So a couple weeks ago, I watched the Insurgent movie. I was supposed to see it with Gazelle, but that didn't happen. Just from the trailer, I could tell that the movie had a bigger budget and they knew how to use it. With the holograms everywhere and the more vivid sims, this movie was definitely getting their bang for their buck. However, I usually get annoyed when movies add things like the holograms because, even though they're a nice touch, they poke holes in the story because of their absence in the previous movie.

I thought that the movie was okay, but there are a lot of things missing from the books and even more things added. I didn't remember the box from Insurgent, please let me know in the comments if it was in the book. There was very little character development in Four and Tris, but we did learn more about the smaller characters that play a bigger role later, like Jeanine, Caleb, Peter, and Evelyn. There didn't seem to be a lot of action and looking back on the movie, it felt like just one big blur that felt blah. I didn't really feel a lot of emotion during the movie, which annoyed me because I wanted to. It's not because I read the book, either, because there are tons of book to movie adaptations where I felt emotions towards the chararacters, but that didn't seem to be the case for Insurgent. I probably won't watch it again, and it just wasn't as good as the Divergent movie. 

That's it for my non-spoiler review. Go watch it and then we can discuss the movie in detail. If you've already seen the movie or if you've read the book and don't mind being spoiled for the movie then read on!

Okay, so I'm going to break down the movie by character because I had my notes written down in order of the movie but character seems a bit more orderly to me.

• Tris: Again, I just didn't really feel like Tris had much character development. She didn't really have much dialogue either, now that I think of it. In Insurgent, she seems a lot stronger in general but she still has this weak, vulnerable side that I really like. I love the character progression since the beginning of Divergent because she goes from being this really shy, weak girl into this strong person. Even though Tris can make stupid decisions sometimes, she really breaks the idea that great female characters have to be born strong, because she wasn't. Despite that, she still has her downsides. My one main irk is that she could've shot Will in the leg, but I get that she did what she had to and that it still bothered her. In pop culture these days, you see people killing others left and right, but no one ever seems affected by the fact that they're taking lives. Katniss and Tris both have that quality where the people they kill haunt them because they value life. I wish it could be seen in male characters too, because, only having that trait in female characters may be percieved as a weakness when it is actually a strength. A hole in the story, which goes way back to shallow from super-deep, is how she frosted her hair. I understand that the only way she could face herself for all the lives lost is by not looking at herself, but her cut hair was definitely frosted and looked too professional for something a teenager did on theirself.
• Four: I felt like Four was barely in the movie, except when it came to Evelyn, but I'll talk more about their relationship later. He seemed really distant with Tris emotionally which bothered me. That seems to happen a lot in books but more in movies, where your ship finally gets together but they never actually have a talk about it. I didn't have much written down about him, but Theo's accent definitely came through more than once. 
• Four and Evelyn: First of all, can I just say that Evelyn looked like his sister more than his mom? 

• Apparently Naomi Watts is 46? I hope I look as good as her when I'm 46! There's 16 years between them, which is kinda weird but somewhat believeable since she supposedly married young. I still am mad at her character for being selfish enough to abandon her child in that kind of an environment, so I don't blame Four for that. I want to see more development in their relationship that we didn't really get in Allegiant because Veronica Roth just skipped over a long period of time.
• Peter: Okay, I thought Peter was flipping hilarious in this movie. That scene when he told the Amity girls there was a rainbow behind them and then cut in front of them when they were turned: classic. It bothered me how casually he talked about killing people over breakfast, because it shows that being fugitives took its toll on everyone, even Peter. I'm glad that he was on their side in the end, and slowing her heart rate was a really smart idea. I liked his character development because he went from being a total douchebag to a sometimes douchebag. Improvement!
• Caleb: I hate Caleb and I will never forgive him. If you've read Allegiant, you know why. He seemed like such an airhead and just really irritating during the whole movie. These are things he actually said. "Wait, what do you mean we're official fugitives?" "We're going out the window?" I wanted to give him a good smack upside the head. Even when he was with Tris and Four, he was useless. Even though he has at least a foot on Tris, she was faster than him while carrying a machine gun. And when they were fighting on the train, he just stood there and let his sister almost get killed. Basically, every time I saw him, I wanted to knock over a xylophone (OMG GLEE REFERENCE).
• Jeanine: First of all, Jeanine's french twist was on fleek. Just saying, hair and makeup did a very nice job with her. Anyways, I really liked that we could see the flaws in Jeanine, and how she had such little human interaction that she just couldn't process the meaning of dead. It gave insight into what her childhood could've been like, with her having no friends and trying to prove that she could be successful, and just lost it when she thought that was all gone. It made her seem more human and showed that she was really starting to crack.
• Johanna: I love Octavia Spencer, and in all of her work I've seen, she continues to impress me. I wish her character could've had a bit more sass, because she just seemed to stiff to be realistic. One line I wanted her to have was when the Dauntless trucks were driving over her fence, and I really wanted her to say, "Oh, sure, just break down all our fences and drive all over the fields. Not like we grow your food or anything."
• The Technology: Like I said earlier, the holograms not being in the first movie kind of made its own plot holes just because having said they just developed all the new technology and put it up is really unrealistic. Also, I thought that Tris and Four were immune to serums, so shouldn't they have been concious under the truth serum? I remember from the book that the truth serum didn't work on Tris and I'm pretty sure that it didn't work on Four either. Again, its been a while since I've read the book so I may be wrong. Also, the head scanner that placed you in a faction. Where did that come from? How were they able to develop that so recently, and why were they using the sims then, if that would've been much faster and made it easier to root out divergents. Also, in the books, they say that Tris was divergent with qualities for Dauntless, Abnegation and Erudite, yet Jeanine's little scanner said she was 100% divergent, and I'm guessing that means she has traits from all of the factions.
• The Woods Scene: I just wanted to say that when they were running in the woods, I actually said this out loud. "Ladies and gentlemen, let the 76th Hunger Games begin!"

So those are all my thoughts on the Insurgent movie. Again, I just enjoyed Divergent more, but maybe that was because I had higher expectations for the next one. They also never explained in the movie what Insurgent meant, which bugged me.

Thanks for reading,

Caramel

*On the left is the US cover and the right is the UK cover (I really like the UK cover better but to each his own).*

Hi guys, I just finished Extraordinary Means and I realized I haven't posted a full book review in a while. I have so many thoughts about this book anyways that I might as well do one. Just for everyone who hasn't read this book, here's a little bit about it. There's a new strand of TB going around called Total Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (TDR-TB). It's highly contagious, so people who have it usually have to either be on house arrest or at a sanatorium, which is kind of like an institute filled with people with the disease. We follow Lane, who has just been diagnosed with TDR-TB and is moving into a sanatorium called Latham House. While he is there, he finds a girl from his past, Sadie, and the two become friends, but we obviously know more than just friendship occurs.

A lot of people have been comparing this book to The Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS), saying that it sounds like the same thing. This is a major pet peeve of mine, when people compare books of a similar genre saying that they're the same thing. If I have to hear one more person say that a dystopian novel is 'just like The Hunger Games', I will lose it. Although this book and TFIOS do have a lot of similar aspects, such as two diseased teenagers falling in love, they have a lot of different points as well. While in TFIOS Hazel's parents played a strong role in her life and she was allowed to leave the confinements of her house, the characters in Extraordinary Means rarely talk to their parents and can't leave the sanatorium. I wouldn't go to say that they're completely different and that no one should compare the two, I just think that people should stop giving Robyn Schneider so much flak and saying that she copied John Green.

Aside from that, I enjoyed this book but I did not love it. I'm starting to sense a pattern in Robyn's books that go something like this: Try-hard guy that's super focused on school meets manic pixie dream girl who couldn't care less and shows him that there's more to life than just studying, they date and then she basically leaves him, saying that he doesn't need her and the only reason he's attatched to her is because he likes the way he is around her better than his original self. Guy then has a 4-page spiel on how she's right with a sudden realization, then pledges to be the person he was with her. The end. Having read all of her books, I feel like this is getting really tiring because I feel as though it is the same story, just slightly different. I want her to try and vary her pattern, but I do enjoy her writing style. I'm going to jump into my spoiler-filled character evaluation, so if you don't want to be spoiled, go get read this book and come back to finish discussing it.

Lane: I liked Lane, but he was so overly ignorant which got annoying very quickly. He just kept trying to live a life that he wasn't a part of anymore, convinced it was just a minor illness that would go away if he acted like it wasn't there. I liked a lot of things he said, though, because he had some really good points he made. For some reason, Robyn's male leads just seem not really fleshed out, but just like some studious kid with no real personality. It makes me sad that I didn't really feel any personality from the narrator, but he didn't have any quirks that were defining to him.

Sadie: Sadie, on the other hand, had so many quirks that I probably can't even remember them all. I loved when she made everyone dress up for the pajama night because it was just so normal for all of the chaos going on with the characters. Sometimes, she could be a manic pixie dream girl, mainly when I was reading from Lane's point of view. I felt like she was being really selfish by leaving Latham house. Even though I have sympathy for the fact that they're all stuck there, they endangered the lives of other people and children just to have fun. It really bothered me that she didn't think of any consequences, whether or not people's lives were at stake. Another time she showed that was when she showed Charlie how to turn off his sensor, ignoring that THERE IS A REASON THEY WEAR SENSORS. The fact that she would've died much sooner without her sensor struck me as very cruel irony. I can't say that I didn't see it coming when she died, because Lane was just too average to die for a Robyn Schneider book.

The Romance: I felt like their romance was really fast, almost instalove but not quite. They kept staring away at each other and I felt like they needed to get to know each other first as friends before attempting to start a relationship. Once they actually did start dating, I felt like they were neglecting their friend group a lot, especially since Sadie only had 1 real one-on-one conversation with Marina after Lane and Sadie started dating. I thought it was really cute that they talked on the phone all night but I feel like that's starting to get overused with books.

Nick: I hated Nick, but I was supposed to, so congrats Robyn Schneider: acheivement unlocked. I did feel bad for him, because he lost his best friend to Lane, then his new best friend to death and then could've prevented the death of his old best friend. No one really notices the tragedy Nick has gone through, but I still think he needed to sober up. Nothing in life is an excuse for wasting yourself away, because there is always something to stay alive for. He could've changed the entire outcome of the story, but he was a bum and he didn't. 

I didn't really have many strong feelings about Marina and Charlie since they weren't really present during a lot of the story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but I don't think it's something I'll be re-reading. It had it's funny moments, it's quotable moments, but just didn't have that emotional push. Better luck next time, Robyn.

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See you later with another post,
Caramel

I know.

I finally did it.

It took me months to even bother but I have....................finally.............................REORGANIZED MY BOOKSHELF *cues party music*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


When I originally put my books on my shelf, it looked like this:

Yeah, I know. A total disaster and some of the books I outgrew so long ago. And that random sideways Three Musketeers....it needed a miracle. So I pulled all the books off my shelf and pulled out the ones I didn't want because I wouldn't read them and they wouldn't add any spectacular beauty to my shelf (I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover but I kept the Goddess Girls and Candy/Poison Apple books just because they look good). In total, there were exactly 30 books, which I will do a separate post about. 

Once I had the ones I wanted to keep, I tried to sort them by color to recreate Christine's rainbow bookshelf tour.


Yeah, that didn't work out. At all. The books were all uneven just like they were in my original bookshelf and I didn't have that many of some colors and a lot of other colors. I'll leave the rainbows to people with a lot more books because that's really what you need.

The way I organized my books was by height because it looks very neat and clean. I separated all the books by size and each pile was then split by genre. First came contemporary, then supernatural, followed by fantasy with some dystopian. For the series, I didn't like the idea of splitting them just because they were a different height, so I just put those series on the end.

For some shelves, I found I had really few books, so I chose a book with a really nice cover and placed it so that the cover was facing the front. Not only does this act like a spacer, giving the illusion of more books, but it also adds visual interest by giving a variance from just spines. I also added some parts of a pottery piece I made a few months ago just to add a rustic feel and make the space feel less empty. Things like clay and FAKE candles give some color and really draw your attention to the books.

For the series with books that had a considerable size difference, I put the smaller ones on display. Doing something similar if you want 2 sizes on a shelf works well, because the size difference isn't as noticeable. Just as a note, I did get Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes after I took these pictures and it is sideways underneath all the Riordan books and I did move Throne of Fire to the other side of the Heroes of Olympus books.

I actually had 3 different sizes on this shelf. I kept the larger sizes that barely fit on the shelf sideways (and the last stack are all my mother's books that she wanted me to store). I also kept the really small books there because they added variance to the side-stacked books.

I also had this little guy (which is a small box) on my counter and added it to the top of my short stack of books to give the illusion of taller books.

The entire process of reorganizing my books took me about an hour, including photography. It was actually really fun to do and I really like how it turned out. It looks a lot more organized, yet whimsical compared to what my books used to look like. After this photo shoot, I did actually take all the price stickers off my books, just in case you think they look as bad as I think they do. Please tell me if you like the transformation and if you thought any of my tips for reorganization were helpful. I really liked incorporating photos into this and the style of this post. If you want me to do more things like this, let me know in the comments section.

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I'll talk to you guys soon,
Caramel

Hi guys,

Today I am here with Ava, one of the greatest people ever! We're doing the unpopular opinions book tag (if you cannot read titles). My answer is going to be in blue, Ava's will be in red and our joint opinions will be in purple. I'm sorry if you're colorblind (or if you're reading the mobile version, the colors will not show up, please scroll to the bottom of the page and change the view from mobile to web). Please don't be offended by anything we say, if you are sensitive, go talk to Gazelle.

1. A popular book or series that you did not like:

Throne of Glass. After about 60 pages, I just could not read anymore. Not only was Celaena arrogant, but she couldn't even hit someone with a flower pot, yet they still call her the best assassin in the country?!?!?!?!? Also, instead of practicing knife throwing or something for a battle to the death the next day, she chooses to read and play the piano. Why? *doubt*

The Maze Runner. I made it through about eight pages, and was ready to throw myself out a window. This book came out of the gate at a hundred miles an hour, without making sure that it's passengers were ready for the ride. How rude of you, James Dashner.


2. A popular book or series that everyone else seems to hate, but you love.


The Selection series. I didn't hate the whole series, just America Singer. Usually, you hate a book when you can't stand the MC, but all the other characters (basically Maxon) made this book okay. I also hated Aspen but it's alright. I do like the series and I do care about the characters (except for Aspen, his soul is trash).


An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. This book is not often talked about, but many people are not fans because it was very happy, and no one died in the end. This proved to be problematic for John Green fans, but I still think that it is adorable and a fun read all the same.



3. A love triangle where the main character ends up with someone you didn't want them to end up with.

We had a joint answer on this one which is the Harry Potter series. We both wanted Harry and Hermione to end up together. Ava doesn't really like Ginny and we both didn't appreciate the insta-love between them. One day she's too shy to talk to him, next thing you know, they're snogging at Christmas. Ron and Hermione seem like a couple that would get divorced before they hit 40. They have a great friendship dynamic, but that's all it is: friendship. Harry and Hermione on the other hand are seriously cute together. Even J.K. Rowling agreed that she should have put Harry and Hermione together. http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/02/showbiz/rowling-hermione-ron-revelation/


4. A popular book genre that you hardly ever reach for.


Dystopian books. I feel really tired of dystopian because they were all the rage a few years ago, and now it feels like other authors are just trying to repeat the success of really big dystopian series and it gets on my nerves.


Supernatural books. I honestly cannot remember the last time I read a supernatural book, and thinking about it now I realize that it was probably when my age was only one digit. However, since then, werewolves, vampires and other monsters are of no interest to me. I don't find those characters appealing or like, attractive (looking at you, Twilight fans), nor do I find stories about them interesting in the slightest. Also, the main character always seems to be a ditzy girl who falls for (insert your favorite bad-boy- supernatural-creature-heart-throb here) to spice up her boring life in a rural town. And yes, I am still talking about Twilight.


5. A beloved character that you cannot stand.


Simon from the Mortal Instruments. I don't hate him, but I didn't really love him either. The moment he just claimed Clary for his girlfriend and didn't even ask her about it really pissed me off. Then he had the audacity to try and date Maia and Izzy at the same time. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, SIMON LEWIS? Tell me, I would love to know. I do ship Sizzy, but I don't like Simon. 

Christina from the Divergent series. She was just really annoying, and always seemed to be around when no one needed her to be. She had a habit of saying cringe-y things, and was overall arrogant and extremely irritating. 


6. A popular author that you can't seem to get into.


Marie Lu. I did really like Legend, but I never really got into Prodigy, and I haven't read The Young Elites either. I want to read them eventually but I just can't seem to do it right now.


Cassandra Clare. I've attempted to read City of Bones about three times, and have failed every time. I really wish I was able to, but unfortunately it is extremely difficult to get through the first few pages.


7. A popular book trope that you're tired of seeing.


Insta-love is something I absolutely hate. So often, the MC meets someone that they're convinced is the one for them and blindly fall in 'love' with them without seeing that they're a total dirtbag of trash. I'm going to try and name as many insta-love books as I can: The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things (Shage), Twilight (everyone), The Lost Hero (Jasper), If I Stay (Mia and Adam, Madam?), The Hunger Games (6 year old Peeta), Across the Universe (Elder), Paper Towns (Quentin), and Looking for Alaska (Miles).

While there are countless book tropes that irritate me to no end, the one that sets me over the edge doesnt really have a name, so I'm going to try to explain it as best I can. The male character in a relationship is doing all that he wants in life, but when his girlfriend decides to go for what she wants, he gets angry with her for not consulting with him about it first. I saw this most recently in If I Stay, with Mia and Adam. It bothers me to no end.


8. A popular series that you have no interest in reading.


The Lying Game. Everyone has read it but I've already been spoiled for it and I don't really care too much for Sara Shepard books. The characters seem really stuck up and bratty and I have other things on my TBR I'd much rather read.


Throne of Glass. I honestly just have no interest. That's all.


9. What movie or T.V. show adaptation did you like better than the book?


The Help. I really liked the book but it had slow parts where it dragged on and I wasn't super engaged. The movie, on the other hand, was really interesting to watch and they cut out the parts that dragged. The movie is something I can watch over and over again but I don't think I would re-read the book. But I do love the book, don't mistake me.


The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Hate me all you want, but the characters felt so much more real in the film. This may be because I saw the film before I read the book, but the movie version seemed to have a much bigger impact on me. I felt for the characters more, and was really able to get into their world. 


So that's all for this tag, please comment if you want Ava to come back! (You know you do). If we dissed your favorite book...too bad. Just don't get offended. 


Friend me on Goodreads at www.goodreads.com/CaramelOUSF


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Caramel

So I went to the book sale last weekend, but I haven't actually gotten to write everything down because I have been so busy with the Percy Jackson Challenge, volunteering and trying to meet up with all of my friends before the end of the summer. I also didn't get to do a bookhaul in July because I was in Cleveland during the book sale, but I did buy a couple books during July. I've already posted reviews on them so I find it kind of pointless to include them. 

The title...right. Well, I was basically outside for 30 minutes at night and even though I was wearing leggings and bug spray, I somehow managed to get 49 mosquito bites (and no, I'm not overexaggerating, I really counted all of them). I'm allergic to mosquitoes but THANK THE HEAVENS ABOVE because I didn't go into anaphylactic shock. My legs do feel weirdly numb, itchy and pained in different sections. So, be warned, I may sound really irritated in this bookhaul.

• Sarah's Key: Yes, I did already buy this book in my last bookhaul, but that one doesn't look as nice as the copy I have now. Now I have 2 copies of this beautiful book, and who knows? Maybe I'll do a giveaway when I post my review? If you want to know what Sarah's Key is about, see my other bookhaul here: http://onceuponsomefangirls.weebly.com/caramel/caramels-first-bookhaul
• The School for Good and Evil: I actually bought this from Costco, because Costco is great that way! The School for Good and Evil was recommended to me by Gazelle and I know that the 3rd book just came out, so I decided to pick up the first book. It's about a school. For good people. And evil people. *tries to maintain a straight face but totally fails and starts hysterically laughing* Basically every year, two people from this village are kidnapped when they turn 12, but a few years later, they appear in storybooks, with one as the hero and one as the villain. It follows Sophie (bright, pretty and blonde) and Agatha (wears dark clothing, mysterious and antisocial) as their roles seem to be reversed with Sophie in the school for evil and Agatha in the school for good.
• The Illustrated Edition of Jane Eyre: I happened upon this book in a secondhand bookstore. It's never been opened and the illustrations are beautiful. I haven't read Jane Eyre yet, so I'm hoping that having this copy will maybe incline me to do so. It follows a young girl by the name of Jane Eyre who struggles with hardship in her life.
• Witchlanders: In this book, we follow a land where there are red witches who pray to the Goddess, and claim to know the future. The main character, Ryder, believes it is all a hoax, especially since they have defeated their rivaled kingdom, but he may just happen to play a role in the future the witches know of. I picked this up on a whim but it seems interesting and the cover is beautiful. At first, I just thought it was a forest with snow and ice, but then I realized there's a girl also on the cover.
• Eat, Pray, Love: This book is a memoir about Elizabeth Gilbert, who seemed to have it all, but after a divorce and severe depression, she decides to travel the world to focus on three things: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India and something special in Indonesia. I've heard mixed reviews on the book but I picked it up to see if I would like it.
• The Undomestic Goddess: Workaholic Samantha has just messed up any chance of furthering her job as an attorney. In a state of panic, she hops aboard a train and finds herself being mistook as an interviewee for a housekeeping job. As she struggles to learn how to cook and clean, she also finds love while fearing that her past will catch up with her. I've heard great things about Sophie Kinsella, and I decided to pick up a couple of her books.
• Can You Keep a Secret?: Emma has a big heart, but has secrets from everyone: her boyfriend, her mom and even just society in general. One day, she spills all of them to a stranger on a plane, until she realizes that he's the CEO of the company she works for, and he knows every single one of her secrets. This seems like a fun, light read and I want to have this handy for any more mourning periods.
• Thirteen Reasons Why: Clay Jensen comes home one day to find a box with 13 cassette tapes in it from his crush Hannah, who had committed suicide 2 weeks earlier. On each tape was a reason why Hannah decided to commit suicide. A lot of people have read this book and I've heard some really good things about it, so I decided to give it a go. I'll definitely be picking it up soon.
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: This book is about 15 year old Christopher who, although he is a genius, basically has no social skills whatsoever. When his neighbors dog is murdered, he decides to investigate it Sherlock Holmes style but he soon discovers that not everything in life should be taken literally. Butter really liked this book and the pretense sounds really cool too. I hope to get to this soon because the blurb really has me intrigued.
• Boy Meets Boy: This is about a sophomore named Paul whose high school is very new-age: cheerleaders ride Harleys and the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (who now goes by Infinite Darlene and is the star quarterback). When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he's found his soul mate until he blows it. Even though the odds of them getting together aren't likely and the rest of Paul's life is spinning out of control he knows he's going to do whatever it takes to get Noah back. I was really excited to find this at the book sale since Butter recommended it to me, and I hope I can read it soon.

That was my bookhaul and I'm working on getting my Percy Jackson reviews up since I took somewhat cohesive notes on the books. I'm also hoping to start the writing of my book really soon, because I've been itching (pun not intended) to get it all down.

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Talk to you soon,
Caramel