Movie Adaptations

I learned last night that The Fault in Our Stars is being adapted into a movie. (My source was none other than John Green himself, too, so I think it's legit. When you stop to think about it, Twitter is amazing.) Green was pretty positive on Twitter and Tumblr, so I'm hopeful that they'll make a movie that lives up to the book.

The news got me thinking about other movie adaptations, especially adaptations of books I read last year (Stephenie Meyer's The Host and Shannon Hale's Austenland). Both The Host and Austenland are set to hit theaters this year, although I don't believe Austenland has a firm release date yet. I adore both of those novels and have been eagerly anticipating the movies from the moment I learned about them. (In fact, news of each film sent me running to my bookshelves so I could re-read the book in question.)

There are differences between them, though. I immediately agreed with the major casting decisions for Austenland because I love Keri Russell and JJ Feild. And who doesn't love Jane Seymour and Jennifer Coolidge? I was less thrilled with the casting of Saoirse Ronan as The Host's protagonists, Wanderer and Melanie. (Yep, one actor is playing two characters. It's intriguing, right?) In her defense, though, I've only ever seen her in Atonement and I strongly dislike her character in that film, so I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

The Host is coming out in just over a month and I am conflicted about it. I'll probably see it because I love the book, but I'm afraid I'm going to dislike the movie. The first and third trailers make it look like an action movie and it really shouldn't be. In particular, the third trailer (which was just released) features an alarming number of car stunts; I don't remember reading anything about a car crash or a high-speed chase in the book (and I've read the book five or six times). So, yeah, I'm worried I won't like the movie but I'll probably see it anyway.

In a way, it's funny that I'm so worried about The Host movie not being faithful to the novel because my favorite Jane Austen adaptations aren't the most faithful. Case in point, I adore the 2005 Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightley and don't really like the 1995 BBC miniseries with Colin Firth. The miniseries taught me that there is such a thing as a movie adaptation that is too faithful to the original novel. (I know that a Janeite slamming the miniseries simply isn't done, but I have to be honest. The thing dragged at times and we need to acknowledge that.) I have always felt that the 2005 film captured the essence of the novel and hit all the high points even if the clothes were from the wrong period and the last scene was kind of dumb. And that's my concern with The Host; the trailers make me worry that they didn't capture the essence of the novel at all.

I will be sure to share my thoughts on the film version of The Host if when I see it.

Book Recommendations: YA Edition

I'm finally getting around to some of my promised book recommendations. I read so many good books in 2012 that I have to split my recommendations up between YA and not YA. I read each of the below books for my YA literature course. I think only one of them was actually published in 2012, but they were all new to me. They're listed in the order in which I read them.

• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - This was the first book I read for the course and it set a really high bar for the 23 books that came after it. This book found its way to a lot of "best of the year" lists and deservedly so. Teenagers Hazel and Augustus meet at a support group for young cancer patients and fall in love. You'll laugh (yes, really), you'll cry, you'll be glad you read it. I also fully intend to read everything else John Green has ever written.
• Princess Academy by Shannon Hale - I've read Hale's first not YA book, Austenland, several times, so I decided to check out one of her YA books for the course. I'm glad I chose this one. Miri is a fourteen-year-old girl who doesn't know where she fits in her village until she and the rest of the village girls are forced to attend a so-called princess academy. It's a sweet story with a happy ending and sometimes that's all you want from a good book.
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick - I'd seen the movie Hugo in the theater, so I had a pretty good idea of the story. But I was completely unprepared for the way Selznick tells the story in the book. There's a visual aspect to the storytelling that is unlike anything I'd ever seen before and is incredibly compelling. I'd probably recommend this book on that alone, but the story is also very good.
• The Giver by Lois Lowry - I was so entranced by this story that I read the book in one day (practically one sitting). Apparently this book is often assigned in high school, but it wasn't in mine. And more's the pity. This is a deceptively simple story about a deceptively perfect world and it stayed with me long after I finished it.
• Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson - Of the 52 books I read last year, this is the one most likely to be slapped with the dreaded "chick lit" label. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I don't mind reading chick lit any more than I mind watching chick flicks or listening to emo. I do wish we could strip the pejorative connotation from "chick lit," though (and "chick flicks" and "emo," for that matter). The odds that I will re-read this book someday are high, which is one of the highest forms of praise I can give a book.
• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson - This historical novel is set during the yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia in 1793. This is a really good, fast-paced story, but I'm also recommending it because I feel like this is an episode in early American history that isn't well-known. I'd never heard of it until I read this book and I'm a native of the Delaware Valley; heck, I was in middle school during the 200th anniversary, it should at least have been mentioned in passing. The author blurb on the book states that Anderson first became aware of the outbreak when she saw something about the anniversary on the Philly local news, but she must have been watching PBS or something (we got all of our news from 6ABC).

I also really enjoyed Suzanne Collins' Catching Fire and Mockingjay.