Ben Barnes, you have failed me.

Today I did two things - I finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, and also ended up watching the movie - Dorian Gray. I wasn't a huge fan of the book, but I was curious about the movie. And then when I found that Ben Barnes was Dorian Gray I was like woooo!! But as the title says, I am very disappointed in him. And the movie.

The book's plotline was pretty brilliant - it was a story about a guy named Dorian Gray whose portrait got old and ruined as his soul did but his face remained as perfectly youthful. The movie should've been so good - it had quite a good cast (include Petunia Dursley!). But it focused too much on the vulgar aspects of the book instead of the really awesome, intelligently built plotline. It completely missed bits of the plot and the director or screenplay writer or whatever decided to put in their own stuff instead. The character of Emily at the end I'm pretty sure wasn't in the book, but she was one of the only good additions. The movie was so disgusting that I'm embarassed to have watched it.

And Ben Barnes! For goodness sake! There was nothing good about him in the movie aside from his attractiveness! Sure, his character dictated that he had to act all cocky but his acting was so monotonous and annoying! The few bits that he was meant to show emotion was horribly disappointing. GAH! You have failed me!

The book was soooo much better than the movie! Ajuni was right when she warned me that the movie was crappy.

The Ghost's Child

Today was a lovely day for sitting in the sun and reading. I finished a short but intriguing story called the Ghost's Child, by Sonya Hartnett. I have to say, I have read few books that were amazing as this one.

'The sky was pitch, and gashed by lightning; loutish waves rose and slumped heavily as mudslides.  At a moment when she was filled with desperation, Maddy opened her mouth and yelled for Feather.  And half-expected him to appear, because she wanted him to so much.'

Maddy yearns for her life to be mystifying, to be as magical as a fairy story.  And then one day, on the beach she meets the strangest young man she has ever seen.

The Ghost's Child is an enchanting fable about the worth of life, and the power of love.

Firstly, a couple of warnings. Don't assume that this is a love story, and don't judge this book by it's title. I came across it completely by chance, and now that I've read it... I think epiphany is the word?

The story starts off with a strange boy suddenly appearing at old lady's home. The old lady, Matilda, starts to tell him about her life. And that's where the story begins. She tells of how she travelled with her father around the world, looking for the answer to the question: "what is the world's most beautiful thing?" She tells of how she found love, and lost love, and how she learnt to live without regrets. The most important lesson of all is that there is no point in yearning for the things that you can't have.

I had never heard about this book and wasn't very impressed by the cover either. But it really is a beautiful story. You won't regret reading it.

Sonya Hartnett writes so amazing - every sentence can be seen as a profound quote, every picture she creates is magnificent. If you're smart enough, you'll understand how the title works, and what each scene really means.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Around the time when the SRP was due and we were doing our English half-yearlies, I said to myself, "STUFF THIS!" and started reading instead.
Being the nerdy book lover that I am, I shall review one of my new favourite books.

It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him. This is my story. A letter from nowhere.

Stolen, by Lucy Christopher, is a book about a girl named Gemma who is kidnapped from an airport and taken to the middle of nowhere, a.k.a the Great Sandy Desert in Australia. Her captor is a guy named Ty (or Tyler) who has problems of his own, and has pretty much been stalking her for years. But he's not quite the type of kidnapper you'd expect.

No, this is not a book about vampires and wolves and fairies and what not. It's a straight up fiction book with a psychological twist. You find yourself starting to sort of sympathise or even like Ty, even though he's this creepy kidnapper guy. It's Stockholm Syndrome, and if you don't know what that is, it's where the kidnapped person starts to feel affection or sympathy for their captor. The book is sort of scary in the sense that as Gemma develops Stockholm Syndrome throughout the book, it's as if you yourself are developing it along with her.

I was a bit wary of the book at the start, because it's in second person and I've never read a good book that's written completely in second person. Also, there are only two main characters in the entire book, but I've come to see that that's actually a good thing because that means you become more attached to those characters. It's not as if Lucy Christopher's writing is extremely flowery. It doesn't make you stand back and go "wow, that is some poetic writing". Her writing is perfectly natural and the book always keeps you hooked.

It also presented Australia in a new light to me. Despite the fact that most of Australia is dry desert, I've never ever seen a desert with my own two eyes. And to have an English author portray it so graphically and beautifully to me was quite an experience.

So if you're looking for a way to evade your studying and procrastinate, I think Stolen is an awesome book. READ IT!

-thelazydreamer