Mockingjay Part 1 - Kind of Review But Not Really

Mockingjay Part 1

Director: Francis Lawrence

Written By:Peter Craig (screenplay), Danny Strong (screenplay), & Suzanne Collins (adaptation & novel Mockingjay)

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth

Released: November 21, 2014

123 minutes

Produced By: Color Force, Lionsgate

****Disclaimer: It has been so long since I read Mockingjay. And despite being an avid re-reader, I've only read Mockingjay once. That being said, I am not intimately acquainted with all of the minor details of this book.*****

So yeah, I'm not going to be discussing what was really different between the book and movie because even though I know there were difference (there always are), I don't know the book well enough to point them all out. As a matter of fact, this isn't even going to be much of a review. I just have a few points/comments that I want to make.

When they announced that they were splitting Mockingjay into two movies, I really felt like they were just trying to drag this series out. BUT since seeing the movie, I can totally understand how and why that decision was made. Doing so allowed them to really showcase the emotional state that Katniss is in after having survived two different Hunger Games as well as her emotional state being separated from Peeta. There's no way the character development would have been done justice had the entire book been squeezed into one movie. Plus, there does happen to be a good stopping point that breaks the story into two big pieces.

Jennifer Lawrence's acting was pretty spot on. I've been impressed with her all throughout the past two movies, but I felt like she kicked it up a notch in Mockingjay Part 1. I was actually reminded of Shailene Woodley's performance in both Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars. Do you guys know which scenes I'm talking about? Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth did really spectacular jobs as well. Although I feel like they made some changes with Gale and Katniss in the movie in order to direct the viewers that haven't read the books in the right emotional direction. I have a feeling this might irk some readers--especially Team Gale fans. (Team PEETA!!!)

I wasn't fully aware what the difference was, but Holly cleared it up for me--the wig they put on Jennifer Lawrence.....yeah, enough said. Also, Julianne Moore's colored contacts were extremely distracting and unnecessary.

And so yeah, not really any huge revelations here, but I honestly really enjoyed it. I feel like I need to do a re-read of the book as well as a rewatch of the movie in order to really absorb everything. But the graphics, the acting, even the changes they made were all pretty well done with no real complaints from me. Mockingjay Part 1 gets 4 Stars from me. Have you see Mockingjay Part 1? What did you think?

Grand Cayman & Cozumel November 2014

So we got up and got on the road Sunday morning. I was praying the whole way for a safe trip. Check out these clouds I took a picture of on the drive. I've never seen clouds like this.

We got to the hotel about 6:00 p.m. Then we walked around Ybor City (where we were staying, a couple of miles from downtown Tampa). And can I just say that I am a total country girl. Cities are WEIRD! The people were weird. The stores were weird. We ate pizza at this place, but it was just a very odd experience for me. They had really good pizza though--I wish I could remember the name of the restuarant. I’m definitely not made for the city though. We got back to the hotel and watched some TV. We hoped the hotel would have AMC so we could watch The Walking Dead, but they didn’t have that channel.

We got up Monday morning, ate breakfast at the hotel. We did their Park & Cruise package so we were able to leave our car at the hotel while we were on the cruise, and the hotel shuttled us back and forth to the cruise terminal. We got on the boat (Carnival Paradise) by about 11:45 a.m. or noon. We weren’t supposed to board until after 1:00 p.m., so it was nice to get on early. There was a guy who was totally wasted already on the boat. That was an experience just watching him and the poor crew member that got sucked into having to help take care of him. The boat left Tampa about 4:00 p.m.

Tuesday we were at sea all day. We sat out on the deck for a little while. Went to dinner. There were 6 people to our table (including us). There was this lady and her daughter from Tennessee. We really clicked with them. And then there was this couple from Boston that we didn’t click with so much. They were nice enough, but they only came to dinner the first two nights. Tuesday night was the “captain’s night” so we dressed up that night for dinner and took some pictures, but the pictures didn’t turn out that great. We went to see the comedians that night and went to the show which was a “country” show--being from the South, I can attest that the show was NOT country as I know it, but that's okay.

Got to Grand Cayman at 8:00 a.m. Wednesday. We had a tour scheduled for there. Stopped by this turtle farm and the turtles were SO HUGE! I wish you could tell from the picture how big they are, but you really can't. Our tour guide, his name was Black--for real--was really good. He knew what almost every condo on the island had sold for and seriously nothing was sold on that island for under a million dollars. Everything was more expensive there. Gas is like $7 a gallon. CRAZY! That's a picture of our guide holding one of the smaller turtles.

Then we stopped at this town called “Hell”. There’s a tiny gift shop there where you can get your passport stamped and you can send postcards from “Hell”. Behind the gift shop there is this crazy rock formation that just seems to have come out of nowhere. It’s really creepy looking. Then we went to a rum factory. I didn’t even realize that was part of the trip--we don't drink. But it was fine. We got back on the boat after that and left Grand Cayman about 4:00 p.m. We went to dinner that night, but there weren't really any shows going on that night.

We docked in Cozumel on Thursday about noon. They didn’t let us off the boat until about 12:30 p.m. When we pulled into port there was a ship from the Royal Caribbean line next to us called Oasis of the Seas. It was HUGE! It had 8 floors of balcony rooms. And the inside of the ship was open and there were balcony rooms on the inside of the ship. It had one of those rock walls and wave pools. It looked fun, but it also looked intimidating. That boat had to house over 4000 people easy. I looked it up...it has....EIGHTEEN DECKS and a friggin' ice rink!

Our tour guide for Cozumel, Alen, was hilarious. He was speaking in Spanish mostly at first and Husband and I were like “um…he does realize that we don’t speak Spanish, right?” And so he asks us if we speak Spanish and we’re like “no.” And he’s like “Taco? Burrito? Enchilada?” And we’re like “Okay maybe a little Spanish.” And he was cracking jokes the whole time. This one lady was like “Oh there’s a buzzard,” and he says, “No no, that’s a Mexican flamingo.”

Turns out that he was actually mixed Mayan and Mexican. His grandfather was Mayan, and that was actually the first language he learned, then Spanish. Then when he was 14 his mom sent him to America to learn English. But she sent him to California where everyone speaks Spanish. So after 3 months she sent him to Michigan. He then studied archaeology in school (husband thinks he's still in school for archaeology, but I'm pretty sure he's finished with school), so he was telling us about the Mayan ruins both from what he’s studied in school and from what his grandfather told him. Turns out that there were about 6000 Mayan civilizations/temples, and Cozumel was the only one that didn’t do human sacrifices because the island was dedicated to fertility, so it was about life and not death.

I got ATE UP by mosquitos. And I’m still itchy! If you ever go to Cozumel, take some mosquito spray with you.

We left the Mayan ruins and drove to the East side of the island. Apparently the entire island all lives in the west side in one city, and the rest of the island isn’t really populated and doesn’t have electricity because the hurricanes hit that side of the island. It was really underdeveloped and beautiful, but Alen told us that the government plans to build and Donald Trump is also trying to build some hotels, so if you want to see Cozumel before it's too commercialized then now is the time. We stopped at this beach on the east side of the island and it was beautiful. We got some really good pictures from there. Then we got back on the boat. We ate dinner that night and then sat out on the back of the ship for several hours as we left Cozumel.

Friday we were at sea all day. Husband and I sat on the top deck for about 5 hours or so. It was beautiful out there. But the clouds were starting to pick up and it was getting super windy. So we went inside to eat lunch. While inside it was easy to see how much the ship was rocking. We couldn’t tell that much on deck. So we went to the room to lay down because I felt bad. And it just got worse and worse. We couldn’t even go to dinner. I hated that because we wanted to say goodbye to the older ladies we were eating dinner with, but I couldn’t even imagine walking the halls to go eat. Husband ended up vomiting a couple of times he got so sick. BUT he had been on antibiotics the whole trip for a sinus infection so I think that played into it. We had the TV on but couldn’t even look at the screen. I’ve just never been on a cruise where the boat rocked that much. Anyway…at 10:30 p.m. we pulled it together long enough to pack our luggage and put it in the hall.

Saturday morning we docked about 8:00 a.m. in Tampa. Our section didn’t get called to get off the boat until about 10:00 a.m. We made it through customs and into the garage for pick up to be taken back to the hotel to get our car. But we got on the wrong shuttle. We got on the shuttle for Hampton Inn in Westshore, not Hampton Inn in Ybor City. So we had to come back to the cruise terminal to get picked up by the correct shuttle. We were on the road home by 11:45 a.m. time and drove about 8 hours back home.

So that was it! Have you ever been to Grand Cayman or Cozumel? What were your favorite parts? Ever been on a different cruise line besides Carnival? Husband and I are interested in trying out a different cruise line. We've sailed Carnival multiple times (4 times for him and 3 times for me) and never had a problem, but we just want to know about the other lines? What do you guys think? Let me know!

Destroy Me - Review

Destroy Me (Shatter Me, # 1.5)

By: Tahereh Mafi

Published: October 2nd 2012 by Harper (first published October 2nd 2010)

109 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy, Paranormal, Novella

Source: Borrowed from the library

( Goodreads | Amazon )

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Goodreads description--Perfect for the fans of Shatter Me who are desperately awaiting the release of Unravel Me, this novella-length digital original will bridge the gap between these two novels from the perspective of the villain we all love to hate, Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

In Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me, Juliette escaped from The Reestablishment by seducing Warner—and then putting a bullet in his shoulder. But as she’ll learn in Destroy Me, Warner is not that easy to get rid of. . .

Back at the base and recovering from his near-fatal wound, Warner must do everything in his power to keep his soldiers in check and suppress any mention of a rebellion in the sector. Still as obsessed with Juliette as ever, his first priority is to find her, bring her back, and dispose of Adam and Kenji, the two traitors who helped her escape. But when Warner’s father, The Supreme Commander of The Reestablishment, arrives to correct his son’s mistakes, it’s clear that he has much different plans for Juliette. Plans Warner simply cannot allow.

Set after Shatter Me and before its forthcoming sequel, Unravel Me, Destroy Me is a novella told from the perspective of Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

Before I even began Shatter Me the only thing I knew about this series was that there were Team Warner fans, Team Adam fans, and that folks raved about this series. After reading Shatter Me it was hard for me to conceive how there could be Team Warner fans out there. And so I knew I must be missing some critical information. Simply knowing that Team Warner fans existed while reading Shatter Me kept me from fully committing to Team Adam—even when Team Adam felt like the only option. So when I finished Shatter Me I asked if I should bother reading the in-between novellas, Destroy Me and Fracture Me, and I was met with a resounding “yes.” (Well with the exception of one “no”.) And so far, I’m glad that I did.

Destroy Me is from Warner’s point of view. Warner is essentially the main villain from Shatter Me. We know there are other villain’s out there, but Warner is the immediate one that our characters are faced with. But I find that anytime I can get inside a character’s head, I end up relating to them more. Sympathizing with them. Empathizing where I can. And even if I still don’t agree with their actions and behaviors, I find that I understand them. And that’s exactly what’s happened with Destroy Me.

I read it. And I came away feeling like I had more information to this grand puzzle, but all the questions that were answered only led me to more questions. Exposing these puzzle pieces only made me realize that the puzzle is perhaps bigger than I originally thought. Seeing inside Warner’s head did make me want to root for him. Seeing that he feels such a deep connection to Juliette on a level much deeper than I (or she) even imagined gives me hope for him. Yet, I wonder how he can ever make her see what he sees. Is there any hope for him, for them, at all? I just don’t know.

I picked up Destroy Me because it was a novella. Short. I could easily finish it in a day. And I wasn’t in a slump exactly, but I’d tried to start two different books and neither one were getting my attention. So I wanted something I could “accomplish” quickly. Plus it was available immediately from the e-library. So why not?

Once I realized that Destroy Me was from Warner’s perspective, I wondered how Tahereh Mafi would handle writing from a different character. I fell in love with her writing style through Juliette with Shatter Me, but I wanted to make sure the characters felt distinct. And they did. They really did. While I loved the strike method that Tahereh Mafi uses in Shatter Me with writing from Juliette’s POV, I loved even more that she didn’t use it while writing from Warner’s POV. Yet she still found a way to incorporate it in Destroy Me through the means of Juliette’s journal. So smart.

Favorite quotes:

-Torture is not torture when there’s any hope of relief.

-It’s been so long since I’ve felt like a coward.

-I’ve never read anything like this before. I’ve never read anything that could speak directly to my bones.

-Terror, I realize, is one of the easiest feelings to read. Even on a soldier’s stoic face.

-Swallow the tears back often enough and they’ll start feeling like acid dripping down your throat. It’s a terrible moment when you’re sitting still so still so still because you don’t want them to see you cry you don’t want to cry but your lips won’t stop trembling and your eyes are filled to the brim with please and I beg you and please and I’m sorry and please and have mercy and maybe this time it’ll be different but it’s always the same.

I also love the play on perspective. Shatter Me being told from Juliette’s perspective offers you, as the reader, only what she sees of Warner. The opinions she’s formed of him. But she offers them to you as if they are fact. You see Warner as a heartless monster because that’s what Juliette sees. But Destroy Me shows that Juliette doesn’t have all the information. She uses what information is available to her to draw the conclusions that she has. But it isn’t all truth. And this works in our everyday lives. And I love this. Just because I don’t see all of the pieces doesn’t make the pieces that I do see fact or truth. They’re just pieces. They’re perspective. And perspective is colored by past experience as well. So I love seeing that things aren’t always as they appear.

Even though I was only going to read Destroy Me because it was a novella and then move back into some review books that I need to read for deadlines and such, the copy of Destroy Me that I borrowed from the e-library had the first two chapters of Unravel Me included. And so I read them. And in doing so, decided to not only go ahead and purchase Unravel Me but to continue reading it…now. I need to know what’s going to happen and if Juliette is going to ever see the similarities between herself and Warner the way that he sees them.

Destroy Me easily gets 4 Stars. It moved the story along without actually moving it along at the same time. The information given within sparked my curiosity for more information. It sparked my desire to continue reading this series sooner rather than later. And it gave me a great new perspective on the characters involved and the events taking place. Have you read Destroy Me? What did you think? Let me know!

Take Me On - Review

Take Me On (Pushing the Limits, # 4)

By: Katie McGarry

Expected Publication: May 20th 2014 by Harlequin TEEN

304 pages

Genre: YA, Contemporary

Source: Personal Kindle Library

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

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Goodreads description--Acclaimed author Katie McGarry returns with the knockout new story of two high school seniors who are about to learn what winning really means

Champion kickboxer Haley swore she'd never set foot in the ring again after one tragic night. But then the guy she can't stop thinking about accepts a mixed martial arts fight in her honor. Suddenly, Haley has to train West Young. All attitude, West is everything Haley promised herself she'd stay away from. Yet he won't last five seconds in the ring without her help.

West is keeping a big secret from Haley. About who he really is. But helping her-fighting for her-is a shot at redemption. Especially since it's his fault his family is falling apart. He can't change the past, but maybe he can change Haley's future.

Hayley and West have agreed to keep their relationship strictly in the ring. But as an unexpected bond forms between them and attraction mocks their best intentions, they'll face their darkest fears and discover love is worth fighting for.

What to say? What to say? I found myself both enjoying and impressed with Take Me On as well as frustrated and annoyed. I’m kind of torn on this one you guys.

West almost runs Hayley over with his car one night, right? And it just so happens that in so doing he interrupts her from being jumped on the street by two guys. Unfortunately, Hayley runs off and ends up getting jumped anyway. West jumps into the fight trying to protect this girl and in hopes of doing something right. He’s been floundering a bit since Rachel, his younger sister, had a car accident that was indirectly his fault—at least he played a part in why she ended up where she was when the accident happened. And so he’s seeking redemption. Little did he know, Hayley can pretty much take care of herself. As the description states, Hayley has been a champion kickboxer, but she doesn’t fight anymore.

West and his father have a very strained relationship. It was almost difficult for me to understand. The gist of it seemed to be that they’re too much alike. But it’s hard for me to understand how his father can know and understand that but continue to treat West the way that he does. West has a knack for getting into fights due to letting his temper get the better of him, and he ends up getting kicked out of his fancy private high school. His father enrolls him into public school, and he is thrown into daily interaction with Hayley.

But Hayley has her own problems. Her father was laidoff and her family had to move in with her uncle who is a class-A, royal jerk. And on top of that one of the guys who jumped her happens to be the little brother of her ex-boyfriend, and trained MMA fighter, Matt. Matt lives by street rules and anyone that messes with his little brother messes with him. Hayley’s brother and cousin feel the same way. And Hayley’s caught in the middle trying to keep the circle from going around and around with who’s getting beat up next. Hayley is doing her best to ensure that whoever it is isn’t Kaden or Jax.

And so West steps in. He and Matt schedule a fight—lucky for West it’s a refereed fight in an actual cage. West has to start training with Hayley so that he doesn’t get his rear handed to him. Through all of this West and Hayley develop feelings for each other. They learn to see each other for who they each are. And they learn that fighting for each other is worth it.

However, I found myself getting frustrated with the predictability. Take Me On hit that 70% mark that I hate so much and the characters started making the stupidest decisions. Other characters offer a deal that they just can’t refuse but that requires forfeiting the relationship for the betterment of the other character. And even though we aren’t forced to remain in that situation for too long, it just annoyed me that it came up at all. I think this conflict is overused and beyond annoying. The only redeeming quality about this particular conflict was that it did seem to fit these characters more than the same conflict applied to a different set of characters that perhaps have different backgrounds—if that makes sense.

I was terrified at one point that my characters, West and Hayley, weren’t going to have their happy ending. And I was struggling with wanting to throw the book across the room. I won’t tell you where or how things end. But you can just know that this wasn’t my favorite in the Pushing the Limits series. I’m still dying for the series to continue. I’m not 100% stoked about returning to Noah and Echo with book 5, Breaking the Rules because returning to them means more hard times and conflict to come that will at least temporarily interrupt their happy ending. But I do look forward to the series continuing. I know Katie McGarry has said that she intends to leave the Pushing the Limits series after book 5 to work on her new series, but that she hopes to return to the Pushing the Limits series in the future. And I really hope she does as with each book that’s released I find a new character or two that I’d love to read more about (Logan, Abby, Jax).

Also before I wrap this up, let me say that I did enjoy the timing of this book. It fits in before the ending of Crash Into You where Rachel walks again for the first time. For a large portion of this book, Rachel is still in the ER. And it just felt right to me for West’s story to pick up before Rachel’s really finishes.

Favorite quotes:

-I’m awesome at lying to everyone else but have yet to perfect lying to myself.

-I’ve also failed to find a way to thank God for the bounty that is squirrel.

-…being hit until you break causes courage to disappear.

-”I don’t lie to Rachel. But yeah, you can assume anything that comes out of my mouth to anyone but her or Isaiah is a different rendition of the truth. Maybe also to Isaiah’s friend Logan. I like Logan. He reminds me of hot queso and I like queso.”

-Hell I can deal with; crying I can’t.

-”We have an agreement.”
West chuckles. “You said something. I disagreed. Later, we’ll come to an agreement.”

-Our worlds didn’t just collide; they merged as paint spilled on a sidewalk and it’s like neither one of us will be the right color again.

-…because when you’re going through something so horrible, it’s too difficult to cry for yourself. Sometimes I wonder if the agony inside would disappear if someone would shed the tears for me. I’m not sure I could survive expressing all the pain.

-I’ve never desired anything more than for my father to tell me I’m worth saving, that I’m worth being stood up for.

-Silence seems longer in darkness. I think it’s because it’s harder to lie when the lights are off. There’s a rawness that only belongs to the night and the truth can’t help but be set free.

-My grip on him loosens and West clings tighter. A constant seesaw between us of holding on and letting go.

-”Who are you? None of this—“ and she motions around the room “—fits what I know.”
“Maybe because what you’ve seen isn’t the real me.”
"I’ve seen you. I know I have…”

-”Falling happens. Jumping you choose.”

-”Is it a medical condition that causes you to talk in riddles?”

-I either tap out or fight.

-”Are you tapping out on me?”

-At this point, it has nothing to do with strength, but everything to do with heart.

In the end Take Me On gets 4 Stars. I enjoyed it. I had a few frustrations, but overall the writing was solid. I was pulled in. And I loved the characters. I can’t wait for more from Katie McGarry whether in the Pushing the Limits series or in her upcoming series. Have you read Take Me On? What did you think? Let me know!

Waiting on The Heart of Betrayal

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The Heart of Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles, # 2)

By: Mary E Pearson

Expected Publication: July 7th 2015 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

496 pages

Genre: Young Adult (YA), Fantasy

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape . . . and even less of being together.

Desperate to save her life, Lia’s erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komisar that she has a magical gift, and the Komisar's interest in Lia is greater than either Kaden or Lia foresaw.

Meanwhile, the foundations of Lia's deeply-held beliefs are crumbling beneath her. Nothing is straightforward: there's Rafe, who lied to her, but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom she always believed to be barbarians but whom she now realizes are people who have been terribly brutalized by the kingdoms of Dalbreck and Morrighan. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her very sense of self, Lia will have to make powerful choices that affect her country, her people . . . and her own destiny.

What are you waiting on this week? Let me know!