Interview with Claes (Red Hood)!

Claes (Red Hood)

Me:

Hi! I'm back with another character interview and this one is with a secondary character from steampunk fantasy Red Hood. Thank you to everyone who contributed questions! If you'd like to get a brief idea of Claes, you can check out his bio. Now on to the interview! *turns in chair to face Claes more, smiles* Good afternoon, Claes.

Claes:

*smiles, nods at me*

Me: 

Ready for the interview?

Claes:

*nods*

Me:

Awesome. We'll start with some light questions first. This one is from Maggie: Hey there, Claes! What is your favorite thing you've made?

Claes:

*looks down in thought* Hmm ... *has a Scottish lilt and voice is quiet* I foound some moonstone once ... and I made a pehndent ... that loooked like a globe ... wehth stars. Sold that one ... forr a goood price. I don't find ... many jooewels to work wehth ... but when I do I enjoy ... craftin' wehth 'em.

Me: 

Neat. Next question from Jadezee: Hey, Claes! Do you like crafting weapons or jewelry more? 

Claes: 

*clasps hands together on one knee* They're very dehfferent ... but I thehnk ... I like jewelry morre. I like doing ... delicate work.

Me:

*nods* This question is from Wesley Wood: How does he cope with being deaf in one ear? Does it make his job harder?

Claes:

Well ... *points to left ear* My other earr got stronger ... after I lost hearin' in my right. It doesn't effehct my worrk ... too much. Only when dealin' wehth customers ... and suppliers sometimes.

Me: 

Here is one from Ruth Blomgren: What are your morals, beliefs?

Claes:

*lowers hand* I follow ... the Holy Boook. I try to do goood ... the best I can.

Me:

*nods* Here's a second from Jadezee: And, what's your favorite color?

Claes:

Blue. 

Me:

 Mine too. *smiles* Another from Ruth Blomgren: How do you typically act around others and how does it differ than when you're alone?

Claes: 

I'm quiet ... all the time. Thehs is the most ... talkin' I've done ehn weeks.

Me:

*snickers a little, smile fades* This one is from Amy Covel: To Claes: Since you come from an abusive home, do you ever think about running away, and why not? Is it because you don't want to leave your friends behind? Could you go to another place where no one would have any prejudices towards you?

Claes:

*shifts in his seat* I've tried ... but for several reasons ... I went back. One is ... because of my friends ... yes. Another is .... for my worrk ... I need money for my oown foorge ... and searchin' for another foorge ... as good as the one I have is ... difficult. Lastly ... with all the werewoolves aboout ... unless I have an escort ... travel is very dangerous. I want to go to Ionad ... once I raise enough money for travel ... my oown hoouse ... and my own foorge.

Me:

Sounds sensible. Here's another from Ruth Blomgren: What do you like to eat, do and go? What's fun to you whether you're with friends or alone?

Claes:

I eat whatever I can get ... and I'm mostly at the mine, my home or the foorge. I don't have much time ... for fun honestly.

Me:

This one is from Lyssa:): What happened to your parents?

Claes:

*pauses, licks his upper lip* They died. I never ... knew them.

Me:

*brow furrows in sympathy* I'm sorry. *looks at audience* Just because I made up his backstory doesn't mean I don't feel bad for him. *clears throat, looks back at Claes* Next is from Ruth Blomgren: What did you like to play with when you were little? And do you still like to play with it?

Claes:

My grandfather ... never gave me any toys. I had a small pickaxe ... to practice wehth. That was ... all. *shrugs*

Me:

*grumbles* Man, I made your life suck ... *regular volume* Also from Ruth Blomgren: What is your favorite childhood memory and what is your earliest memory?

Claes:

*pale cheeks get a tint of pink* My favorite memory is ... when I met Mor. We met not long after ... her father went missing. My earliest ...

Me:

You can be honest. We're all friends here.

Claes:

All my earliest have ... my grandfather hehttin' me.

Me:

*mouths to the side as I'm getting up the next question on my laptop* Like I said suuucks. *out loud* This is the last one from Jadezee: Deep question here. What do you regret the most?

Claes:

Not blockin' the hit that toook ... half my hearing away. I know I was ten ... but I shoould have done somethin'. It woould have been worth ... an extra beatin' somewhere else.

Me:

*sighs* Another from Ruth Blomgren: What are your greatest fears and happiest thoughts? What calms you down or makes you angry?

Claes:

These questions got ... serious quickly.

Me: 

Yeah ... *smiles, rubs behind my neck, anime sweat drop*

Claes: 

My greatest fear is ... that when I moove to Ionad ... I won't see Mor again--at least not ... for a long time. *voice lowers more, dips head, small smile* My happiest thoughts are ... aboout seeing Mor. *raises voice volume just a bit* Working in the forge always calms me ... and anyone who is unkind ... to Mor makes me angry. *frowns*

Me:

Last question, also from Ruth Blomgren: Who is your best friend and who is your worst enemy?

Claes:

My best friend is ... Mor and my enemy ... I suppose is Grandfather.

Me:

I see. Well, those are all the questions. Thank you for joining me, Claes.

Claes: 

Of course. *smiles*

Me:

*looks at audience* And thank you again for all these great questions. If you have any others, leave them in the comments for another interview! You can check out more about Claes's book in the interview with Mor and in the Beautiful Books posts about Red Hood! Thanks for reading!

You may also like:

Questions for Claes!

Questions for Mor!

Interview with Mor (Red Hood)

Beautiful Books #1: Let's Talk About Books - Red Hood

Beautiful Books #2: How's The Writing Going? - Red Hood

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Wonderful Word Wednesday: Rufescent

It's Wonderful Word Wednesday again! Do you as a writer ever struggle finding that perfect word to describe something or you want to shake your writing up with some new words? Each Wednesday I post hand-picked descriptive words for writers and other vocabulary nerds out there. ;) I love saying this word out loud. ^ ^

rufescent

[roo-fes-uh nt]

adjective

1.) somewhat reddish; tinged with red; rufous.

Example Sentence: Unlike the stark Isamaour, humans have a rufescent complexion.

This is basically what an Isamaour looks like. Maybe a bit paler. 

Have you seen or used this word before? What do you think of it?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's word!

Tea Tuesday: Sharp Shooter

I'm not really a coffee person. I prefer tea, and I know a lot of fellow writers love tea, too. But have you ever wanted to break out of the Early Grey or English Breakfast norm and try something new? Well, let me help you find some cool new teas! If you need a little hot and flavorful boost to help you reach your writing goal or you're just a lover of tea or you'd like to try some tea but aren't fond of the stereotypical types, these Tea Tuesday posts are for you.

This weeks tea is ... 

*drum roll*

Sharp Shooter

How I found it: This is another one of Adagio Teas' fantastic fandom blends. Their teas are so good and it's such a cool idea to do fandom blends! Though all the blends are available individually, this set was available for one weekend only and I snatched it up. I wanted an Avengers blend set since I found the site! This set is called Hero Recovery and includes Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye blends. This is the same sight I bought a Sherlock set, Tolkien set, Avatar: the Last Airbender set and Doctor Who set from!

The Tea: Unfortunately this tea was my least favorite of this set. It has thai chai in it which is the dominant flavor and it has a lot of lemongrass--which I'm not a big fan of. Though it made me think of Hawkeye's world traveling from being an agent and the all famous Budapest. The sweetness of the assam melody gave a peek at his gentle side and the gunpowder tea reminded me of him during a battle. It had a sharp yet mello flavor, but the lemongrass was just a bit too overpowering for my taste. Despite the flavor of the tea, Hawkeye is still awesome. ;)

Serving Recommendations: I steeped this tea for four minutes and added sugar.

How much is it and where can you get it? You can find this tea at the Adagio website. I bought this tea in a sample set which was about $22 including shipping and you get a goodly amount of tea since you only need about a teaspoon per cup. Some of these teas you can buy individually for about $10 a pouch or $4 for a sample tin.

So how good is it? The tea wasn't my favorite so I'll give it three stars.

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you seen The Avengers? Who's your favorite character?

Bonus! If you are a first-time Adagio customer I can send you a $5 giftcard! Ask in the comments for details! (This is no joke and no catch I seriously can. It's part of the amazingness of Adagio Teas)

This is the last tea of the Avengers blend set! Next is Attack on Titan!

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's tea!

Questions for Claes!

Hey, everyone! I'm doing another character interview this Saturday, and I need questions! This one will be with a secondary character of my steampunk fantasy fairy tale retelling Red Hood. I'll tell you a little about him.

Claes is an eighteen year old orphan who lives with his abusive grandfather in the poor district of the Northern Red Hood Manor. He dreams of leaving the family tradition of being a miner and becoming a silversmith in the capitol of his country Ionad. But one important thing is stopping him: money.

By day he works hard to unearth silver in the mines close to his town, and by night he apprentices with a silversmith and makes his own jewelry to sell to save up enough money to leave. Even though he is a hard-worker and a talented silversmith, his grandfather doesn't approve him because of the sins of Claes's father. Since Claes was born out of wedlock, he is a target of much scorn in the town to the point some people will not buy his work despite its beauty. He is proficient at making both weapons for fighting werewolves and fine jewelry.

Because of his grandfather's abuse, Claes is deaf in one ear as a result of it being hit too many times since he was a child. He also doesn't talk very much due to the psychological damage giving him a stutter and his personality being introverted. Regardless his past, he is still tenderhearted and kind. Mor and Dina are two of his few friends. Though his drive to escape is strong, his greatest worry is that his dream will take him away from his best friend and secret love: Mor.

Credit goes to respective artist but this looks
exactly like something Claes would make. :)

Leave questions in the comments below, and he will answer them next Saturday! :)

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Soundtrack Sunday: The Hanging Tree (The Hunger Games: The Mockingjay Part 1)

It's Soundtrack Sunday again! The day where I post awesome music to write to or just listen to for pleasure if you're a fellow soundtrack junkie. I saw the Mockingjay Part 1 this weekend and oh my gosh was it amazing! So beautiful, hopeful, intense and sad! 

The soundtrack was equally amazing. I want to the buy the whole thing when it comes out on the 24th, but for now I just have "The Hanging Tree." This song is so eerie yet beautiful. It starts with simple voices then when the other singers join in I just get chills. It's glorious. I'm binge-listening to it. For more awesome tracks check out my Soundtrack Sundays YouTube playlist!

Have you heard this piece before? What do you think of it? Have you seen the Mockingjay Part 1?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's Soundtrack Sunday!

A Book Review of the Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Find it on Amazon!

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. 

Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch. 

There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.

The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them. 

Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off. 

There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

Series: The Maze Runner (Book 2)
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Ember; Reprint edition (September 13, 2011)
Page Count: 384 pages

What I liked: I've wanted to read this book for years and now I've finally gotten to it! The ticking time bomb of having to reach the Safe Haven in two weeks so they don't succumb to the Flare added a nice underlying tension especially with so many delaying dangers on the way. As per usual James Dashner has so many creative ideas for the story including new horrors for the Gladers (boys who were trapped in the Glade back in the Maze) to encounter including a whole town of cranks (diseased humans), a violent lightning storm, living metal with a likeness for heads and giant lightbulb giants. Many scenes kept me glued to the book including the metal ball scene, the lightning storm scene, and a creepy scene with cranks. 

The cranks interesting and sad. I liked that Minho got more of a personality in this book. It was nice seeing more of him. Out of all the Gladers (other than Thomas of course) he really shined the most. Thomas develops more in this one. He becomes more clever especially in how he interacts with people. He also is dealing with grief which I thought was done well. It was also neat to meet Group B finally and get more girls in the game. Lastly some really neat tattoos showed up on the Gladers. 

What I didn't like: In this book, Thomas is away from Theresa and the Gladers for the majority of it and I missed them a lot. I wish they were included more. I found myself not liking Brenda (a crank girl Thomas travels with) as much as Theresa and just wanting Theresa back. 

I also felt like Newt didn't get much of a part and he's one of my favorite Gladers. He was in it and the beginning and the end, but I especially felt like he should've intervened during a scene with the cranks. I felt like it was out of his personality not to. Brenda and Aris were interesting characters, but I would've liked them to be a little more in depth. 

I found several writing errors including telling of emotions and action and reaction errors, but less than the first book. I don't remember Thomas having a watch before he mentions it much later, nor do I remember griever pods which were said to be mentioned in the first book. There also was a funny typo on 338. The phrase "gained purchase" was also repeated several times.

Content Cautions: I'd still give this book a PG-13 rating, but there were more mature parts than the last one. There were some scary images and gore especially with the cranks. During a party Thomas and Brenda are forced to go to (it's complicated) there is an alcohol reference. H*** was used several times in this book. 

In Comparison to the Movie: The movie is pretty different than the book. It's a combination of the Death Cute and the Scorch Trials it seems. See my full movie review on Geeks Under Grace!


In summary, I really enjoyed the book though not as much as the first. It ended on a cliffhanger so I must read the next one!

About the Author:

James Dashner is the author of the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series that includes The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, and The Kill Order. He has also written The Eye of Minds (book one in the Mortality Doctrine series), the 13th Reality series, and two books in The Infinity Ring series: A Mutiny in Time and The Iron Empire.

Dashner was born and raised in Georgia but now lives and writes in the Rocky Mountains. To learn more about James and his books, visit JamesDashner.com, follow @jamesdashner on Twitter, or find dashnerjames on Instagram.

Do you want a review of the Maze Runner? Check it out here!

If you enjoyed this review, you can find more over on the Book Reviews tab of click the link. :)

Do you want to read the Scorch Trials? I'm giving away a copy of the book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To get the entry points, you must complete the displayed task even if the Rafflecopter widget says you did I will not count them. Like my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, follow my blog (you can click the follow button to follow me via Google+, click Join this Blog to follow me via blogger or regular Google or enter your email in the Follow me by Email box to get email updates) or tweet about the giveaway (if you have twitter you know how to do that). I've had entries already where people have not done the tasks and that is cheating.

Tea Tuesday: Double Agent

I'm not really a coffee person. I prefer tea, and I know a lot of fellow writers love tea, too. But have you ever wanted to break out of the Early Grey or English Breakfast norm and try something new? Well, let me help you find some cool new teas! If you need a little hot and flavorful boost to help you reach your writing goal or you're just a lover of tea or you'd like to try some tea but aren't fond of the stereotypical types, these Tea Tuesday posts are for you.

This weeks tea is ... 

*drum roll*

Double Agent

How I found it: This is another one of Adagio Teas' fantastic fandom blends. Their teas are so good and it's such a cool idea to do fandom blends! Though all the blends are available individually, this set was available for one weekend only and I snatched it up. I wanted an Avengers blend set since I found the site! This set is called Hero Recovery and includes Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye blends. This is the same sight I bought a Sherlock set, Tolkien set, Avatar: the Last Airbender set and Doctor Who set from!

The Tea: This tea is based on awesome Agent Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow! The lapsang souchong is the prominent flavor and makes me thing of smoke from the battles of Natasha's red ledger past. The assam melody is a bit drowned out by the strong lapsang souchong, but it gives a hint to her sweet side. Then a touch of currant at the end makes me think of her flaming red hair. The tea reflects her personality well and I could see Black Widow being a world traveler drinking this tea. It's strong like her. Perhaps she could have a tea party. ;)

Serving Recommendations: I steeped these tea for four minutes and added sugar.

How much is it and where can you get it? You can find this tea at the Adagio website. I bought this tea in a sample set which was about $22 including shipping and you get a goodly amount of tea since you only need about a teaspoon per cup. Some of these teas you can buy individually for about $10 a pouch or $4 for a sample tin.

So how good is it? I like this tea. It's distinctive and reflect Black Widow's character, but the lapsang overpowers the other flavors a bit. Over all it's a really good tea though. ^ ^

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you seen the Avengers? Who's your favorite character?

Bonus! If you are a first-time Adagio customer I can send you a $5 giftcard! Ask in the comments for details! (This is no joke and no catch I seriously can. It's part of the amazingness of Adagio Teas)

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's tea!

Soundtrack Sunday: End of the World (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

It's Soundtrack Sunday again! The day where I post awesome music to write to or just listen to for pleasure if you're a fellow soundtrack junkie. I've finally finished combing through soundtracks for the perfect music for my steampunk fantasy Red Hood and I found this amazing little piece for it. 

It is from a movie called Beasts of the Southern Wild. I decided to watch the film a few days after finding the music. It is odd, but the music is just fantastic. It's a simple short piece, but it reminds me of a scene with a child or magic or something of the like. I love the simplicity of just the music box, harp, drums, and violins. It's become the theme for my werewolf character Faol. It may sound strange for a werewolf to have that sort of theme but it fits him perfectly. For more awesome tracks check out my Soundtrack Sundays YouTube playlist!

Have you heard this piece before? What do you think of it? Have you seen Beasts of the Southern Wild?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's Soundtrack Sunday!

On When Books Are Made Into Movies

One of the biggest gripes in the fandom and writing community (both of which often coalesce) is when a book is adapted into a film. Many books have been adapted into movies such as the Hunger Games, The Chronicles of Narnia, Inkheart, The Thief Lord, Twilight, The Lord of the Rings, Divergent, Eragon, A Wrinkle in Time, The Railway Children, The Hobbit, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Maze Runner, I Am Number Four, Harry Potter, Ender's Game, The Host, Les Miserable, and the Guardians of Ga'Hoole to name a few.

There are two sides taken in the matter: the ones who love the film version and the ones who hate it with a flaming passion. During this war between book loyalists memes such as the ones above and below are created.

Many of the books I've listed above I've read before the films, some I've seen the film first then watched the film later and others I've just seen the film. I'm going to go out on a limb here and be the one who believes often the aforementioned memes aren't true.

1.) It's Never Going to Be Exactly Like the Book - When you go into a movie theater at the early showing so pumped to see your favorite book, like, ever made into a movie you need to keep this in mind or you're automatically going to hate it.

It's never ever going to be completely perfect. No matter how loyal the film is there are going to be some scenes, characters, or details that just aren't going to make it in the film because ...

2.) It's 400 pages in 120 minutes - The screenwriters have to take a four hundred page book (that's the average size of a YA novel) and convert it into approximately a two hour film. Just the fact that film is a different form of art counts in the fact that some things aren't going to make it. For one, thought process can't be shown in the same way in film as it can be in a book.

With every detail included, the movie would be way too long and a lot of it would include the characters just sitting and thinking. This is why characters like Tom Bombadil (The Lord of the Rings) and Madge (The Hunger Games) didn't make it or fluff scenes like Chuck's prank on Gally in the Maze Runner couldn't be fit in.

Keeping film and novels being two different art forms in mind, therefore some things that worked perfectly in a book won't work in a film. In the Hunger Games novel, Effie's dress at the Reaping was bright green and in the movie, it is pink. Why is this? Because the the green in the film would've made her look like a clown and wouldn't have worked with the gray color scheme. Because of the fact that film is a visual medium it didn't work.

Filmmakers are artists just as much as authors. All of them aren't out to crush the book in a proverbial wine press to produce a few million bucks. Many have a genuine passion to make the movie as loyal as they can and it seems like the movie overlords are catching the drift that those are the films that become the most successful.

Directors such as Peter Jackson (The Hobbit trilogy and the Lord of the Ring trilogy), Gary Ross (The Hunger Games) and Francis Lawrence (Catching Fire, the Mockingjay Part 1 and 2) read the books themselves and tried to be as loyal as possible when creating the films. Some even work with the authors such as Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, J.K. Rowling or the next best thing like C.S. Lewis's stepson Douglas Gresham.

Unfortunately they couldn't work with C.S. Lewis, gosh darn it. Death and all that rot.

Then again sometimes diverging from the author can help because ...

He's just so cute. ^ ^

3.) Screenwriters Can Fix an Author's Mistakes - Oftentimes writers make big no-nos in their stories. There are rules to writing like there are rules to football and sometimes writers break them, and it just isn't good quality. A lot of these mistakes made in older books such as in The Lord of the Rings would not be accepted in publishing houses today. They're the books that end up in the rejection pile.

For example: Suzanne Collins did not have enough description many times in the Hunger Games. I was often blind to the setting in many scenes. James Dashner's pacing needed a little stepping up in areas and he did a lot of telling of emotions in the Maze Runner. J.R.R. Tolkien infodumps galore in all of his novels, and in the Hobbit he didn't develop the dwarves very well except for Thorin. In Cornelia Funke's Inkheart (I read this book after seeing the film) she had a huge plot hole concerning the Inkheart book in the novel.

But in the movie versions all of these things were mended. Because it's a movie the surroundings in the Hunger Games have to be shown. By rearranging some of the scenes the pacing was fixed in the Maze Runner. Peter Jackson took special care to make each dwarf individual in the Hobbit, and by making Mo find the book in Inkheart instead of already having it filled in that plot hole.

Many different things made these books famous: the plot, the characters, breakthrough concepts, and so on. In the film, these things are often made to shine where in the book the writing flubs can clutter it. No author is perfect, but that doesn't mean their story isn't still awesome.

Except Twilight. I'm not sure how that one got famous. The writing and concept is just yuck. I didn't even read the books I just watched the movie to get a solid opinion.

I still didn't like it.

Moving on!

What it all boils down to is ...

4.) Does the movie have the book's soul? - In the end, it boils down to when you sit down and watch that movie do you feel the same way you did when you read the book? Are the characters how they were described in the book (Yes, Annabeth in Percy Jackson must be blonde)? Are the settings as close as they can be (I was a bit disappointed the Dauntless headquarters in Divergent wasn't closer)?

Is the plot as close a possible (*slaps director of Percy Jackson and the Olympian the Lightning Thief's hand*)? Does it have the same themes (The Hunger Games and The Lord of the Rings films perfectly captured this)?

When a movie has all these qualities at least give it a chance. Movies like The Hunger Games, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Lord of the Rings all emanate the passion put into them by directors, the actors, and the rest of the production team. These are the movies that blow people away.

Conclusion - Though many of the time these four points are true, unfortunately I will admit there are some movies that failed miserably to meet these standards. Eragon, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters and The Last Airbender (Yes it was from a show, but same concept) were some of those.

Eragon and The Last Airbender were just all around horrible, writing, music, casting, everything. They didn't feel the same as in the book/show. Both of the Percy Jackson movies are good, but not when you compare them to the book. I think of them as an alternate universe of the books ... where Hades is a rock star.

In the end, just because some rotten eggs like those are released doesn't mean you shouldn't give the others a chance. A good portion of the time the filmmakers did the best they could to make the film something the fans would love. They're people too. So go to the theater with a gaggle of friends, sit back, splurge on popcorn, keep an open mind, and enjoy the show.

What is your favorite movie adapted from a book? 

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