Event report- DIVERGENT PREMIERE

So, a week and a bit ago, I got invited to the premiere of Divergent. Needless to say, I accepted!

The premiere was last Sunday, and I took one of my friends from school. We got to Leicester Square which had been transformed into a Fan Experience area, so there were lots of things for people to do. There were lots of Erudite and Dauntless faction members running around, doing tattoos, initiations, aptitude tests and more.

I met and got to run around with Rita, who runs Weaving Pages, which was great. For a short while (i.e. a few seconds) I saw Casey (Dark Readers), Ben (Benjamin of Tomes), Jim (YA Yeah Yeah), Debbie( Snuggling on the Sofa) and Hannah. People who I knew were there but never got to see include Jess (Jess Hearts Books), Ryan (Empire of Books), Cait (the Cait Files) Jax (Making it Up)  Amber (The Mile Long Bookshelf) and Amber (Books of Amber) and   . Lesson learnt-busy film premieres are not the place to try and do a "meet all the bloggers". Maybe another time?

I am most definitely not Dauntless

Back to the day. I met Rita, which was really good. My friend and I did the aptitude testing, which said we were Erudite within a few questions. Rita and I went on the rock climby thing, which she won by miles. We were going to do some other things, but then we saw how long the queue to get into the cinema was already and decided to go join it before all the good seats were gone!

 I'm not sure, but I think we were in the queue for over an hour. Not complaining-we're British, we know how to queue. While we were in that queue, all the important people started arriving. We were on the other side of the square, so we didn’t get to see them up close, but we could see them on screens and hear the fans screaming (I’m not sure if my ears have yet recovered from the cheers when Theo James arrived).

look! wristbands! 

Finally we got to the front of the queue. After an Erudite guy checked that we were allowed in (I am so jealous of all the people who got to spend a weekend pretending to be people from Roth's Chicago), we got on the red carpet and chose a faction, and we got wristbands that correspond to our chosen factions.

Ok, wristband designer, seriously? Did you not realise some people might like to take theirs off without cutting the thing? I pulled mine on normal tight, and my normal playing with things on my wrist tightened it even more. I was inside the cinema when I realised that it wouldn't come off. When I got out, I realised there were spikes keeping the fabric once it had been pushed up. I had to cut my wristband off. Designer gets negative consumer feedback.

the sad fate of my wristband

We then got seated by faction. Erudite were somewhere in the middle, which suited me fine. We got to see a livescreen of what was happening outside, ie everyone's interviews on the red carpet. I got a bit angry when they asked Shailene and Kate who designed their clothes but not Theo, and then remembered "we live in a sexist world that values women by what they wear" and tried to get not too annoyed before hopefully enjoying the film. Then a short presentation of the people involved. Then the film began.

The film was really good. It adapted the world really well, made Roth's Chicago come to life, and

Of course, there were some changes. Things got cut, i.e. the whole eye stabbing thing, which is the only thing bar the major characters, world and plot that I remembered, and some things got added. I'm sure there were more changes, but I've not read this series in ages.

Trigger warning for attempted rape. It's short, and in Tris's fear landscape thing, and I'm glad it's in there because people will talk about it and sexual assault is a thing that we as a society need to talk about and deal with, and it's nice that she gets praised for defending herself. But trigger warning is there.

They made Four an asshole in this. I know he wasn't the nicest guy at the start of the book, but by the time they were kissing, I honestly didn't see why Tris liked him in the film. He does get nicer after that though.

I love the way they did everything, especially the testing, the fear landscapes... everything about Dauntless really! The acting was really good, especially Jeanine, Christina and Eric. I left with a strong craving to reread Divergent (first review here). And Insurgent (first review here). And actually read Allegiant. Film wise though, I am definitely ready for Insurgent.

Anyway, after the film, I tried finding people. Mostly failed (see prior list of people who were there but I never saw). Outside  we saw this guy in a suit who had loads of people crowding him and fawning over him and he was only a few feet away and we might have got his autograph or something but by the time my friend and I had tried to work out who he was he was gone

Anyway, it was a great day. Thank you hugely to Entertainment One and Harper Collins for the amazing opportunity, and I hope that if you see Divergent, you do too!

Japanese YA Week review- Audition by Ryu Murakami

Title: Audition

 Author: Ryu Murakami

Series:  N/A

Published:  Japanese, 1997. English, Jan 2009 by Bloomsbury

Length: 207 pages

Warnings: Profanity, violence, graphic gore, animal cruelty, sex 17+

Source: library

Other info: Ryu Murakami writes other psychological thrillers such as In the Miso Soup. Audition was made into a film.

Summary : Documentary-maker Aoyama hasn’t dated anyone in the seven years since the death of his beloved wife, Ryoko. Now, even his teenage son Shige has suggested he think about remarrying. So when his best friend Yoshikawa comes up with a plan to hold fake film auditions so that Aoyama can choose a new bride, he decides to go along with the idea. Of the thousands that apply, Aoyama only has eyes for Yamasaki Asami, a young, beautiful, delicate and talented ballerina with a turbulent past. But there is more to her than Aoyama, blinded by his infatuation, can see, and by the time he discovers the terrifying truth it may be too late.

Review: Seven years ago, Aoyama's wife died and since then, he's not dated anyone. But then his son and friend and many more people think he should re-marry, and Yoshikawa's plan is to hold an audition, asking just for those that are Aoyama's type of woman, for a film that they'll purposely not find funding for. So while the film won't get made, Aoyama's love life will be. Ballerina Yamasaki Asami is the one that catches his eye, and he falls hard and fast. 

It's  all rather slow and draggng on, with the main disturbing bit coming right at the last 20 pages. And when I say  disturbing, I mean it. Animal cruelty and human cruelty both feature. Unless it was changed drastically, how the film rated a 15 from the British film ratings board (the only reason I read this book was because I needed to read some Japanese book and the 15 meant that I’d probably be ok with it) I don't know. And that last bit was written so well, so powerfully, that it was just...right...exactly why have we been given this extreme amount of blood, gore etc? While I love blood in my books and films, there are some times where it goes a bit too far. Audition is one of those books that takes it too far.

We understand the motives behind it. Very well. In her earlier life, Yamasaki was abused. Now she's grown up, she still doesn't trust men. And so when she takes something Aoyama says the wrong way, she decides he must be punished. Hence the ending.

As for the rest of the book, it’s generally slow. Kind of good, fairly slow, not amazing, but bearable.

We get a lot of back story to Aoyama and Yamasaki. Yamasaki's delivered through an essay and Aoyama's delivered as a chapter near the beginning.

The idea of having an audition to find a wife is interesting, a good idea that I really can't see happening realistically.

It was interesting to see Aoyama fall harder and harder in love with Yamasaki, while we could tell that she obviously wasn't good for him. It says something rather negative about love I suppose...

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to an interesting book that wasn't really my kind of thing.

Links: Goodreads 

Cover to Cover #2 and exciting news!

News I found out literally seconds ago! Sherrilyn Kenyon's books will be turned into films and whatnot, starting with Infinity. It says so here! I can't wait!

And that is strangely appropriate, what with the theme of today's Cover to Cover- this time, its books that have been made into films. And then re-covered especially for the film. Which has turned out terribly. The book/film cover that is. Not the actual film. Well maybe the film, but that's not the point of this feature. This will feature the title of the book, a pre-film cover, then the cover for the film and any thoughts.  Onwards...

A few pictures. Not too large. Open if you want to.