The Long Walk is a dystopian novel published in 1979 by Stephen King but at this time, he uses the pseudonyme of Richard Bachman. But before we begins to start with the novel, let’s talk about the author, Stephen King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and also fantasy. King is a famous writer known throughout the world. Acclaimed by the critics for the novels like Shining or Mr.Mercedes, It is important to reminds us that in 1979, King is a writer like someone else but he was perceived like a distinguished writer notably for the novel Carry. And during the 1979’s year he decided to write the novel The Long Walk.

First of all, The Long Walk set in a dystopian alternative present. The story deals with a totalitarian regime in USA. Every year, a long walking is organized by the totalitarian regime, we can considered this walk like a kind of road-trip. Secondly, hundred teenagers participate voluntarily. If for any reasons, they decide to stop their walk. At the end of three warnings, they are killed in front all the population. Throughout this walk, We following the path of Garraty (the hero of the story) and his friends Mcvries, Baker… Garraty is a likable guy who tries to survive in this death march.

To conclude, this book is an impressive novel, the novel is gory but intense. King gives us a big lesson of morality with the story that’s one the many reasons why I wanted to speak about this book. The story takes place on more than two days. So we have the time to attach us to the characters. For finish, for me, The Long Walk is a great novel which deserves to be seen at least once.

Hi everybody ! It’s Halloween time and I really want to talk about a horror story after the name of my favourite writer Edgar Allan Poe.

Hello ! Today, I would like to talk about the psychological thriller « In a dark, dark Wood ». This novel was written by Ruth Ware, a british author, in 2015. The story speaks about Nora and Clare, who where best friends 10 years ago. But, a day, after the school, Clare disappeared. Now, Nora is a young writer who lives solitary in London. One day, she receives a strange invitation to Clare. Clare will be married and want to celebrate this, in this home… Inside the Woods… Dark Woods. Nora hasn’t seen this best friend for 10 years, and wants to see the « new » Clare. But something goes wrong to the party of « truth or dare » with the other people who where invited . Some things can’t stay secret for ever… It was a great gripping read, scary and amazing. I love this kind of book !! The Woods reminds me the fantasy world, and the strange atmosphere is very creppy !

Hi everybody!

Today I will present you a dystopian novel written by the famous and talented Stephen King and published in 1979: The Long Walk. 

Each year, 100 minor boys are volunteer to participate to a famous competition in the US, a totalitarian country: The Long Walk. Their aim is to be the last to walk and, by the way, the last alive. Indeed, it’s forbidden to stop to walk, or to walk too slowly, otherwise the walker gets one warning. If the walker gets three warnings, he is killed by soldiers who supervise them (each hour one warning is cancelled  if they walk « correctly »). The Long Walk never stop even if it’s rainy or if it’s the night. The end of it is only possible when only one walker is alive.  They start in the State of Maine, near the Canadian border.

What is interesting in this book is the evolution of characters. We are following Ray Garraty, the main character and his « circle of friend », participants with whom he has created a relationship. During all the story,  one question is recurrent: why are they participating to this competion? For what reasons? And, indeeed, the answer is not simple to find, maybe she doesn’t exist.

I liked this book because, first characters are very appealing, and, even if you know that only one will survive you hope that there will be an other end. But the major strengh of this book is obviously all the questions it raises. This long walk is a mass murder because each year 99 people are killed but the population is very excited to see this event. A large crowd is here to see the passage of walkers and if they can see one of them be killed, they are more happier. It’s only a game to them and it’s quite alarming.  This book questions us on a lot of human reactions and behaviors and also on our relations with the others.

I hope you enjoyed this article and share your reactions and feelings if you already read the book 🙂

Today, I would like to talk about a novel written by William Wilkie Collins entitled The New Magdalen. First, I’m going to speak a little bit about the author and about the title of the novel. Then, I’m going to present the plot and give my opinion about this book.

W.W. Collins lived in the 19^th century. He was a friend of Charles Dickens (they wrote some books together). Several of his books were criticized because of their “immorality”. Effectively, he talked about sensitive subjects (women in the society for instance) or made some criticisms about the society. But even if some of his novels were judged with disapproval, he became well-known. Indeed, he is considerate as one of the first English writer of detective/suspense novels. Now, I must tell you something about the title: when you read it, you probably asked yourself “if the main character is the new Magdalen, who is the original one?” Mary Magdalene (there are different spellings) is in fact a biblical character. I didn’t know a lot about her so I made some researches and, to recap, in popular tradition, she was considered as a repentant prostitute. And if you’ve read this book, you can understand the reference to Mary Magdalene (but I’m going to explain it soon).

Let’s talk about the story line. The story unfolds during the Franco-Prussian (also named Franco-German) War (1870-1871); in the middle of the Victorian era in Britain (1837-1901). The two leading characters are named Mercy and Grace. They are English and meet on the Franco-German front: Mercy is a military nurse who takes Grace in. Mercy has a degrading past: she is a reformed prostitute –reference to Mary Magdalen- and it is very difficult for her to find a job and have a decent situation. Concerning Grace, she has to go to England to become Lady Janet’s female companion (Lady Janet has never seen her). When a smell falls on Grace, Mercy decides to take Grace’s place, Grace’s identity, so she can go to England where nobody knows her. But a few times later, there is an unexpected event which is going to change Mercy’s life…

This a story about a fallen woman, about sexual discrimination and about a world ruled by social origins. This story is touching and makes us feel a lot of emotions. The reader takes pity on Mercy and thinks that it’s terrible that the social conventions are more important than love or friendship.

This book doesn’t have much sense. Or its florishing list of references that are reunited in its plot for no apparent reason is just too enigmatic and cerebral for us. I still can’t make a decision, whether this story is nonsensical or so meaningful that I can’t figure it out. Anyway, it made me immersed in its world like no other.

The reader follows two distinct but interrelated plots, led by two different characters between whom the story goes back and forth.

?On one hand, a 15-years-old young boy just ran away from home where he lived alone with his father. He knows he has a sister and a mother but can’t remember their faces. His main goal in life is to escape a curse his own father strangely told him: he is going to kill his father and sleep with both his mother and sister. Doesn’t it remind you of something? Right, Oedipus’ curse. To prevent this run away, he chose himself a new name and will be known as Kafka Tamura, in honour of Franz Kafka. His real identity will never be revealed to the reader. He has odd fancies: he doesn’t want to need much food, hence him getting used to eat his meals in very small amounts: he believes that his stomach will be accustomed to it, becoming smaller and smaller. He sometimes interracts with his alter ego, « the boy named Crow« . His escape will lead him to a quiet and private library where he takes shelter. It is ruled by a welcoming, haemophiliac and mentor-like Oshima, as well as a snobbish and distant Miss Saeki. He is attracted to her, although she is old enough to be his mother, whom she may as well be… The police will be interested in Kafka, after a violent murder was committed in the house he just left.

“Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on. In fact, things will even be worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.”

 

?On the other hand, Nakata is a mentally deficient old man who lost his intellectual faculties when he was younger, during a mysterious incident implying mushrooms and a flash of green light in the sky. However, he discovers that although he can’t have abstract thoughts anymore, he is now able to talk with cats. He even surprises himself as he understands that the fishes falling from the sky for two days aren’t anyone else’s fault but his. His quest begins after he tries to find a cat that mysterously disappeared. He deeply convinces himself that he has to find the « entrance stone« , as well as discovering what it actually opens. His path will bring him to a small library…

“If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.”
? Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

To sum up, these two initiatory journeys involve a recurring song, a cat killer whose threat is « Kill me or the cat gets it« , a few characters who are abstract concepts indeed, a truck driver wearing hawaiian shirts, a prostitute who knows Hegel‘s work by heart, a wooden hut lost in the woods, a backdrop of Beethoven’s music, the narrow relation between reality and dreams, a blend of cultures, Tokyo’s districts, the role of subconscious mind… It made me dizzy!

“Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.”   –Kafka on the Shore, H.MURAKAMI

Brave New World is a novel published in 1931. It’s a kind of « science fiction » Novel and recover of the dystopia. He was written in London and deal of the humans creation. The story takes place in London on a « Center of incubation and packaging » where baby, before have been conceived, are packed in bottles according to different groups. In this system, it is question of caste system. For exemple, the inferior groups, named « Epsilon » and « Delta » are mass-produced and are condamned to doing manual work, So much say that the superior groups, named « Alpha » and « Beta » are the dirigeants and are assigned the highest functions in this system. We can observed a big inequality. Huxley tries to show us that it could arrive because science is in progress and humain prodution could be or will be remplaced by the technological and scientific advances.

It is a novel which is told has the first person and it deal with the life and adventurs of a young orphan  until his maturity. Before being published,  he was published in a Dickens’ Magazine named « All the Year Round ». The story begin on 1812 in Kent and the protagonist named Philil Prrip also know as Pip, he lives on a Middle classe and would rising up above this one and he bing his young maturity in London after have received his « Great Expectations ». It is necessary to know that it is a autobigraphical novel because Dickens spent his youth in Kent too. This novel is an violent book beacause he deal with differents subjects such as the poverty or the death. This novel is full of twists and show that Dickens tell of his life’s events and indirectly on the men society

I am going to talk about a fantasy-vampire serie written by Julie Kagawa. It was published in 2012. It is an original novel who talks about vampires, nothing to do with Twilight! ^^

Allie, a young woman, is trapped in a post apocalyptic world where vampires reduced the humans to cattle that are meant to feed their rulers with blood. Those humans are called  the registered, they are integrated in the society, whereas the unregistered live in ghettos surrounded by rabids (humans turned into monsters) and starve to death. Allie is bound to live an adventure that will change her life, she is saved by a vampire, but the only way is to be bit and to be turned into the monster she hated the most…

Living as a bloodthirsty creature, she will have to make sacrifices, and learn how to keep her humanity being a vampire.. On the run, Allie will adapt in a group of resistance pretending to be human. But in this adventure, she will lose the only family she had, and the forbidden, falling in love with a human…

This is a fantastic story, the characters let their feelings flow all through the novel, even if it has been a long time since I read this book!! 🙂

This is a book of dark fantasy, written in 2011 and was published in June. Ransom Riggs is a photo collector, and this book would have been published only containing vintage photos, who remained on the pages but are actually the illustration of a fantastic and horrific story.

To introduce this novel, I can say that the main athmosphere is a lot of mysteries and action, that will unfold as you go through the story. Jacob, an ordinary boy, grew up with his grandfather’s stories. He told him amazing adventures about killing monsters, sailing seas, and the little boy’s imagination was bubbling. Abraham talked about an orphanage, where he had been saved from the monsters, Jacob one day wanted to find out more about his grand father’s past. The only problem is, Jacob didn’t know that his life was about to change forever, and very fast. He would be caught in a deliriousl but real adventure : protect the orphanage from the incoming danger, to save the children. What is so peculiar in this orphanage? Were they still alive, after all these years?  Was his grandfather’s stories only fiction ?

I highly recommend this book, the story is amazing and the pictures are very unusual and interesting, I just can’t wait to go and watch the film!

Today, I’m going to talk about a book I read a long time ago which is What we see when we read, released in 2014. It was written by Peter Mendelsund, an American art director and classical pianist.
This book is neither a novel nor an art book. Indeed, it includes big print text and illustration (made by the author), so it makes the book easy to read. Despite its 440 pages, it takes about 3 hours to read it.
You may wonder, what does it deal with? Actually, the title fully describes the topic. It asks questions about the way we read. What is the role of our imagination? Of our memory ?  Why don’t we see the same thing than our neighbor ? What happens in our head when we read ?
Through all these questions, the author never gives an answer. He just wants us to find the answer. It makes us think about the power of words and literature. He explains all of this on whites and blacks pages. In other words, he tells us how to read to develop increasingly our imagination.
What I find interesting about that, is the fact that he provides examples which are meaningful to all such as Tolstoï, Flaubert, Herman Melville, Marcel Proust… but you don’t have to read these books to understand what he is talking about. I advise you to read this book if like me you don’t have time anymore to read anything else than Sophocle and Gide!

For my first article, I’m going to talk about Winter Journal, a book written by Paul Auster. He was an actor, a filmmaker but mostly an author.
Winter Journal was released in 2012 and was his last book. It is not really a novel, neither an autobiography nor a brief. Thirty years after his first book, Auster depicts fragments of his life since he was six.

The author himself said that his book was like a poem, written at the 2nd person. It is as if he were talking to someone (which could be anyone). Given that he was himself a director, he scrolls his life as a scenario, with long sentences which sometimes have not a real sense of the rest of it.
He talks about the passing of time and his sensory data. He tells us about feelings that were lost and found, life’s pleasures and accidents, women reciting Baudelaire’s poems from New York to Paris. Moreover, the book ends the same way it starts.
To sum up, although the author doesn’t consider the book as an autobiography, there is all his life in it and also all his feeling about every important moment of his life such as what he likes eating, place where he lived, his dreams…

“We are all aliens to ourselves, and if we have any sense of who we are, it is only because we live inside the eyes of others.”

Prepare yourself to enter in a world you won’t certainly understand and to do so, you will have to forget all the things that you know for sure… Welcome to Night Vale !

Welcome to Night Vale is a novel published in 2015 and based on a popular podcast (in the United States honestly, but not really in France) that has the same title than the novel. In fact, it is one of the most downloaded podcast in the international charts on iTunes (actually, every new episode is in the top 10) and you can easily find it by googling it or searching here and there on Soundcloud and Podbay. Then, you will be able to listen to them and if you have some issues to understand it, you can use transcripts of the episodes that will help you.

Yes, it is a podcast, then it’s a novel too. But, these are special ones. You have to mix the weirdness of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks series and the banality of the American local radio and you obtain this little jewel.

« A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.                       Welcome to Night Vale ! »

That’s how the podcast and the novel begin !

I can’t really give you the plot because there is not a story, however several stories. Nevertheless, I will tell you some interesting things and facts about it. First, you need to know that this universe is dark but funny. Then, it’s incredible but impossible to describe to any friend of yours (even to your family or your english teacher ;)). Indeed, in this universe, angels are coming to help people to change light bulbs, wednesday can be cancelled due to a schedule error and a five-headed dragon can decide to run for municipal elections too !

I read the novel in English because I saw so many times on the Internet that some readers were angry and not convinced about the French translation which is apparently lame, wrong and full of mistakes ! The French translator(s) seems to have taken some liberties of changing names of places and characters which ruins your pleasure of diving into this fascinating novel’s universe when you actually know them in its original language. It is also the fact that there’re plenty of puns that the translation doesn’t manage to keep and has to make some changes that takes out the funny part of the novel.

As a conclusion, I liked this book pretty well but I can’t recommend it for everybody. You can read an extract, listen the half of the podcast’s first episode and you will make your own mind about it… And, don’t forget what it is said underneath.

Not long ago I have read Sherlock Holmes Crime alleys written by Sylvain Cordurié.

The story takes place in 1876, Sherlock Holmes was spent his time to solve inquiries. He will meet his largest ennemy when his flatmate will be removed, his name is Moriartry….

I appreciate this kind of comic because it’s suspensful and we can’t get loose of the story when we have started. In this comic, drawings are precises and crowded of details, that returns the story more and more interesting through the pages.

Saga is a serie of comics strips written by  Brian K. Vaughan, designed by Fiona Staples. Alana and Marko are falling in love but there are alien and their different sort of alien are ennemy. the story is inspried of the famous saga « star wars ». The couple has got a baby which name is Hazel, this baby is a sign of hope for fight and conquer the « cosmos ».

I have loved this comics because the characters are charming and courageous, we could look into the story and identify the characters to us.

Hello everybody !

Today I would like to speak about the novel Inferno written by Dan Brown.

Dan Brown is an american writer famous for his book Da Vinci Code but also for creating lot of controversery with this same book. Inferno was published in 2013 and it is a thriller.

Inferno is the story about Robert Langdon, Harvard University profesor who wakes up in a hospital. Woundedn he has no memory of the few laters days. Why he is in Florence ? When his world becomes a nightmare, he fled with a young women, Sienna Brooks. He quickly understands that he has a coded message creates by a genious who throughout his life trying to avoid the end of the world. Caught in a race of time, Langdon and Sienna will try to escape their enemies and solve puzzles through the greatest works of Italy like Inferno by Dante Alighieri.

Dan Brown proposes in this book a trip through Florence, Venice, Istanbul with thousands of détails that make us travel. Inferno also learnt me a lot of things about the history of Italy with the Medicis, Boticelli, Michel-Ange…  It is also a reflexion of the evolution of our world and the author denounced the different world’s organizations. So I loved this book, it was very interesting with many suspens !

I’m sure you’ve seen a person like this, at least one day in your life. You know, a person that seems to be normal, this person look banal, speak normaly at first, but when you talk a little bit longer with him, you know, you feel that there is something wron with this person. He speak about thing that you don’t anderstand, or when you speak, this person seems shy or exciting for everything and nothing. You are touched by this person, because you know that he doesn’t anderstand what he’s doing, wrong or right, but some others are nasty, and it hurts you, maybe you are angry or disgust, because people laught at a person that don’t anderstand, don’t know, this person. In a way this person is not responsible for what he did. But sometimes, you can’t restrain yourself, you laught with them. The only thing you hope for the mentally disabled, is that he becames sound of mind. You now that’s impossible for some cases, but you hope.

Well, that what you feel when you read this book. Flowers for Algernon is not an easy book to read. At every moment, you hope for the main character, Charlie Gordon, to evolve and succeed, or defend himself. No spoil but… sad story. In short, this story relate a small part of the life of Charlie but not least : the part when he becomes the subject of a psychological experiment which aims to make him became « smart ». So because he have to maintain a personal dairy, we read his evolution through his eyes. You will know later if you decide to read the book, why it’s cruel.

In this book, Daniel Keyes, the author of this science fiction novel, expresses the cruality of this world. He was an university psychology researcher and he also wrote The minds of Billy Milligan, The Milligan wars and The asylum prophecies, to develop his works he wrote some other books, like complementary works, one for the story of Algernon, and an other for Milligan. He was born in 1927 and died in 2014, so we can easily say that it’s a modern novel and a coeval author.

I couldn’t have read the stories of his second character yet, but when I will have enough time I will do it, because his first character really touched me, I don’t want to spoil you the end, but as Of Mice and Men that’s a very hard story to read and really sad,  we learn a lot at the end.

In my opinion, this kind of books open the mind of the teenagers or the adultes, wich is important for the future of our society.

              The affairs of others, Amy Grace Layd :

Biography : Amy Grace Loyd write one book, this is The affairs of others. After she worfk for playboy Magazine and she lived in Brooklyn.

The main character is Celia, whi his husband is dead a disease. She owns an apartment and she has 3 dwellers ( a couple whitout children, an old man he is a captaine and Goerge a teacher, he take a travel for going to France and leaves his apartment in Hope,  she separed from her husband.

Celia doesn’t want to have contact with society, because she is sad with the death of his husband. She take a pharmaceuticals ans alcohol for exemple to sleep.

Hope has lover who beats because she ask it. Then she organized a Party for welcome. Celia doesn’t want to go to the Party but she going .One days, Hope go to the hospitla, because she did a hard Party . His lover has too much drink alcohol and he going to Celia home and he knock a door and Celia too but head of HOpe lover’s. Then Celia has want relationship and she find with Hope. At the end there is a Party and there is a final description of his dwellers.

Celia come back to life!

The morals of this book, is they people can’t live alone. There is a mixe of Celia story the past with the present.

      Oliver Twist :

  Charles Dickens was born in February 7, 1817 next to Portsmouth in England and he was dead in june 9, 1870. He was romancer and dramatist but too journalist. His best book is Oliver Twist, and he was published beetwen 1837 at 1839.

  Oliver Twist is an Orphan, her mother is dead. He was to receive by parish.He is educate by Mrs.Mann, she is hypocritical and selfish women. At 9 years old, Oliver go in workhouse and Mr Bumble change a rules. The children fail food. Oliver going in dungeon because he want to food with his friends. Oliver will be take like chimney sweep but then he will dispatched at workhouse. Ahfter he will be take by in undertaker’s but he isn’t happy and he don’t have best life. Oliver will a conflicts in family who he is receive. Oliver decide to escpae in London. He make meet different people who help him to survive. He fall by people where he will « free » but he will to be steal. Mr Brownlow will help Oliver after different event in this story. Whil the story Oliver will be again a different problem but he discover the thruth and then Oliver will be happy.

Ther is very emotionein this story because that touch a live of children . And we can see the reality in the old days.

The Lord of the Rings, is a story in three novels, written byJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, and published in 1955.

It’s a story of two hobbit (small man) who must destroy a ring. But this ring must be destroy in the vulcano where he was created. The probleme is that the master’s ring want to recover her ring, for begin a monster of the dark, and govern the world. So he will try to find her ring, and if he must kill for that, he will to do.

I loved this story, because it take place in fantasy world and we can see a magic creature. This story is very fascinating.

Oliver twist, written by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) and published in 1837, is a very famous novel .

Oliver is an orphan, in early, he works in funeral. But one day he decided to go in London. In London, he’s adopted by a band of young thieves, who are working for Fagin. One day he is accused for theft that did not commit, and he won’t denonce his friends. Fagin found Oliver, and forces him to steal in the house of the gentleman.

For me it is a beautiful novel, which made me think.
This story exists too in the form of musical comedy.

Never without my daughter is an autobiographical novel by Betty Mahmoody.  Betty Mahmoody is an american writer who is known thanks to this novel where she tells us about eighteen months of calvary when she lived in Iran before to escape from it with her daughter.

« My fight to return in the United States with my daughter »

« One day, while she suffers from migraines, Betty consults a doctor : Bozorg Mahmoody, of Iranian origin. Betty falls under the spell of this delicate and obliging man whom she marries and whose girl she has. After wedding a few years, the growing political tensions between Iran and the United States are going to weaken their personal and professional situation. The religious extremism, influenced, in particular, by friends and some members of his family who visit them » and… this is the beginning of her hell. Betty can’t do anything, between the threats of her husband, the domestic violence, she is trapped. Will she be able to escape of this hell ? With her daughter ?

I really liked this autobiographical novel because I just found it moving, fascinating, interesting.  I like so much having different points of view on different situations. (And I am fascinated by this kind of story, like Natascha Kampusch by Natascha Kampush or Sold by Betty Mahmoody…) Here, I learnt a lot of things about the Iran. And, it’s an autobiography and I think it is something which denounces someting, indeed : « this novel and the movie were judged by Iranians  and a part of the Muslims as racists, généralisants and offensive »

There is also a film that I’ve never watched, but my mum told me that I should, maybe one day because I’m a little bit scared about being disapointed ! (But, it’s true, I should to do my own opinion! I chose some shots of the film because I find them amazing)

Mauvais genre (or « bad kind » in English) is a comic by Chloé Cruchaudet, a french scriptwriter and cartoonist.
Inspired by real events, she tells us the story of Paul and Louise during the First World War.

Paul and Louise love each other, but one day, in 1914 in France, during the First World War, they have to be separated. Paul, who wants at all costs escaping to the horror of the trenches, becomes a deserter and joins Louise in Paris.
To be hiden, Paul has to disguise himself in woman. His wife helps him to seem like a real women. He becomes Suzanne.

(The writer declared to have drawn voluntarily indistinct facial features of Paul’s face. In this way, she can feminize him without needing to realize big modifications.)

I think this is one of the best comic which I read. I really liked it, and I found it funny sometimes, for example when Louise tries to disguise and to shave, to wax Paul. I found different messages through this moment, like the fact that the society imposes to women to be shaved, to have make up to be a woman, so Paul has to be perfect, whithout male aspects which could betray him.

I recommend you this beautiful story, this emotional story, which will question you.

I would like, one day, a film adaptation even if I am a little afraid of not finding the moments which are in the comic, like the graphic novel Blue is The Warmest Color by Julie Maroh, (there are many similarities with Mauvais genre, that’s why I mentionned it!) and I was (and I still) really disappointed. The film adaptation by Abdellatif Kechiche is not what I expected, I do not like this film… BUT THE GRAPHIC NOVEL, WOW!!!

So I have mixed feelings, but it won’t change the fact that I really really really love this comic !!!

At the very beginning when I heard about this book, he caught the eye to me at once but the opportunity had appeared never really. But that’s it I finally took the plunge and I plunged into this magnificent book.

Jacob is a very normal young person, with a family which has its secrets and a grandfather in the delirious stories ! But is Grandpa Portman as well crazy as we think of it?

I did not think of being allowed embark so by this history and nevertheless it was the case. Once gone into the novel I wanted to know the end and to understand  if all that we tell to Jacob since he was a child is true or not! But once the quest begun, I began to find it a little bit long, and then the more and more interesting photos arrived and my interest woke up! From the moment Jacob finds « them » I did not know how to any more release the book. I always wanted to learn it more, and especially to learn it more on the monsters which populate this novel.

And then we make THE decisive meeting of the book, that of the Miss Peregrinates, and the story takes another scale. The fantastic part is justified by « monsters » which we know very well in the end … I shall let you discover about whom I speak, but from front pages you will understand very well!

The end of the novel is full of new developments and maintaining it delays me only a thing, to have the continuation to understand where is going to lead this quest. Because we suspect although what we saw in this first volume is just the top of the Machiavellian plan! Deeply!

At the level of the characters I loved a lot Jacob who finally is lost as well as we him would be at his place. He is a just man catapulted in this story. Emma and the other children have this young something who makes that we can only love them, and now I want to have of them news !

The style of the author is really pleasant, even if there are moments longer than others. But photos and drawings which there is throughout the book bring us a discovery furthermore.

To finish, a first volume which makes the mouth water to us for the next !

http://www.ransomriggs.com/images/missperegrine_334x518.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/embed/tV_IhWE4LP0

And you can here, check the website of the author, there are few things about the author, his books and more ! http://www.ransomriggs.com/index.php

Hey there !

Let it be said, let it be done.

Now it’s time for me to talk about the book that shook the world ! This new phenomenon is the Harry Potter new play.

Don’t worry, for sure I won’t spoil you, I’ll just give my opinion (as we know it’s not the truth x’D) as a reader, a Potterhead and just as me. Or some aspects of the story… In fact you’ll see a few lines under.

It was written by J.K Rowling (if you don’t know her, shame on you !), Jack Thorne & John Tiffany. So, so, so let’s point out that first : because of these different authors, as you can guess, that’s not completely as « Harry Potter » as it was with Rowling’s books. The story generally was interesting but sometimes, I  was like « would really this character say so in the books ? » or « is it really the Harry -or someone else- I used to know ? ».

So yeah sometimes that was disturbing for me but I thought that the main playwright was Thorne, and he isn’t our J.K Rwoling. Therefore I & you can understand these differences.

About the story, the main action is time-travelling thanks to a Time-Turner, if you read the book (what you should do anyways) you’ll see. This object is present all along the story ; it plays a very important role. So because of time-travelling some details can change… If you try to prevent someone from dying, maybe that’s someone else who’s going to die. I drew a conclusion of all of this : we should not travel back in time. It’s too complicated and dangerous, but that’s what the characters understood before me, of course ! And last but not least that’s impossible for the best, and for the worst…

Then seeing alternate reality was really interesting though, I really liked it. If you do like these kind of stories about time travel, time machine, timelines, you’ve go a very good and interesting anime called « Steins ; gate » about the science of travelling in time. That’s freaking well-done and the only thing about science I like 😉

Finally if you love Harry Potter, of course you’ll love & enjoy this play but be ready for something different. However we still have a lot of humour, you won’t  be rolling on the floor laughing but that’s nice. Ah ! An important point : you can read it in english (I wanted to read it in english first but seeing that the english version was less expensive than the french one… Of course I took it) there isn’t a very complicated vocabulary so this book is not out of reach if you have a good level (just like all HP books).

There it is, now it’s time to come back to Les Faux-Monnayeurs… Good things always have an end ! ;’)

Ahoy guys !

How do you do ?

Originally I wanted to talk about the Harry Potter’s new play but hadn’t enough time to finish it so I had to plot something else… Therefore I remembered I read an amazing book which was called « Curse of the Mummy ».

Wait, no, not so fast it’s not an usual book with a demoniacal mummy that wants to kill ya. Nope, that’s a Fighting Fantasy Gamebook, in other words « a book where you ARE the hero ». It sounds interesting doesn’t it ?

All the things you need to start your adventure is a pencil and a dice. (Yeah sorry we still can’t use swords or magic wands to set sail for an adventure… – I wish I could.) And of course the most important thing is « luck » otherwise you’d die (Because your character has differents stats : Stamina, Health and Luck. You established them at the begining of your journey with your amazing and magical rolling dice.)

With that said let me tell you more about this book. If you know narrative games or visual novel it works approximately the same. You are reading the story but at some moment, you have to select where you want to go, how to fight your ennemies, what you want to buy, etc… You have several options, and for exemple, let’s say you take « option 1 » you’ll have to turn to page 220 for exemple. So you are travelling all across the book but if you are sent to the last page it doesn’t mean that’s it’s the end of the story… To be honest I have never reached the end (for the moment !) and never met a mummy. But i’m pretty sure it’s awaiting for me to come and show how unskilled I am.

All joking aside I find that it’s a cool way to read a book. Indeed, you have to face ennemies (even if you are fighting them with a dice and numbers) and have to make choices to save the country -or your life.
What I loved too is the way other characters are dying : it’s so fierce and your character is just like « oh that’s sad, I will cry for a minute but then let’s resume this adventure as if it had never happened. I’m going to beat’em all yahouu » no time for apologies or sorrow ! Er, of course it’s an hyperbola but it’s almost that… !

Seriously if you have time (since using a dice isn’t as easy and fast as using a sword) and if you are eager to live your own epic adventure, you have to read/play one of these books. That’s really funny and you’ve got many different storys (with wizards, dragons, or mythology, etc) that you’ll inevitably find one you could love. Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson are the two main guys behind these books and trust me, they’ve done an incredibly good job with this series. Their worlds are often dark – but you are here to enlighten them after all – serious and there’s always an interesting story in which you can easily integrate yourself.

So now go grab one of these books, and start your adventure (while sitting on your bed) to beat’em all and become the hero of your own story !

That’s all for me guys, see you next time ! 😀 

Peter Pan is a fictional character created by the Scottish James Matthew Barrie. He appeared for the first time in 1902 in the novel The Little White Bird, in a play called Peter and Wendy and finally in the novel Peter Pan. Everyone know Peter Pan or has already heard about him. He’s in the popular culture. He’s very famous and here, i’m going to talk about the novel Peter Pan, written by J.M Barrie. It’s also known as Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.

One friday night, Peter Pan freely visit the house of the Darling Family. Mr and Miss Darling are not at home this night, and the nurse Nana, who’s actually a dog, is chained in the garden. Wendy, John and Micheal, the children, are alone and it’s a good plan for Peter to recover his shadow, that he lost the day before. Unfortunately, he wakes up Wendy, John ad Micheal. He decides to bring them to Neverland because he’s greedyof Wendy’s stories and he wants her to be their mother.  Their journey will be shaken by the Captain Hook, the Indians, the mermaids and the fairy Tinker Bell.

This story and especially the character of Peter are really interesting. At first saw, everythig turn around the subject of the adults. Peter doesn’t want to grow up, his enemy is the Captain Hook who is an adult, The Lost Boys that Peter killed when they are getting too old, because it’s forbidden to be an adult on his island. There’s also Peter who is sired to Neverland : He IS Neverland. When he left it, the island fall asleep, The Lost Boys and the Pirate stop the fight. Everything is about Peter, he controls everything and he’s not really kind as we could think. He’s a stranger of love or any deep sense. He’s indifferent of everything except himself. We’re far far away from the Disney’s version. He’s also compared to the Captain Hook and there’s a lot of common point between them.
They’re like Batman and the Joker : They cannot live without each other, but they fear each other. They are both without love : Hook live whithout it while Peter doesn’t even know the existence of love. But the important difference between them is the age : Hook is an adult. Peter is afraid of the adult’s cruelty and it’s the reason why he wants to stay a child. Finally, Peter is really upset when he wisit Wendy after a lot of years and find that Wendy is an adult now and she’s got a daughter. Peter decide to pick Wendy’s daughter, Jane, and bring her to Neverland.

A lot of adaptation were created. The one very famous is the movie Peter Pan directed by J.Hogan in 2003 with Jason Isaacs in the role of Captain Hook and Mr Darling and Jeremy Sumpter in the role of Peter Pan.

Danse Macabre is a book of short stories written by Stephen King in 1981. This non-fiction book is about horror, and it’s made up of 20 short stories. All in those stories is concentrated on ghost, vampire, werewolf, alive toys and others frightening things. In this book, we find the various ifluences of King,  and we’re focus on the 1950s to the 1970s. In his book, King uses the  » psychology of terror « .

We start the book on the author’s foreword, where he says that even him when he goes to sleep, he can’t sleep with one of his feet outside of the bed, because he imagines that a creepy monster is under, and can grab his ankle. He says that it’s like acting like a child, but he don’t care, he feels safe under his blanket. Finally, he informs us that everything in this book is supernatural, but we always have to be careful.

Now, i’m going to talk about one of the short stories that are in this book, and that especially scared me : The Boogeyman.
First, what’s a Boogeyman ? A Boogeyman is a mythical creature who has no specific appearance, who’s hiding in the closet of children, wanted to frighten them or kill them. Parents uses usually this myth to scare their children into good behavior.
Stephen King choses this creature for one of his short story, and it works very well to be afraid at the end.

Here’s the sumary of   » The Boogeyman  »

Mr Billings go to the psychiatrist, Dr Harper, to tell his story. He immediatly begin on his two children’s death because of him. He didn’t kill them, but he feels guilty of it. He says that the Boogeyman killed them, and he did nothing to avoid it.. His wife, Rita, and him, and devastated of their death, and finally decided to give birth to a third baby. They moved to another town, thaught their misery will be done. Unfortunately, the Boogeyman came back and killed the poor child. Dr Harper tell him to make others appointment to his secretary. Mr Billings come back to his desk because he didn’t find his secretary, and see the Boogeyman going out of th closet with the masquerade of Dr Harper.

Personally, I did not expect this end, I was completely shocked, and I laughed nervously. King knews exactly what he was doing. His aim was to manipulate his readers, and he made it perfectly. We can also think that there’s a double reading : Mr Billing could have really killed his children and the Boogeyman come at the end to punish his accuser. From time to time, Dr Harper and Mr Billings are irrelevant and talk a few minutes of the life of Mr Billings and his wife, and the fact that Mr Billings tells his story with really little details, make the short story really realistic, and it compel us to believe in the existence of the Boogeyman.

For this article I decided to talk about a new american TV show that was released on Netlfix in July 2016 called Stranger Things. This science fiction / horror series was created and directed by the Duffer brothers ( Matt and Ross Duffer ) and produced by Shawn Levy.

Plot : In November 1983, in Indiana in the town of Hawkins, a 12 years old boy named Will Byers ( played by Noah Schnapp ) vanishes mysteriously. His mom, Joyce ( played by Winona Ryder ), his brother,his friends and the police chief of the town all start to look for him. One night when Dustin ( Gaten Matarazzo ), Lucas ( Caleb Mc Laughlin ) and Mike ( Finn Wolfhard ) were looking for Will in the woods, they found a girl ( Millie Bobby Brown ), with a shaved head and the number 011 tattooed on her arm. This girl, then, claims to know where Will is, and the boys soon discover that she also has super powers. While people are looking for Will, weird supernatural things are happening probably linked to the Energy Laboratory of Hawkins which also seems linked to Will Byers.

This show is so amazing, and quite scary, but the fact that the main characters are kids makes it 10 times better. It also reminds me of  E.T. ( directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 1982 ) because this girl has super powers, we don’t know where she’s from and Will’s friends are protecting her just like Elliot with E.T.

Unfortunatly there are only 8 episodes available at the moment but the cast is working on season 2 already ! If you get a chance to watch it, do it, but don’t watch it alone ????

For my first article this year I decided to write about a book that I read again this summer for the fifth time probably, it’s called The Host and was written by Stephenie Meyer ( who’s also the author of the Twilight saga ) it was published in 2008.

This story, as well as all the book I read, is a post apocalyptic story. The Earth is invaded by aliens called « souls » , they implant themselves into human bodies and take over the human’s conciousness because, for them, humans don’t deserve the planet because they’re too violent. When a soul gets in a body, it erases every memory and knowledge the person had before.

A soul has been placed into Melanie Stryder’s body, called Wanderer. But Melanie’s conciousness is still alive and starts to communicate with Wanderer, Melanie tries to guide her to find her uncle, brother and boyfriend who’re hiding from the aliens somewhere in the desert, when they got to their hiding spot, they found out that about 30 people are also hiding there and everyone’s scared of Wandere except Melanie’s family, her boyfriend and Ian, a guy who fell in love with Wanderer. During her time there she finds out that they’re trying to find a way to cut souls out of their host but each attempt end up with the death of the host… Will they be able to cut out Wanderer of Melanie ? Will Wanderer find a new host ?

To find out you’ll have to read the 830 pages of the book ! I know it sounds like a lot of pages but the story is so captivating that when you finish the book it doesn’t feel like you’ve read that many pages.

    Romeo and Juliet is an theatre play by William Shakespeare. It was published in 1597. It is an tragedy. One of the most populary theatre play by William Sahkespeare, that work of art is know by all the world.

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. He is considerring like one of the tallest poet, dramatist and writter of english culture. He wrote Hamlet, Macbeth and a lot of others theatre player.

We are going to talk about Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet are the main characters in this theatre play. They fall in love at a party but their families are ennemies. So they can’t married. With the help of Friar Laurence, they marry in secret. But after Romeo and Juliet’s wedding night Romeo kills Juliet’s cousin in a duel. That is a tragic event because he is obliged to leave her. His life is in danger.

At the same time Juliet’s parents want that their daughter marry Paris. They don’t know that she is already married. At the beginning she refused but after she accepted. She accepted because she has a plan, she wants to fake her death and lives with Romeo for all their life. This plan became reality with Friar Laurence ‘s help. He gives at Juliet a sleeping potion. She seems to be dead but it’s fake. When Romeo visits her he is wrecked because he doesn’t know the stratagem of Juliet. He kills himself because he thinks that his love is dead. When Juliet wakes up she discovers that Romeo kills himself and she kills herself. It’s an dramatical end.

I love this story because for me it’s a classique of the literature. I ‘m crazy about work art of William Shakespeare, he was a great dramatist. This story is very addictive. It’s an old story but it is a famous story yesterday, today and tomorrow.

George Orwell is a British author. He was born in 1903 in India. His real name is Eric Arthur Blair. His most famous novel is 1984 but I want to deal with the book Animal Farm. This novel was written in 1947 in french. This is an apologue, a political novel.

The scene takes place in England more exactly in an England farm. The owners are Mr and Mrs Jones. In this farm there are a lot of animals, like pigs, dogs, horses, sheep or birds. Mr Jones doesn’t take care of his animals. One day these animals make revolution and get rid of Mr et Mrs Jones. They take control of the farm. After that the animals create a new laws of their farm, for these humans are ennemies and all animals are equal. But the dream became a nightmare for some animals. Pigs take control with violence. They change laws in secret, they manipulate other animals. The system of democracy became a totalitarian regim. We see the evolution of the animal farm and her political system. We want to know how this story will end ?

In fact, Animal Farm is a representation of the Russian revolution and of the stalinism. George Orwel do a critic of these two references. The novel criticize the totalitarism, Staline, Marx… The author has a smart writting because he use animals and fiction to shows what is his own opinion of a delicate subjects, the politic and the war.

I love this novel because the story is sympathic but it has a goal, there is not just for the entertainment. This novel shows an opinion and the reader has a relfexion after reading Animal Farm.

I’m going to speak about a detective novel of the American author Harlan Coben. This book was called Fool me once and it is the last book of the writer which was published in 2016. It is the first time I read Harlan Coben’s book, too.

In this suspence book, we meet Maya, which is the main character. She is a young mother but also a widow who lost her husband who was murdered. To watch her baby-sitter, she installs a security camera in her house…. until her husband, Joe, appears on the screen, a few days after his funeral….! Maya is then going to ask herself many questions and going back to her darkest past. Does she know absolutely everything ? And Joe ? Is he the one that she really knows ? It is into a history full of discoveries that the reader is absorbed…

In my opinion, it was a good story but this book didn’t really affect me… Despite this, I recommend it for those who like suspense books. Maybe the next Harlan Coben’s book I’ll read will be better and more fascinating, for me of course.

   This summer I read Shelter, Seconds Away and Found, three thrillers written by Harlan Coben. The main character is the same one in all of them : a teenager who has quite a complicated life. Indeed, his father just died and his mother is sent to rehab. Therefore he has to live with his uncle and go to a new highschool.

   Each book tells the story of Mickey and another character linked with him such as his girlfriend, his parents or a friend. There are mysteries like disappearance, murder, shooting and the protagonist is always down to help his friends getting out of the trouble.

   My favourite novel was the last one, Found. Eight months after his father’s death, Mickey finds out that his father’s body is not in his coffin so he tries to find him. It isn’t the only story of the book but it definitely is one of the best from my point of view. The end of the novel focuses on it and I thought it was an awesome and very thoughtful conclusion of the trilogy.

   These are books you can read really fast and I recommend it to those who like suspense and mystery novels.

   Paulo Coelho is a brazilian writer, especially known for his worldwide best seller, The Alchemist. You can recognize his novels because of his flowing style of writing, moreover his stories always have a mystical part. Indeed, he talks a lot about religion and spirituality in a very philosophical way.

   By the River Piedra is written in an internal point of view, Pilar’s one. She is an independant woman who decides to meet her childhood friend after 11 years without seeing him. He became very involved in religion and chose to dedicate his life to it. At first glance, they are very different although what unites them is their wish to change. They both go in a french village in the Pyrénées to talk and find themselves out. This story is essentially about love and their relationship.

« Happiness is something that multiplies when it is divided »

   This book was the first Paulo Coelho’s novel I’ve ever read. Before I started it, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it because of the religious side of it, but I actually liked his writing style and the fact that he explains things in a simple way makes it easy to understand everything. It is also quick to read because it is not too long. There are a lot of beautiful quotes that I loved. I personnally think this book has good life lessons and after reading it, it feels like you’ve learned a lot. That’s why I really enjoyed reading it and recommend it to anyone.

We were liars written by E.Lockhart . She is an American writer. She writes for children’s book and young-adult novels  and adult novels. She is known for Ruby Oliver series , she begins with The Boyfriend list  and We were liars, so i’m going to do my article on this book.

The story begins with a respectable and rich family. This family is described like : ‘’ Sinclair are beautiful, blond, slender and extremely rich. Square chin, always head up and smile facade’’. The book’s protagonist is Cadence, and is her family. In this book, she talks about her summers, because her grandparents are owned a pivate island: Beechwood, where they built four houses for their three daughters and their children. One house for everyone:

She talks about before Summer Fifteen, She goes to the private island with her mother : Penny and she finds her two aunts with their children, and their cousins Mirren, Johnny, Taft, Will, Bonnie and Liberty. And Gat an Indian boy, the best friend of Johnny. Mirren, Johnny, Gat  and Cadence named  ‘’The liars’’, They’re inseparable and accomplices.

In Summer Fifteen ( Fifteen refers to Cadence’s age in the island) She falls in love with Gat, but one night Cadence is found near the beach,in water, with only underwear, and with a serious injure… Now she suffers terrible migraines and she is not able to remember much of Summer Fifteen except details of her accident…

Her mother doesn’t want to talk about Cadence’s accident and the Summer Fifteen… Cadence becomes a different person. She waits the Summer Sixteen with impatience but her father wants to go to Europe with Cadence. And she accepts, because she also fears to return to the island and see ‘’ The liars’’ who she doesn’t talk with since her accident…

But the next Summer, Summer Seventeen, She found courage to go in Beechwood ! For a month. And she wants know more about the Summer Fifteen and the cause of her accident…

This gives a very successful novel that is hard to let go once we started, because we are caught in this atmosphere a bit strange and we want to know what happens!  I like the book with mysteries and secrets and this book brings together two. And I waited impatiently the fifth part, entitled: The Truth!

Cards on the Table is a detective novel by Agatha Christie, and it was published in United Kingdom on 2 November 1936. Agatha Christie was a famous English writer and she wrote many detective novels. She created two famous characteres : Hercule Poirot a Belgian detective and Jane Marple. Agatha Christie published 66 novles, 154 short stories and 20 plays. Agatha Christie is one of the most  famous writers in the world and she is considered the most widely read author in history among the English. She is one of the innovative writers.

One of the famous characteres is Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective, he appeared for the first time in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) and it was the first novel of Agatha Christie. Hercule Poirot is conceited, full of himself and loves to be complimented. He is very careful in his investigations and respects his moral values: Justice and Truth. His favorite sentence is” my little gray cells“. His last apparition is in Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (1975).

Cards on the Table is related the story of one of Hercule Poirot’s investigations. Mr. Shaitana, a rich man, invites eight people for diner, but he chose his guests with the precise reasons; four of their guests are crime experts including Hercule Poirot. And the others are suspected to commit a crime unpunished. But Mr. Shaitana knows the entire story and it cost him his life. During the evening they begin to play bridge, the four experts of crime in a room and the four suspecting criminals in another room with Mr. Shaitana who sits in a armchair near the fireplace. But the guests discovered Mr.Shaitana with dagger in his chest…Here how to begin the investigation for Hercule Poirot and “his little gray cells”.

This story has many film adaptions. I discovered Hercule Poirot with the TV series by ITV with David Suchet in the role of Hercule Poirot. They respect the book with some change, an example in the book we have three victims but in the serie we have two victims. I read the book after see the serie. I like the character of Hercule Poirot the conceited detective and his method to reveal the criminal:  he invites all the suspects in a room and he explains step by step his findings in his investigation and at the end, he denounces the guilty.

Cards on the Table is one of the stories of Hercule Poirot that I like, with Murder on the Orient Express but I don’t read the book, I just see the serie.

Hello everyone,

Today i’m going to speak about an amazing novel entitled « Charlie » or « Firestarter » and wrote by Stephen King the famous author.
This novel was published in 1980, later it was adapted in theatre with Drew Barrymore playing Charlie. I don’t know if the movie respect the book because I haven’t saw it, if someone did tell me.

So let me tell you briefly what about this story, Charlie is a 7 years old girl who is born with strong power : pyrokinesique. The problem is that she doesn’t control her power and it’s dangerous.
You have to know that her power comes from her parents who have been subject of an experiment when they are young. This experiment has change their DNA and capacities appears. For example Andrew Mcgee (Charlie’s father) can control peolple’s mind and create illusions.
But unfortunatly they are wanted by an agency from the governement who want study their power or even eliminate the « threat ». So Charlie and his father are constantly on run.               So in your opinion did they arrived to catch them ? 

This novel is very nice to read with a lot of suspens and this story is original and we want to know what happend next. I tell you, you must read it !

Hi everyone,
Today I’m going to speak about an amazing novel entitled « Denial » and wrote by Peter James an English Autor. This book belong to thriller and published in 1996.

So this story talks about a man named Thomas Lamark who lived in London with his mom, an older actrees: Gloria Lamark. You have to know that Thomas loved his mother and when I said love I mean love that you’re not allows or not suppose to feel for someone on your family.
But unfortunatly she decided to kill herself. Thomas found his mother dead and he reject the fault on Mickeal Tennet (his mother’s psy), So Thomas decided to revenge his mother by hurt then kill the guilty.
However this revenge will completely degenerate and engedered numerous murder. Thomas doesn’t want only punish the guilty he also want to hurt everybody who was an obstale for his mother.

I don’t know if some of you already read it but if not you had to, because suspens is here in every pages and we want to know what happend next. This story also makes me thinking about things who really exist, about the reality.
I tell you this book is Amazing and I recommend it for every people who loved suspens and thriller, you won’t be disappointed !

Hi everyone so today I am going to talk about a book I read this summer and that I love very very much. It’s called The Girl On The Train and it’s written by Paula Hawkins. The novel debuted at N°1 on The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2015 list.

From the suburb where she lives, Rachel took the train twice a day to commute to London. Every day she sits in the same place, and every day she watches a nice house. This house, she knows it by heart, she even gave a name to its occupants : Jason and Jess. A couple perfect couple to her, a happy couple, as Rachel has been by the past with her husband before he cheats on her and dumps her. But one morning, she finds out another man in the window. What is going on ? Is Jess cheating on her husband? A few days later, it’s with amazement that she discovers the photo of Jess in the newspaper headlines. The young woman, whose real name is Megan Hipwell, mysteriously disappeared …

This book is an obsession, in every sense of the word. It’s made as an assembly of various diaries, the story is told by so many people like a puzzle with a view to a final table. It tells us the story of ordinary people, like you and me with ordinary lives full of happiness and common misfortunes. But for Rachel, the girl on the train, everything is good to enhance a sad and dull life and this is when she began her obsession.

But I will not tell you more, I can’t tell you everything, because this novel is a multitude of events that themselves made me feel a multitude of emotions. Just know that in this book there’s no hero, no characters almost perfect here, all have more or less murky secrets.You can’t imagine the end. I was constantly uncertain to the events that took place in this small suburb of London.

Paula Hawkins manages to give reality to her characters through their flaws, weaknesses, and stormy or happy pasts. Life is not a bed of roses, far from it.

It’s an excellent psychological thriller, in which Steven Spielberg was able to recognize the talent of the author, since he bought the film rights. I really recommend it because it’s such a good novel.

The Author
Olivia Rosenthal is a french writter, novelist and playwright. She was born in 1965 in Paris. She studied in Jules-Ferry high school (1975-1982) and did a preparatory class in Henri-IV high school. Then, she got into the Ecole Normale supérieure in 1984, obtained an aggregation in modern literature in 1987 and a doctorate in 1992. She was elected a literature lecturer in 1993 in Rennes University. Since 1999, she teaches at the University of Paris III. She created with Lionel Ruffel and Vincent Message one of the first masters of literary creation of higher french education.

the book cover

The Book

« Mécanismes de survie en milieu hostile » is a bildungsroman and a thriller written by Olivia Rosenthal and released in 2014.

The novel begins with a fantastic story which turns into a nightmare. Then, we are immersed in the thought of a young girl who is completely confused after a family tragedy. Follow the story in a countdown with an endless and oppressive game of hide-and-seek. There are also others action which challenge the woman. She is confronted with her deepest fears: death, silence, mourning… She is facing the hostility of the outside world which obliged her to create coping mechanisms.

A distinguishing feature of this book is the alternation between the main story and an almost scientific story, written in italics. The link between the both story is deep and implicit and it’s very baffling.

This is one of my favourite book for several reasons : First, the original content and the change in stories. I have learned unexpected things thanks to this book and you should read it to discover that. For example, what I remember is a passage about the decomposition of bodies. It seems to be murky, but it was truly interesting. Despite this disgusting subject, it captured me. After reading this book, we question ourselves, how could we have act in this situation ? That also sends us back to metaphysical questions, our relation about death, childhood, bereavement mixed up in a scientific analysis.

While reading this novel, we are totally lost, destabilized, absorbed in a foreign world, questioning ourselves about life and death. It’s a puzzle to put together and the end enable us to stop stressing, to stop the suspense. Everything becomes highlighted.
Olivia Rosenthal, through this work, shows us our fears and our anxieties (such as death, confinement…) to learn how to survive and to cast our demons out. She tests her reader with destabilizing situation and involved him with a first person narrative.

Not very original but today I’m going to talk about one of the classic book :

The Shining

Shining is a horror novel written by Stephen King and published in 1977.

Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic, a failed writer and a former teacher decided to get his life back and to find a job. The Overlook Hotel is a mysterious place located in the mountains. It is closed in winter. Only a janitor leaves there during this time, totally isolated from the rest of the world because of the climate condition. Jack is wired as the guardian and brings with him his wife, Winifred (Wendy) and their son Daniel (Danny) who is five. Danny is an exceptional child and very grown up for his age. He has supernatural power called The Shining. As soon as he arrives in the Overlook, he sees frightening things especially when Tony, his imaginary friend visits him when he faints. Who are these persons in his visions ? The body of this murdered woman ? What are these strange noise and party’s music ?

In 1980, Stephen King sees his novel made into a movie, directed by Stanley Kubrick with Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd. It is considered as a classic horror film.

To avoid any spoilers if you haven’t read or seen The Shining, I advise you to stop your reading because I’m going to compare the two works.

I loved reading that book : it was thrilling and suspensful, and I also adored the characters and the way that King showed their relationships.

• We can see through Jack’s eyes that he loves his son, he is accomplice with him. This aspect is not really developed in the film whereas in the book there is an important passage showing it: he gives a hornet’s nest to Danny after learning that Jack had one in his room when he was a child.

• Love and hate between Jack and Wendy is more exploited : Even if she loved her husband, she is still mistrustful since the accident when Jack broke Danny’s arm. This tragic episode is indeed often reminded through Wendy’s thoughts.

• An another important difference between the two works : there is no maze in the book but only booxwood animals which come to life when Danny and Jack see them.

• Moreover, when Tony comes to talk and shows terrifying things, he does it through Danny’s fainting, even though in the film, Danny talks to Tony with his index finger.

• When the madness of Jack is maximized, he uses a croquet mallet to frighten his family. In the film adaptation, he uses an axe. Besides, Dick Halloran is not murdered but only knocked out by the mallet, and he succeed in leaving with Wendy and Danny.

These are the « most important » differences, just some details, but when you read the book first, you expect a lot of things from the film version. That’s the case with the final scene : the movie was thrilling every step of the way, except the end : I was a bit disappointed… I was really expecting the explosion of the Overlook, but finally, it didn’t happen. The end is not so lame, but I was truly attached to this idea.

Although I knew the story, the movie still surprised me, because Kubrick has appropriated King’s novel and made something amazing, with the talented Jack Nicholson. There were magnificient shots, and one of my favourite sequence in my view is when Jack came face to face with the woman in the bathroom of the room 217. I loved the symmetry of the shot, the green color which highlighted the two characters, and the set of miroir.

“Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.”