Book Lover 1989

Monday, 25 January 2016

The Walking Dead The Fall of the Governor Part 2

The Walking Dead The Fall of the Governor by Robert Kirkman

Published- 4th March 2014
Publisher- Thomas Dunne Books
Pages- 288 pages (paperback)

It's the final showdown between The Governor and Rick Grimes, but who will come out on top and be the one who survives? What will happen to Lilly, Austin and the rest of the Woodsbury townsfolk? Will anyone be left alive after the final showdown or will they all be turned into zombies?

The last novel ended with Michonne torturing the Governor and leaving him to die. Rick, Glenn, Alice, Martinez and Michonne escaped from Woodbury, but did they make it back to the prison alive. Of course they did, all except Doc Stevens who was killed by a zombie in the last novel. However, Martinez was being used as the Governor's spy to find out where the prison was so Woodbury could go and take it from them. We also found out in the last novel that Lilly is pregnant, but you will have to read the novel to find out what happens to her and the baby.

If you have read the graphic novels then you will know who lives and who dies in the battle at the prison when the Governor arrives there. The most tragic death in my opinion was when Lori and her baby died. Lori was carrying the baby when Lilly shot and killed her, so Lori ended up killing the baby by landing on top of her. Lilly was devastated when she found out she had killed a poor innocent baby.

Lilly came out of her shell more in this novel and became more of a leader to the town of Woodbury whilst the Governor was out of action recovering. I also liked Austin as her would do anything for Lilly and he wanted to prove that he wasn't a wimp and sacred throughout a lot of this novel. The Governor really proved he was evil when he executed Tyreese by decapitating him in front of everyone in the prison.

This novel was filled with lots of action and fighting scenes, just like there are within the graphic novels. Some of the scenes were quite descriptive and filled with lots of terrifying images. These images included the torture done to the Governor by Michonne and all the killings within the prison battle. If you don't like zombie novels or novels where humans can die quite violently then this is definitely not the novel for you.

Overall, I give this novel 5/5 stars. This was a good ending to the Governor's leadership in the town of Woodbury. The novel was very action packed and easy to read. It contained lots of description and was quite fast paced. It did start quite slow as there was not much action within the start of the novel, but it picked up towards the middle of the novel. A definite must read if you loved the other Walking Dead novels, or you love the graphic novels or you just love the Walking Dead TV show.

Rating 5/5

And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Published- 3rd December 2015
Publisher- Harper Collins UK
Pages- 250 pages (paperback)

Why have these 10 individuals been invited to Soldier Island? Who is the mysterious U.N.Owen? Who is killing off the 10 individuals one by one? What is the significance of the 10 little soldiers nursery rhyme contained within every room of the house on Soldier Island?

And Then There Were None is a great thriller read as you have no idea who the killer could be or why he is committing this terrible crime. You spend a lot of the novel guessing who the killer could be. However, when you believe you have identified the murdered that person then themselves gets murdered. If you read it very carefully then you can find some clues as to who the murderer might be. It was easy to imagine what was happening in the novel as I recently watched the TV show And Then There Were None featuring a top quality cast.

I used the cast from the TV show to imagine what was happening to each of the characters within the novel. For example, I pictured Aidan Turner when imagining what was happening to Phillip Lombard and Anna Maxwell Martin when I was reading about Mrs Rogers. This helped me to follow the plot more smoothly as I could imagine the place and the characters perfectly.

Phillip Lombard was one of my favourite characters as he was always calm even when everybody around him was dying and he tried to keep other people safe aswell not just himself. Vera Claythorne was quite an annoying characters at times because she became hysterical for no reason at all and she would complain and whine a lot of the time. Justice Wargrave was also kind of annoying as he didn't stop talking and tried to order everybody about for most of the novel.

The death scenes were followed perfectly according to the nursery room contained within each room. For example, one character was killed whilst they were chopping up sticks and another was killed by a big bear. As you know they would have noticed a big bear on the island, but this was not a real bear of course but something much different. However, not all of the deaths were murders, or were they all murders?

The language was easy to read which made the novel easy to follow. It was also quite a quick read as some of the chapters were quite short. The chapters were also broken down so within 1 chapter you could have either 6 or 7 different parts. The title is a line from the nursery rhyme which comes at the end of the rhyme. The line comes after the last person on the island has been killed.

Overall, I give this novel 5/5 stars. It was a great thrilling read. It was easy to follow and had you guessing the identity of the murderer throughout the whole novel. You should also give the TV show a watch aswell if you liked this novel. A definite must reads for fans of Agatha Christie or just thrillers in general. Everyone will love Agatha Christies most popular and best selling thrilling novel.

Rating 5/5

The Shining

The Shining by Stephen King

Published- 1st November 2011
Publisher- Hodder and Stoughton
Pages- 497 pages (paperback)

The Overlook Hotel is run by Mr Ullman and they have just hired a new caretaker called Jack Torrance. Jack moves into the Overlook Hotel with his wife Wendy and son Danny. However, this is no ordinary hotel as it is filled with ghosts and lots of secrets. What is the hotel hiding? Does it have plans for Jack and his family? Who are all the ghosts haunting this hotel?

This novel was not as scary as I thought it would be, but then it is really hard to scare me. It did have a lot of creepy and heart pumping moments. For example, some of the ghosts were quite creepy and the action towards the end of the novel was quite heart pumping. You do gain your favourite characters which are the ones you want to survive and not become a victim of the hotel. Danny was a great main character as he was really cute and would do anything to protect his parents from becoming victims of the hotel.

Jack did annoy me at some points because all he wanted to do was to get drunk by having martinis (Martians). However, when he got drunk he became really vicious towards Wendy and Danny. This is shown by him breaking Danny's arm when he was younger. Wendy would do anything to protect her son from Jack and that meant killing Jack should it come to that. I also liked Dick Hallorann as he wanted to do anything to protect Danny from the hotel. He even traveled from Florida to the Overlook hotel to save Danny as Danny messaged him that he was in trouble.

I have not yet seen the film of the Shining so I will have to watch that sometime soon to see how they differ from one another. However, I do know that the scene with 'Here's Johnny' is not featured within the book. That is a memorable scene with the film featuring Jack Nicholson. There is also a scene featuring blood pouring out of the elevator and this also does not feature within the novel.

Overall, I give this novel 4/5 stars. It was not as scary as I thought it would be, but it did have it's creepy moments. If you like Stephen King novels or just want to read a creepy scary book then this is definitely one for you. I shall be reading more Stephen King books in the future such as Misery, Just After Sunset, Christine, 11/22/63, Cell, Pet Semetary and Mr Mercedes.

Rating 4/5

Paper Towns

Paper Towns by John Green

Published- 19th May 2015
Publisher- Penguin Books
Pages- 336 pages (paperback)

Who is the real Margo Roth Spiegelman and why has she suddenly disappeared? Will Quentin be able to find her and is she still alive? Does she even want to be found? How can you find someone who doesn't really want to be found?

This was a good novel once again by John Green. However, having only read 2 of his novels so far I did enjoy The Fault In Our Stars a lot more than this novel. There were not as many funny moments in this novel as there were in TFIOS. However, I did enjoy reading the road trip parts in this novel as it is good to see what everyone does on a road trip and how they get along with each other being stuck in a car for 20 or more hours.

Quentin was a great main character as he just wanted to find out what had happened to Margo and find out if she was alive or not. He had a great relationship with his 2 best friends Radar and Ben. I also liked Lacey as, even though Margo did a prank on her, she still cared enough about Margo to go on the road trip to try to find out if she was alive and well. It was funny reading about Radar's parents black Santa collection their house.

The writing was great and flowed really well throughout the whole novel. It was an easy read and I got through it all quite quickly as it was also quite a short novel. Therefore some of the chapters were quite short. However, in the copy I own some words were missed out which meant that some sentences didn't entirely make sense, but that was probably just a printing error. I love the way John Green writes as he always puts description into everything he writes about, such as when he is describing a place or a building.

The film was quite different to the book. For example, the part where they start singing Pokemon in the mini-mall was an improvised scene so that was not in the book. Also, Angela does not go on the road trip with them. Lastly, in the film they went on the road trip then raced back for prom, but in the book they had already had prom and left during their graduation ceremony. I love in the film where Lacey says she is a Charizard girl after the boys have finished singing Pokemon.

Overall, this was a really good, easy, quick read. I give this novel 3.5-4/5 stars. If you want a quick read and you loved the film then definitely give this novel a read. Or just give it a read if you love John Green's other novels. I shall be reading more of his novels in the future.

Rating 4/5

Sunday, 24 January 2016

Outlander Season 1

I recently purchased the Collectors Edition of Outlander Season 1 on Blu-Ray. The Collectors Edition features a 64 page book (containing photos from each episode of the series) and 5 art cards featuring Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall. Here are some photos for you to see of the Collectors Edition.