How pretty is this cover?!?! I love it so much!!
The story in this book is one that I have grown up loving. I have seen every film adaptation and even the stage show. The only problem is I have never actually read JM Barrie's book. The only Peter Pan book I have read is the Disney one and I was about 5 or 6 when I read that. I thought it was about time that I read the original version of the story and I have to say, it was a good decision.
If you don't know the story of Peter Pan then 1. have you been living under a rock?! and 2. it is about a boy called Peter, his fairy friend Tinker Bell and the Darling children. There is one thing that is different about Peter though, he never grows up. Peter lives in Neverland. Neverland is a land of magic. It is full of Fairies, Pirates, Indians and some magical creatures. Most children only go there in there dreams but one night Peter takes the three Darling children there. That one simple act is the basis for the most amazing adventure any child could wish for.
This book had me hooked, no pun intended, from the first line. This line is simply "All children, except one, grow up." I love the concept of Peter never growing up and keeping his innocence forever. I know that in a way it is quite sad that he will never get to experience the world in all of the new ways that everyone else will but in a lot of ways it is amazing. He will forever get to play make-believe and have fun in ways that would only make people call you childish.
I think that everyone goes through a stage where they want to be Peter Pan. Where they want to live in a world with fairies and mermaids and crazy pirates who are scared of a crocodile who ticks like a clock. Where they want to run around all day having crazy adventures with their friends and for someone to tell them a bedtime story every night. I know I went through that stage. Peter Pan though, I think, is supposed to represent your childhood. Peter is innocent and care-free and loves nothing more than going on an adventure, much like a child.
I also know that Wendy is meant to represent something too. Wendy knows that she cannot stay in Neverland with Peter forever because she has a life and her family to get back to. She knows that there is more to learn about the world and that she is expected to grow up one day. She knows that one day she is supposed to fall in love and have her own family. She also knows that one day her time with Peter Pan will be nothing but a distant memory while for her own children it could be just beginning. What Wendy represents, or so I have come to discover, is a stage of acceptance. That acceptance is that you will have to grow up one day. cannot possible be a child forever no matter how much you wish it and one day you will eventually have to grow up.
With these two representations being stated, I found that when Wendy leaves Neverland and Peter at the window she is really saying goodbye to her childhood. She has realised that although she may wish to be a child forever she knows she cannot. She promises Peter that she will never grow up and in a way this may be true. She may be grown on the outside but on the inside she is still the same little girl that went on the adventure through Neverland with the boy who plagued her dreams.
The ending of this book is both heart-breaking and wonderful. Though it could have been different I do think it is one that is worthy of such a brilliant story. In a way it is almost like JM Barrie himself is saying to you that each generation should get their chance to meet Peter and put themselves in the adventures that he has on Neverland.
JM Barrie really did know how to bring a story to life. His words were written so wonderfully that they still touch the lives of so many children. and adults, almost 80 years after his death. The way he brings the characters to life is tremendous. You can really picture them and their adventures in ways that are special in their own way. I can only dream of being able to tell a story the way he could and for it to have such an impact on the lives of so many. This book really did not disappoint me in any way, if anything is surpassed my expectations of it. The tale of Peter Pan truly has a special place in my heart and I think it always will. It is the kind of story that you share with your children in the hope that they will love it just as much as you.
I do believe in fairies, I do, I do... I also believe in Peter Pan.
This is another book that I picked up because of the movie. Unfortunately I was a bad reader and watched the movie before I picked up the book. I am actually glad I did it this way around because of how different they are.
Both the book and the film are centred around 17 year old Bianca Piper and her struggles involved in her being labelled as the DUFF. While the film focuses on Bianca trying to solve the problems in her love life, the book is different. Bianca's love life does play a large role in the book but it also involves her issues at home and with her friends. In the book Bianca is characterised as a teenager better than in the film. The book allows her to go through more teenage issues that can be related to on a broad scale.
While reading this book I noticed a few topics that it brought up were ones that I had never really taken the time to think about.
One of the topics that this book brought up was labels. Specifically labels given to teenagers in high school. This book made me realise that everyone is given a label no matter how hard you try to run from it. Nowadays the labels given to people when they are in high school are getting more and more creative and are also getting a lot more personal. This book though helped me to realise that you don't need to let these labels define who you are. I know that this is easier said than done and sometimes it doesn't work but trust me, they don't all last forever. The only way you can stop seeing yourself as the label that others have given you is to stop seeing others as the labels they have been given.
Another topic that came up was distracting yourself from your problems. This is the topic that I related to most in the book. It made me realise just how often that I did things as a distraction from my real problem. I have allowed problems to get continually worse until I cannot avoid them anymore. This is something that Bianca goes through in the book. She continually uses Wesley to keep her mind off of the problems with her parents and her friends until she can no longer avoid the problems.
Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked how Kody Keplinger was able to make readers laugh and think at the same time. I liked her writing style and her characters and would love to pick up another of her books.
I want to start this off by saying WOW!!
From the minute I picked up these books I knew I was never going to be able to put them down. This world, this crazy fast-paced world, is one that I could not get enough of. The ending of every book left me both speechless and wanting more all at the same time. I am sad to say that the only reason I picked up these books was because of the films being released and not because I discovered them on my own. I am glad that I did find them though, no matter how or why it may have happened.
Book one was the one that captured my love for the series. The characters were all so authentic and made me wish that I could be a part of their world just for a minute so that I had the chance to meet them.
In a way I didn't need to be a part of their world though, I felt like I knew them and what they were like just from the words on the page. The language that they used took me some time to get my head around but after a few chapters it didn't matter what words they were using because I knew what they were saying. I understood their language and the way that they lived and the feelings that they had. I became a part of the group of people who were fighting for their lives everyday with the hope that there was something better on the other side of the crazy maze that they lived inside.
What I liked most about it all was that the relationships between the Gladers were ones that you make in everyday life, their bonds were just stronger because of the madness they were going through. The plot of the book was so different than most dystopian novels too. Yes, there was drama and yes, it was a survival story but it was such a different take on the whole thing. I loved how fast-paced the action was and loved that with every turn of the page there was something different going on.
Book two was a continuation of the first book. I started where the first left-off and so did the action. From the replacement of people in the group to the addition of a new group all trucked into a new environment, the book was action packed.
While this book introduced new characters and allowed you to get to know them, it also allowed you to better understand the existing characters. It allowed you to see how they would react in different situations. It was almost like you were WICKED and were watching this new experiment play out.
Overall the second book was a great sequel but I did feel that it was dragged out in places. Dragged out may be the wrong term to use because I felt that the information was all relevant and helped with the storyline but after beginning with so much action and ending with so much action, the middle seemed to be lacking something. That is not to say that I did not enjoy the book, I did, I just felt like there was something missing when compared with the first book in the series.
The third book was by far my favourite. The Death Cure was packed with everything that the other two books had and more. The plot of this book was to put an end to the experiments that the characters were going through. Somehow James Dashner was able to slip more emotion into this book than the others. The action seemed to be endless and the emotion seemed to be real. I could not put this book down. This book actually left me in a state of depression when it finally ended. This was not because of the ending itself but simple because it was the end. It was the end of Thomas' story and I wasn't ready to let him go yet. I sat on my couch in my living room just holding the book to my chest in a state of numbness. I tried re-reading the last few pages again and again but each time just seemed to make it worse instead of better. I was so bad that my mum even told me to put the book down and stop reading it.
Once I finished these three books and recovered from them ending, I decided to pick up the Prequel. The Kill Order tells the story of Mark and his comrades dealing with the beginning of the disease that Thomas and his friends are experiments to find a cure for. This book took me the longest to read. It was not as action filled as the others due to it being more of background on the Flare and how it came to be in the first place. I didn't feel that it was as good as the others but I would still give it a 3/5 stars.
The parts of this book that got me the most were the prologue and the epilogue. The prologue is from Teresa's point of view as she prepares to sends Thomas into the maze. It shows how she really felt about him and what they were doing. It made me realise how much he really meant to her and it made me forgive her for awful decisions she made in the trilogy. The epilogue is from Thomas' mother's perspective. It is the few moments that surround the time that Thomas was taken by WICKED. It shows that his mother gave him to them because she had caught the Flare and she knew that he could do great things to save other people from the fate that she was facing. It also explained how he got his name, Thomas was not his name when he left with WICKED.
Does this mean that Deedee is Teresa???
While reading these four books I discovered that James Dashner's writing is just incredible. He writes in a way that makes me remember exactly what happens weeks after I have finished reading it. His writing grasps my attention in a way that no other author has really done before. It makes me feel like I am there with the characters following them in their journey to save their friends. I honestly cannot get enough of it! His books are ones that I will read over and over again, I don't think I could ever get bored with them.
I will definitely be picking up more of James Dashner's books, including The Fever Code when it is released. If they are anything like this series then I cannot wait to get my hands on them.
