Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.

Ooooh. Couldn't leave you without this little tidbit I found.

HBO Praying for American Gods

Now, after reading Neverwhere for Book Club, I am not Neil Gaiman's biggest and brightest fan. To be honest, I found his writing confusing and kind of pointless. I like fantasy but I think I prefer it in films and TV shows than in novels. Teen fiction kind of gets away with it but in adult novels I find it slightly ludicrous (I know, big old hypocrite). So in some ways, it could be really interesting to see a film essentially written by an author I'm not too keen on. I'd like to know whether the movie variation makes any dents in my opinion.

A story about a teenage wizard facing off against a dark lord beats one about a sparkling, lovesick vampire anyday.

So my teen fiction love affair remains unwavering at present. I wish I could say I was attempting to move on and be a grown up with my reading but I'm not. I like living sqaurely in my literary-youth. And because of that I was very excited to find this brilliant article on new teen movies ariving soon.

The Next Harry Potter or Twilight?

This little article is great - I was excited to find that Wake by Lisa McMann is being made into a film - although I think it's kind of funny that everything is supposed to be "the new Harry Potter/Twilight".

Nothing beats Harry Potter. And I shall be a Gryffindor till I die.

Actually, I'd probably be a Hufflepuff, but, you know, I like the idea of all that partying.

You have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.

Yeah. So. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I didn’t read it, I’m afraid to say. Not through any overwhelming desire not to, just from a general lack of enthusiasm. I will attempt to read it in the next few months, as the impression I got from the group was that it was definitely worth it.

Group was a little distracted for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (it was sunny and we had barbeque food, you know how it is) but a good ole’ natter was still had by all. I even attempted to put in my two pennies worth (*whiny voice* I’ve seen the film!) but I couldn’t really contribute properly. Hence why I should always read the book.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was pretty well received and scored fairly average. Since our first few meetings, we’ve become a lot more conservative with our scoring; our first book still has the highest score.

Overall Score: 7.5/10
Next Month's Choice from: MB
Next Book: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The first rule of Fight Club is...

Gah. My Book Club reviews have completely disappeared over the past few months and I am kicking myself a little for that. Book Club hasn’t gone on hiatus and I have been going to the meetings, I just have been very lax in posting a review on either of the previous books.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk was our February title and we met, as always, in our faithful local to discuss the book. It’s the first time we had our brand new group together (all eight of us; SJ, MB, AG, SA, CB, CR, HB and me!). We’re still an all female group and someone made the very good point last week that we should probably try and include a token male at some point. So we met, we talked, and then we came second in the Sunday night pub quiz…because, of course, book clubs are awesome.

We were, as a group, completely aware that we weren’t exactly the target audience. The novel is for boys, full of gore and disgust, and those things didn’t exactly fill some of the group with happy fuzzy feelings. Although most of us enjoyed the ambiguity and really different nature of the writing style, it isn’t for everyone, and its most certainly a departure from standard dramatic fiction.

Fight Club is a book so visual and graphic in its descriptions, it could have been lifted straight from the movie script. The film version of the book did enter into the discussion on more than one occasion and although there are some significant differences (mainly near the end), its one of the few adaptations where we felt the book was done justice.

Palahniuk is an immense writer; filled with passion and fire, his writing is powerful in its venom. Since we had previously read American Psycho (Brett Easton Ellis) the similarities with that were also marked. Palahniuk has said that Ellis was an inspiration and the violence in the book definitely shows that.

Overall though, the novel came out ok. Myself, SJ, AG, and MB did all recognise that had we not read Ellis beforehand, we probably would have enjoyed Fight Club more. It still got a pretty decent score though and we came away with another novel (what I’m going to describe as a bloke’s book) for the next month.

Overall Score: 7/10
Next Month's Choice is from: SJ
Next Book: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

No one is looking for me. That’s the truth.

Entangled was picked up because of an intriguing blurb and, I’ll admit, a pretty cover, and I was looking forward to this teen mystery. Trapped in a room, with no idea how she got there, and encouraged to write down what’s happening, Grace begins to decipher her story. Problem is, as readers, the plot is entirely predictable from the beginning and the ‘twist’ at the end is more of a forgone conclusion. So as Grace figures out the root of all her problems, we’ve already sussed them out, called the psych ward, and had her thrown into therapy.

Clarke’s writing is well done; the problem here is such a basic plot. I’ve read a few reviews saying things like ‘I was on the edge of my seat!’ and the only thing I can say is, if you were, you’re obviously a little bit slow on the uptake. Clarke never makes any intention of hiding the outcome of the story from us, and as soon as Grace’s life starts to head downhill, it’s a struggle to keep reading.

It’s not that it’s a bad book. It’s fine. It’s just not exactly challenging. Now, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I enjoy reading teen fiction because, a lot of the time, it’s simpler and, because of that, more enjoyable. Thing is, simpler does not mean dumbed-down and, even though I wish it wasn’t, that’s exactly what Entangled is.

I didn’t hate it, even if it sounds like I did. Unfortunately, it just didn’t peak my interest once I’d got past the pretty pictures on the cover. I have no troubles with style, just please, next time, add a little substance in too.

A toast to Hell.

Do know what? Even after my rubbishing of this film on twitter, the longer I go since watching it, the more it sticks in my head. I can’t decide what’s grabbed me but I’m pretty convinced its the chance to read and adore the book part of this franchise before anyones even seen the film.

Tomorrow, When the War Began (or TWWB, as I’m now going to refer to it, it’s just too long otherwise) is the story of a group of Australian teenagers who decide to take a camping trip into the bush before school starts up again. While away, a foreign power invades and proceeds to take control of their town and the entire country. As the teens discover what has happened, they vow to fight back, refusing to let another nation come in and take away their homeland.

The movie was one I thought was pretty interesting when I saw the trailer a couple of months back. I had never heard of the books (although they are hugely famous in Australia) and it wasn’t until I looked into the film after watching it that I even knew they were books first. And it always sparks my interest to hear that. So I got around to watching the film, which was released over six months ago in Australia, and although I was nowhere near disappointed, it did feel a little low budget.

See this is what Hollywood does to us people. It ruins our ability to enjoy any kind of independent film that isn’t a small, intelligent drama. I like indie films, really, but having an action (I suppose that’s what it is?) indie film is very odd. That being said, I think they did well for having nowhere near the kind of budget I would imagine the Hollywood execs would have poured on it. Wonder how long it’ll take them to pick it up/do a remake? Actually, scratch that. They’d never do a film about America being secretly invaded and overpowered and a bunch of kids saving them. If they did, I would love to see it though.

The film = not great because of the lack of budget/special effects, but it was very entertaining. I wasn’t bored, wasn’t in the middle of anything else while watching the film, and, although the acting wasn't stellar, it was funny to watch what was essentially a very long, and surreal, episode of Home and Away unfold on my screen.

(Side note: Most of the actors have actually been in Home and Away or Neighbours before)

There is a second in production, due for release 2012, and that’s just as well because there are seven books in total and it would be great to see them all done. I don’t think the plot is thick enough for a full seven films but it would be cool for them to all be done by Australian production, with the same cast, however many they made.

There’s a big rise at the moment in really amazing teen book franchises and with Harry Potter and Twilight ending, there’s a big market for some new films to come out. Hunger Games has finally done some casting, the first in possibly many Lorien Legacy films came out earlier this year (I Am Number Four), and the Gone series, Wicked Lovely, and Forest of Hands and Teeth (which I’m reading now) have also been optioned for film.

It is a good time to be into the teen fiction.

Once you're in the air, there's nothing you can do but let go.

As is obvious from previous reviews, I have a bit of a pre-occupation with certain genres of fiction. The teen death thing is a big one for me and I suppose it stems from the same place as a fascination for tv shows like Waking the Dead and Bones. I’ve gone into this before so I’m not going to repeat myself but, suffice to say, I do love books with this deeper meaning; the struggle, as it were, between life and death.

Before I Fall follows one repeating day in Samantha Kingston's life. Fairly soon into the beginning of the book, our main character dies in a car accident. She then wakes up to find herself starting the same day over again. And so it continues.

High school is hard and Sam has climbed her way through the social ranks to make life easier on herself. In doing so, a lot of people have been pushed aside and this story is, in this way, a typical ‘popular girl sees the error of her ways, discovers what life’s really about, blah blah blah ’. Thing is, the spin on this, the repeating days, giving her chances to fix all her wrongs, is definitely interesting. It’s not entirely unpredictable though. Once you reach a certain point in the story, you can kind of see where it’s going to end up, although how she gets there is executed well.

Before I Fall is above all a beautiful novel. Oliver’s prose style and her ability to give us a different take on each repeated day is really spectacular. It’s also the first book in a little while to really grab me and give me that ‘I really want to finish it but I don’t want it to end’ feeling. It also had me sobbing my heart out at midnight as I finished it, which to me, is always the sign of a story and a character that has really sunk in. Considering I only picked it up because I was interested in Oliver’s new novel, Delirium, I’m certainly glad I did.

Many, many urgings for you to read it.