomeness and fake eyelashes. Edward (Robert Pattinson) gets super excited that they’re the same temperature now, and they head out for Bella’s first hunt. 

Stephenie Meyer’s The Host to be adapted for the big screen?!?

Is anyone else internally cringing?

I don’t really know if this is common knowledge. Maybe I’m just out of the loop but I hadn’t heard anything about this until 2 minutes ago browsing the Culture section on in The Guardian newspaper. For those of you who don’t know Stephenie Meyer’s The Host was released early 2008. A science fiction romance novel about parasites, I guess you would call them, that invade the body and take over the human race.
Feel free to take a look at the blurb:

Breaking Dawn Part 1 Film Review

Overall Impression: Taylor took his shirt off within the first five seconds, there were cringe-worthy honeymoon scenes that resulted in my rolling around with laughter, and Kristen Stuart actually learnt some more facial expressions! So all in all, Breaking Dawn part 1 was actually, shockingly………..good!

Well, where to start…..
So many things to say and not enough time! I really have a love hate relationship with Twilight.  Me and my friend have a tradition that we always go to see the movies together, even though we are no longer ‘Twihard’ fans, and in many ways actually dislike it now. I hate many of the messages in Twilight, not to mention the annoying Bella Swan, the cheesiness, the terrible acting, and yet………..the dorky teenage girl in me still kinda enjoys watching it. Of course, part of that enjoyment is also me and my friend laughing our heads off in all the wrong places that are considered ‘serious’ moments, resulting in us annoying half the cinema.

*BEWARE: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW* (Even though I think the majority of the world already knows what happens, but y’know just incase.)

The Plot
So the movie begins with Jacob receiving the invitation to Bella and Edwards wedding, which makes him super angry and emotional. The result of this of course is him flinging off his shirt and running into the woods. *swoooon* (the Twilight producers really know a way to a girls heart). This is followed by a montage of Bella’s other friends/relatives also receiving their invitation.

Do you get bored of YA covers imitating Twilight?

Ok, I will fully admit, when I first read the Twilight books, I got a bit obsessed with them for a while. I was exactly the right age to read them at the time, and it was also one of the first YA (Young Adult) fantasy romance books I’d ever read. Me and my friends all read them and squealed at the ‘perfect’ Edward and daydreamed about one day meeting our own vampire boyfriend.
However, slowly the hype around the books grew due to them being turned into film adaptions. I went to see the films, and became less interested. I then reread the books, and became confused about why I actually liked them in the first place. And the more people talked about them, the less and less I liked them and the annoying ‘Twihard’ fans associated with them. Anyway, to avoid this turning into a Twilight rant about the annoying Bella, and Edwards canny resemblance to a stalker etc, etc I’ll get back on topic!

It seems like ever since the Twilight Saga became popular, tonnes and tonnes of YA books have been desperately trying to follow in it’s footsteps, and one of the ways in which they are attempting this seems to be their front covers/illustrations.

Take the Vampire Diaries series for example. These books have been around for quite a long time, yet after the popularity of Twilight were given completely new covers, and this is the result:

What do you think of the representation of women in the vampire genre?

Hi everyone!

This is just a quick post to say that I haven’t put anything on here much partly because I have tonnes of work for school, but also because I am reading the book From Demons to Dracula by Matthew Berestford because I am doing a media project on “how the representation of women in the vampire genre changed in film and TV.”

I would be extremely grateful if you could give me some of your views on this, as it would be great to have a section where I get a variety of people’s views on this topic. How do you feel women are represented in Twilight? Vampire Diaries? Dracula? Interview with a Vampire? True Blood? Buffy the Vampire Slayer? and any other you can think of. It would be really helpful if I could get some comments from you! And if you could take the poll that would also be great!