Right Behind You

Right Behind You is a novel by Lisa Gardner published in February 2017.
A mother and father who are alcoholics, drug addicts and have abandoned their role as parents to be nothing but bulky wrack. Telly and his little sister, Sharlah are united by a heavi secret buryed deep in their memories. Thirteen-year-old Sharlah has lived apart from her brother for a long time, ever since the fatal day he killed their father to protect her. The foster family of the young teenager, Pierce Quincy, an ex-profiler FBI , and his wife Rainie a police officer, have provided her with a secure and loving environment. When a massacre produce at a gas station, Telly is immediately accused, recognize on surveillance camera. It is at this point that Sharlah’s past resurfaces like a nightmare. Her foster parents do everything they can to protect their daughter. Accompanied by her dog, Luka, she goes in search of her brother who is being hunted by the police. She tries to find answer to the murders committe by her brother. Is he really guilty? Is he such a bad person?

From the first lines, Lisa Gardner take us with her feelings. This novel is filled from begining to end with suspense, surprises and revelation. She knows how to get  all into the plot straight away.

It is a very good book if you like detective stories. The story of the book allows us to get to know a difficult family situation that some people know.

The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give is a novel by Angie Thomas based on true events. It’s the story of a young african-american girl, Starr, who share her life between on her quarter where there are gang wars and her « white » school located in a chic suburb. These are two different world that clash. One night, everything change. Starr witnesses the death of her best friend, Khalil, killed by a police officer. Starr is the only witness.  From this event, the two worlds will conflict, she will have to defend this best friend memory against the police who want to bury the case. The young girl will then learn to put her head on straight. 

This novel is a concentrate of emotions, it make us for rage, reflection, strength and sadness. It forces the reader to become consciousness of the persistent inequalities. It also us to decrypt the Black Lives Matter movement. The book has been adapt into a film by George Tillman Jr. 

In my opinion, it is a book that should be read to understand better the current situation. 

The vampire diares

« The vampire diares », « Le journal d’un vampire » in french, is a series of eleven fantastic and young adult litterature books written by Lisa Jane Smith, an American writter, in 1991.

It tells the story of Elena Gilbert, a teenager who seems unsympathetic, pretentious and manipulative but all this change when her parents died in a car accident from which she survived and when she met the young Italian man, Stefan Salvatore who arrives at her high school. Then she makes every effort to find out more about him and seduce him. But when he reveals to her his terrible secret, tragic events start happening one another quickly in the region. Elena is convinced of Stefan’s innocence but she don’t know who is behind the cruel attack of the inhabitants of the region.

This book series was later adapted into a TV series on the American channel CW in 2009 by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. It starts Nina Dobrev as Elena and Paul Wesley as Stefan in the main roles. The show won on 2011 the Saturn Awards which rewards the most representative films and series of science-fiction, fantasy,horro and animation. It also won 4 prizes at the Tenn Choice Awards The serie has many differences with the book but the serie stay as one of the bigest successes of the channel.

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Call me by your name

CAfficher l’image sourceall me by your name is a romance and dramatic book by André Aciman whose the original version was published in 2007 in      New York and the French version        (transleted by Jean-Pierre Aoustin) in          2008 in Paris. This novel won the Lambda literary Award for men’s fiction in 2007.      André Aciman also published a sequel             to this book in 2019 named « Find me ».

 

It talks about a love story at the beginning of 1980s between Elio, a 17 years old boy, who live in his holiday residence in Italy with his family and Oliver, a 24 years old American proffessor of philosophy who has been invited by Elio’s father to work with him for the summer holidays. The young men will create an ambiguous relationship between hate/desire and friendship/love. They both try to find their sexuality in a world where people are still closed minded. But when they finally understand what they feel for each other, it will be time for Oliver to return on the continent and leave Italy and Elio. This experience will change them forever although at the end Elio will learn that Oliver is getting married with a women.

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It has been adapted into a film ten years later in 2017 with Timothée Chalamet as Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver in the main roles. It has been directed by Luca Guadagnino and scripted by James Ivory who won the Oscar for the best adapted screenplay in 2018. The movie has been nominated three times at the Golden Globes and four times at the BAFTA( British and Academy of Film Television Arts) and the Oscars. Luca Guadagnino also want to create another movie based on the sequel of call me by your name but no date has been shared with us at the time for this project.

I started to watch the movie before reading the book which is not the best idea because even if it’s the same history it is not presented in the same way. But both the book and the movie are very intersting and moving because we are surounded with all the feelings that the characters feels and with their universe.

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Milk and honey is a poetry book written by Rupi Kaur and published on 2014.

Who is Rupi Kaur ?

Rupi Kaur was born on October 4, 1992 in India. She’s a writer who became famous thanks to social media, more specifically through Instagram where she posted her poems. She is a feminist and fights for any form of equality. She starts to draw, paint and write very young, inspired and encouraged by her mother. Milk and Honey is her first book.

About the book ;

Milk and Honey is divided in 4 parts ; the hurting, the loving, the breaking and the healing. 

The hurting talks about abuse (of different types ; physical, mental, sexual…) There is a lot of sadness in this part, we see her pain, she exposes her demons. She talks about assault, violence, family and the place of women in society.

The loving is surely the most joyful part of the book ; she talks about love, friendship, security, hope and learn to love herself.

The breaking is about the separation, the void, the loneliness, the regret… all the things that appears when love go away. 

And finally, the healing ; it’s a total reconstruction of herself, it’s about self acceptance, self love and feminism.

This book is, for me, the perfect representation of life, it’s a cycle ; we love, we suffer, we heal and love again and again… We can identify oneself so much at her words, we pass through all the emotions possible. It’s hard to read at the beginning because she talks about a lot of sensitive subjects that can be traumatic but Rupi Kaur is a survivor and makes us feel like this thanks to her book. It’s the reconstruction of a woman, like a faded flower who blooms again. It’s a good message of hope, whatever can happen, it’s not the end, there is always hope.

Pillow Thoughts by Courtney Peppernell

Pillow Thoughts is a poetry book write in prose published in 2016. The particularity of this book is that you don’t have to read it in order, there is no real beginning or end. It is divided into sections to read when you feel you need them the most. 

Courtney Peppernell is totally devoted to her readers and wants to help people to feel understand, not alone and supported. 

The book is divided into ten parts ; if you are dreaming of someone, if you are in love, if you are heartbroken, if you are lonely, if you are sad, if you are missing someone, if you need encouragement, if you are soul-searching, if you need a reason to stay and the last part is « this is for you ».

Everybody can relate to her words. Sometimes you just can’t put words one your own feelings, it’s to hard or you just don’t understand them and it’s totally okay, just know that poetry can help to take a step back, this book can do it that’s why I recommend it.

James Bond (No time to die)

6 October 2021, the last James Bond film is out to the movies in France. This film close the saga of James Bond with Daniel Craig. There are 5 films with the same actor. This film realized by Cary Jodi Fukunaga, this is a spy movie. Because of the Covid pandemic the filw was postponed many times. This film is the most expensive of all movies with Daniel Craig, it was cost 250 millions of dollars for the production.

At the beginning the James Bond was a fiction character created in 1953 by the writer and journalist Lan Fleming. James Bond is a British spy who appeared for the first time in the novel entitled « Casino Royale » in 1953. Fleming wrote 12 novels and 2 collections of short stories. He wrote at this house located in Jamaica. After his death, some people decided to prolonge his work. This novel are great success in the wolrdwide. But these are the movie adaptations that made James Bond famous and mythical character for every generation.

James Bond is aslo known as the number 007. The first zero signified that is authorized to kill, the second that he has already killed, and the last that he is the 7th to receive this authorization.

I really liked this last film, there was many actions, but I still a little sad no to see Daniel Craig again in this role.

The tatooist of Auschwitz

This book is the truth story of a man who found love with a woman in a concentration camp. The man accepted to testify how he managed to survive this tragic war. This story is full of hope. The main characters are Lale and Gita, two people who were deported in the Auschwitz camp during the Second Wolrd War.

The author named Heather Morris, she is an Australian journalist and a scripwriter. She met Lale Sokolov. He accpeted to tell his story to conserved a memory. Since 2003 the author listens to the story of this man. And in 2018 she published her novel. Her novel becomes a best seller who that has been translated in fifteen languages and that will be adapted to the cinema.

I really appreciated this novel because on the one hand I love this part of history, every aspect of this part of history, I am very interested in all aspect of this part. And on the other hand I loved how the authot wrtites. She succeded to make a jus testify, and she made a hard story into a beautiful story full fo hope. At the beginning I was afraid to read a harder story like that because it is a terrible situation with lot of inhumanity and violence. It is may be the darkest period of history. But although the hard moment the author managed to make the story « softer » and not darkest. The novel was not full of darkest moment. Heather Morris is focused on the love story and thta’s what made a beautiful story. The end make me full of emotion, it was stay in my mind forever and I recommed it to everyone.

Pandemia – Franck Thilliez

Pandemia is a book from the author Franck Thilliez. It has been published in 2015 and it is part of the literary genre of thrillers. Here is the story of this book :

Amandine is a scientist at the Institut Pasteur. One day, she’s called to take samples from an ornithological reserve, nothing exceptional for her so far. However, she descovers the bodies of three swans who died in strange conditions. Soon, swan corpses multiplied, first in France, then in neighbouring countries. A race against the clock starts to find the origin of this strain and understand it, in the greatest of secrets.

At the same time, the police team of  « 36 quai des Orfèvres » composed of Frank Sharko, Lucie Henebelle et Nicolas Bellanger is trying to solve a sordid murder. A man and his dog were found dead. The pond next to the crime scene is searched. Bones and skulls from four bodies are found. In addition, a computer attack hits the police station’s network, preventing the use of computers and deleting their data. Instead, a chilling message appears : « The Flood will come first from heaven, and then the Apocalypse will come forth from the bowels of the earth ».

Moreover, we discover that the first human cases of the virus are begginning to appear and that the contagion is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. The hypothesis of a natural disaster is quickly replaced by that of a terrorist nature.

We can easily compare the book to our actual situation. That’s why I chose to present this book, although there are differencies. It talks about a global pandemic, but here, it’s the work of terrorists. There are common elements with us like cyber attacks and terrorism. Besides, the story is very absorbing ! The plot is well thinking and the characters are endearing, that’s made the book fascinating. The author is also French ! The only negative thing we can report is that some female characters are set aside to the benefit of male characters. To conclude, obviously, this book was published in 2015 but some similitaries are surprising. As if the author was inspired by today’s life…

If you like the author Franck Thilliez, I advice you Puzzle, one of my favorite book with Pandemia. Thank you, for having read my article.

 

 

 

Uglies – Scott Westerfeld

Uglies is a book from the american author Scott Westerfeld. It was published in 2005 and it’s one of the well-known dystopias. Here is the story :

Tally Youngblood, the main character, will soon be 16 years old. She lives in a society where all the young girls go through a cosmetic surgery, called the Operation, at this age to join the Pretties caste. Tally wants to leave her world for this one, a world where people spend their time having fun, without worrying about anything. But the day before her birthday, she discovers the rebels world,a place called the Smoke. In this place, live people who reject the surgery. She’s going to learn that behind this perfect life we sell them lies a manipulation. She’s going to have to make a big choice that will affect her whole life : become rebellious and remain ugly for life, or succumb to perfection.

This book is simply awesome. He talks about an interesting subject : the standards of beauty. The surgery consists of closing the Ugly’s face and body into the « normal ». If you don’t do the operation, you are considerated ugly and therefore an outcast. The governement wants to change them completely to make it the ideal society, hence the importance of the physical. The character of young people is erased to make them obedient and naive so that they can be properly manipulated. Tally herself is very naive because of the education she received. They convince them that for living a happy life, she has to be pretty. It seems absurd for us.

To conclude, it’s a future society, but when we look at our own, we think our future might look like that fiction. Indeed, we notice that we also face social pressure regarding our appearance. Society also forces us to get into codes, which we begin to break. This book is therefore easy to read while conveying a strong message.