Every summer I love to challenge myself to read more by choosing books with a common theme. By taking on this type of challenge each year it has broaden my book library and introduced me to a world of new authors, writing styles, and genres that I would tend to veer from. “Books to Film”, is the theme for this year's challenge for me. I will discuss the top six books that are or are to be movies in 2016 and 2017. Each book that I have chosen to be on this list falls on the genre spectrum from Sci Fiction, Romance, Thriller, and Children's Fantasy. I understand that books that are being adopted into movies could be cheesy and have simple plot lines that are easy to predict, so that is why I chose the several most highly anticipated novel-inspired projects to judge with the most scrutiny. I also may compare the Films to the books time to time. Now if I do not mention a book that is featured as a Movies for 2016 to 2017(like, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J. K. Rowling) please understand rome wasn't built in a day. I like to read each book and give them a fair analysis.
1. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
The london set 2015 thriller novel introduce the most compelling characters and are drawn beautifully in The Girl on the Train. Rachel Watson, who is going through a breakup is the main narrator of the novel, is obsessed with a couple, which she sees them through the windows of a train, one she takes each morning and evening on her commute to and from London. The couple represent to her the perfect relationship that she once had, or seemed to, before it imploded spectacularly. The point of view alternates among three characters: the luckless, obsessed, and alcoholic Rachel; the charming, complicated Megan which one of the lovers Rachel spies on; and Anna, the new love of Rachel's ex Tom. The story compelling turn is introduced when Megan becomes missing and Rachel tries to finds out what happen. The novel is perfectly paced, from its arresting and slow beginning to its ever accelerating twisted ending; it's not an easy book to put down.
2. Me Before You, Jojo Moyes
I can honestly say it is one of the most obscure romance novels I have read, it is alike John Green’s The fault in our stars. In the novel once businessman and adventurer Will Traynor’s desire to live has been taken away after a motorcycle rails into him and paralysing him to the neck down. What Will doesn't know is that Lou Clark is about to bring a riot of colour into his life. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time. When reading the novel we know the inevitable end of the story and hope there would be a change for the better. I have only seen the movie trailer and it seem to be this grand love story, but to tell you the truth while reading the novel you did not get the sense of the love story till the end. During the story you got the sense that Lou cares for Will, but only just to keep him alive.
3. Looking for alaska, John Green
John Green’s Looking for Alaska is his first published novel and my personal favorite. I have read this book maybe four time and the main character Miles Halter or "Pudge" as he is referred to throughout the book, has left his home in Florida to attend a boarding school in Alabama. He's introduced by his roommates to beautiful, mysterious and emotionally confused Alaska Young, and the story progresses, mostly centered around Miles' life at Culver Creek and his growing attachment to Alaska. There are also essential parts of teenage life thrown in casually and skillfully to the story, such as pranks, the best and most disastrous parties. In true John Green fashion Looking For Alaska is not merely a typical boy-meets-girl love story, because it isn't. It's more of a tale of how love isn't as translucent as it seems, while throwing in a tragic twist in the plot.
4. Mike and Dave need Wedding Dates: And a Thousand Cocktails, Mike and Dave Stangle
This is why America can't have nice things. The Stangle brother wrote what I would call an extreme autobiography/memoir of tales that would go on to tell how Mike and Dave Stangle gained “Internet fame” by boozily decided to turn to the “activity partners” section of Craigslist to solicit dates to their cousin’s wedding. The only way I could possibly see how this book could be adopted into film is because the story line is so obnoxious that a seasoned screenwriter could make the story into comedy gold. Now if you want the movie to play by the book you are sorely mistaken. The plot of finding wedding dates may be the only thing that stay true to the book.
5. Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs
When the announcement that there would be a reimagine of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes; I immediately had to read the novel before Hollywood would over sexualize it. To my exceptions the film stay true to the core of the story and of Tarzan’s return to the jungle. Tarzan of the Apes tell the story of Lord and Lady Clayton who sailed In 1888 from England to West Africa and perish on a remote Jungle. When their infant son (Tarzan) is adopted by fanged, great anthropoid apes, he is Tarzan of the Apes. Later Tarzan would rescues genteel Jane Porter from the perils of his jungle. I got to see the 2016 movie and the phrase “Based on a novel” was stretched. If you think you could watch this movie and think you understand the details of this book; you have been sorely mistaken. If you are a history buff or have read King Leopold’s ghost( A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa) by Adam Hochschild than you have more of an understanding of the 2016 film.
6. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
This Fantasy by Ransom Riggs is the most peculiar things I have ever read. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is the first installment in a trilogy that is like a mix between J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the X Men franchise. The story follows sixteen year old Jacob, who is unlike any other normal sixteen year old and his journey after his grandfather passed away. The relationship between Jacob and his grandfather is showcased in the first part of the book, when. his grandfather would show him pictures which we are in turn shown in the book, and tell him fairytales which hardly seemed plausible at that point, especially since he's a cynical, world-weary teenager. But in a strange twist of events, Jacob decides, he wants to find out more about his grandfather's past life. This leads him to a secluded, misty part of Wales where things get more and more bizarre when he finds the home of Children who possessed strange power which his grandfather told him so much able. The story also possessed the element of time travel, which forced the readers to possess an underlying understanding of history. It is such an exciting story I read the whole series. I have only seen the trailer for the film and can already tell you that there are holes in the plot; from combining characters and adding characters to shifting the plot line.
List of other Book to Film that I have read for 2016-2017:
