Book reviews: The Picture of Dorian Gray | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay | Flickan med gåvorna

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Original title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Genre: Classic
Series: --
Publisher: Penguin Books
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Finished: 7/2/17
Summary: Upon seeing his own striking portrait Dorian Gray is bewitched and offers his soul if only the painting will age while he remains eternally youthful. Believing himself incorruptible, Dorian indulges in a life of pleasure and excess. But what has become of the portrait?

My thoughts: I never expected this novel to be as mind bending and mind blowing and mind boggling as it turned out to be. This is a book which, unlike many other classics I've read before, lives up to it's reputation, and with good margin. Sure, I was bothered by the blatant sexism often spoken by Lord Henry as well as the rather weak minded female minor characters (with few exceptions), however I've realised that sexism is an unavoidable theme in all classic novels written by men. So when I learnt to look past that, I found that this story is a treasure in many, many ways.
The characters are, if a bit over the top and dramatic, were believable and rather well developed. Especially the character development of Dorian Gray himself impressed and astounded me in its simplistic yet shocking probability. The character of Lord Henry was also one that I was charmed by in the end, despite his comments about the female sex. The amount of quotes that man produced in a little over 200 pages is remarkable, even more impressing is the author of the book himself, Oscar Wilde. Speaking of the gay and flamboyant Mr Wilde, there were indeed a lot of hints to gay intimate relationships throughout the whole novel. That made me happy while reading it.
The plot line itself is a wee bit on the slow side in the beginning of the novel, however I was rarely bored while reading. The only chapter I had problems with, and I'll warn you now; there might be a small spoiler here so watch out, was freaking chapter 11, which was about 20 pages long in this edition and dragged on for forever. All it did, in the end, was list different types of rocks and gems, types of music, embroideries, odours and fashion. Sure, I saw some point in it, but I feel like that chapter was meant to be a way for the author to show off his researching skills to the public as it didn't really add anything to the story but a lack of pace and intrigue.
I'll admit that it was all worth it in the end, though. The ending was the best it possibly could've been and I might have been a little bit heartbroken and I might have shed some tears, but it was okay because The Picture of Dorian Gray was worth my sorrow. Honestly, the only thing keeping me from rating the book 5/5 stars is the sexism and chapter 11. The rest of it was just pure amazingness (yes, that's a word now).

Rating: 4,5/5

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Title: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay
Author: J.K. Rowling
Original title: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay
Genre: Fantasy, Historical
Series: Fantastic Beasts #1
Publisher: Little, Brown
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 282
Finished: 15/2/17
Summary: When Magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in New York, he intends his stay to be just a brief stopover. However, when his magical case is misplaced and some of Newt's fantastic beasts escape, it spells trouble for everyone…

My thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this, however I will keep this review short. I saw the movie a few weeks back at the cinema, and reading the screenplay was of course just like watching the movie all over again. This is one of those rare cases where the movie is equal to the book, and both are good. Really good. This was a quick read, filled with action, witty dialogues, magic vibes, good characters and excitement. Most of all, I can't wait for a continuation. So if you saw the movie and liked it, I strongly recommend that you give the novel a chance as well. And of course the cover is beautiful.

Rating: 5/5

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Title: Flickan med gåvorna (The Girl With the Gifts)
Author: M.R. Carey
Original title: The Girl With All the Gifts
Genre: Dystopian, Adult
Series: --
Publisher: Ordfont
Format: Hardcover 
Pages: 391
Finished: 19/2/17
Summary: Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.


My thoughts: I read this for Swedish class with a small group of my chill classmates. I kid you not, this is probably the only dystopian novel I've ever legit enjoyed. More than that, it's the best dystopian novel I've ever read. I'm not at all a big fan of dystopian novels in general; I think the concept is limited and honestly quite depressing and boring. However this book was different somehow. Maybe because of the zombie theme. I mean, zombies are awesome. I also liked that the perspective was split between five, on different levels, major characters as we moved through the story. The characters themselves were very well developed and described, and their personalities didn't mix and sort of blend together; something that often happens with characters in YA novels.
The story was fast paced and incredibly thrilling. Not one boring chapter passed me by during the entire read. This was indeed a real page-turner. The only slight problem I had with the book was the awkward sexual tension between some of the characters. It kind of worked itself out in the end, but I was highly uncomfortable with it at certain points in the story. I also felt like part of the story was never fully completetd (spoiler alert, it was never explained what happened to vildarna). Those are the only things keeping the final rating from five full stars. But! It's still very much worth the read.
I will not watch the movie :(

Rating: 4,5/5

Book reviews: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea | The Colour of Magic | Den sommaren

Title: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Author: April Genevieve Tucholke
Original title: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Genre: YA, fantasy, horror
Series: Between #1
Publisher: Dial
Format: Hardback
Pages: 360
Finished: 2/1/17
Summary: Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. 

My thoughts:
Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Where do I even start with this? First things first, somehow this author managed to do everything wrong with this story. To start off with something, let's do a short summary of the main character, Violet White (silly, silly name), who quite honestly doesn't have much of a personality. I'm tired of authors portraying their female protagonists as stubborn, weak in the presence of good looking teenage boys, illogical, sensitive, and quite dumb, but then throw in a "she reads books" and that's supposed to make me, the reader, think she's intelligent? My point is, Violet talked in her inner monologue about how her personality was, but every decision she made and her every action went directly against the picture she painted of herself? Unprofessional.
Then we have the to main male characters; Violet's twin brother Luke and this story's male love interest River West (again, silly name). Luke, firstly, is a sexist bastard and he is extraordinarily open about it, and everybody is just okay with it?! To be fair, Violet and River express dislike towards Luke's sexism, but neither of them speak up when he goes on degrading half the Earth's population with his uneducated statements. The only time Violet speaks up is when Luke throws a bottle into the sea. Oh, so then he's doing something wrong? Nu-uh, I don't appreciate that at all, Sir Author.
So River, then. Lying, manipulative, murdering. He seems to be a manipulative liar, and I mean as long as Violet is okay with that in their relationship, then I guess it doesn't do too much harm, but the way he treats her is also so disgustingly sexist, I just couldn't stand it. I won't go into detail, but he was not very appealing.
And logic! Where did it go? They came to conclusions out of nowhere that made no sense whatsoever, and then the author tried to just explain it with some stupid logic, and it made even less sense. Also, the story was so predictable, not even the plot twist was very twisty. This was supposed to be horror? I wouldn't have noticed unless I'd looked at the tags on Goodreads. If this classifies as horror, then cotton could just as easily classify as iron.
Oh well, it wasn't all bad. A few select parts were good, I'm sure. I don't remember them, but I'm sure they were there, hidden behind sexism, plain characters, predictable plot, and long, boring, unnecessary environment descriptions.
The cover was pretty though!

Rating: 1/5

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Title: The Colour of Magic
Author: Sir Terry Pratchett
Original title: The Colour of Magic
Genre: High fantasy
Series: Discworld #1
Publisher: Corgi
Format: Paperback
Pages: 238
Finished: 14/1/17
Summary: On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet...

My thoughts: 
This is great. I loved this, and I don't know how it took me almost a year from start to finish. Reading slumps are tricky things. Anyways, storywise, this had everything. The world is well developed, the characters are unique and hilarious, the plotline is up paced, and the whole this is just to die for. I can't think of more things to say without spoiling it for you, but just GO READ IT!

Rating: 4,5/5

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Title: Den sommaren (That Summer)
Author: Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki
Original title: This One Summer
Genre: Graphic novel, Contemporary
Series: --
Publisher: Placebo Press
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 319
Finished: 6/2-17
Summary: Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. It's a summer of secrets and sorrow and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.

My thoughts: This was my first time reading a graphic novel! I picked this up at the library the other day. I usually don't borrow books, but I'm broke so I'll have to cope. I chose on of the heftier ones that I'd seen a lot of on BookTube a while back, and going into it I had no real expectations or knowledge of what is was going to be about.
Hands down, I adored the artwork in this novel. The illustrations were so beautiful, and although I thought I might end up confused with only drawings of what happens rather than worded descriptions, I found that I had no problem following the plotline. Regarding the plot, then, it was not as good as the artwork (the artwork being my favourite thing about this book), but it wasn't bad. Just rather boring. Some of the minor characters were pretty bland, and there was close to no excitement during the entire read, although I did finish the whole thing in one sitting. However, what I did enjoy a lot was the close friendship between Rose and Windy, and the summer vibes. For two hours, I was on a sunny beach rather than here in cold, snowy, grey Sweden. My favourite character was Windy. So charming and believable.
In the end, I loved the artwork and found the story ok. The art kind of pushes the rating up a bit, I have to admit ;p

Rating: 3/5