East

Title: East

Rating: 5/5

Author: Edith Pattou

Pages: 507

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy

Synopsis:

There is an old superstition that children will inherit specific traits based on which direction their mother is facing when they are born. For Rose’s very superstitious mother, the last thing she wants is a north-born child, who would be filled with a need for adventure and wanderlust. Not only that, but when her mother is told that if she has a north-born child that child will surely be lost to her under an avalanche of ice and snow, she’ll do anything to ensure that none of her children are born in that fateful direction.

When her final child, Rose, is born in a rush, her mother is so distraught in finding that she’s a north-born that she convinces herself that she was actually facing east. Rose believed the lie all her life until one fateful evening when a great, white bear appears on their doorstep demanding that Rose come with him. In return, her ailing family would be blessed with much needed health and prosperity. Realizing that she was always destined for something like this, Rose accepts the bear’s offer. She is taken to a mysterious castle where she soon discovers that there’s more to her circumstances than meet the eye. When she makes a terrible mistake, she is forced with the most difficult decision of her life—return to the love and safety of her family or embark on a perilous journey to undo her wrongs and save the very creature that stole her away from her family in the first place.

My Reaction:

I always think twice before I give a book a 5/5 rating, but when I finished this book I couldn’t think of single thing wrong with it! Therefore, it earns a 5/5.

This book is based off of a fairytale called East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a fairytale I had never heard of before. However, it did remind me of other classic tales—Beauty and the Beast and Cupid and Psyche in particular. It also jogged my memory of a movie my sister used to like when we were kids. If I’m not mistaken, the movie is The Polar Bear King which is based off of the same fairytale. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairytale, so it really comes as no surprise to me that I would enjoy a book with similar themes (I’m not saying all Beauty and the Beast stories would earn a 5/5… I’ve read a couple that didn’t quite make the cut for me.). Part of what I enjoyed about it was how Edith Pattou incorporated some real history and landscape details. She clearly did her research as she developed this story.

The book is told from multiple points of view, which I know bothers some readers. Pattou pulls it off well, and it gives us glimpses of all aspects of the story. The readers get a more in depth tale through these different characters. I’d say the book is still predominately told by Rose, and I think that’s why the different perspectives work so well—there’s one leading voice that solidifies the story and keeps the reader on track. It also makes it a little bit quicker of a read, so don’t be daunted by 500+ pages.

This is a great take on a little known fairytale full of adventure, superstition, making amends, and the importance of love and family. I thoroughly enjoyed it and had a hard time putting it down. I read it during every free moment!

Reader’s Guidance:

This book involves trolls who capture humans to use as slaves. Rose sees a troll kill a human. She also discovers that when humans outlive their usefulness they are left in a frozen wasteland to freeze to death. Neither of these situations was super graphic. I didn’t find the telling of them bothersome.

Similar Books:

Beauty by Robin McKinley – A retelling of Beauty and the Beast that is worth the read!

Next Book:

Gail Carson Levine recently released a new book, and I love me a good Gail Carson Levine book! Set in the same world as her award winning Ella Enchanted comes her brand new story, Ogre Enchanted!

Book VS Movie: A Wrinkle in Time

Some of you may remember my “Times the Movie was ActuallyBetter than the Book” post. I’ve decided to have a “Book Versus Movie” post on occasion. That doesn’t mean that the movie will be better. I can see some of you in my mind’s eye going, “Duh, the book is always better.” If that’s you, go read the aforementioned post.

To start off this series of posts, let’s talk about Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time. You may recall that I reread the first few books of the series in anticipation of the movie’s release. I had decent hopes for it, but ended up not seeing it in theaters because of all the bad things I was hearing about it. I finally watched it a few weeks ago (Thank you, Netflix), and while I don’t feel the need to be quite as critical as some comments I’ve read, this is definitely a case where the book was better than the movie.

I had a few hopes/expectations for this film:

• If nothing else, it would be pretty. The trailers seemed to promise that.
• It would be better than the made for TV version that Disney made in the early 2000’s. If you haven’t seen it, I would suggest that you don’t bother.
• It would be a decent representation of the book despite whatever changes the creators of the film chose to make.

A little side note: I’m not one of those people who will hate a movie just because it’s not a copy and paste format of the book. Some things that work better on the page don’t work in quite the same way on the screen. I also sometimes value the different choices made in telling the story because you can actually end up taking more out of a story by having the two forms of media working together.

That being said, the film just didn’t quite live up to its full potential. It’s evident that a lot of time, thought, and effort went into the film. It truly was beautiful to watch as far as settings and good use of CGI. There were some changes that I was totally fine with them making (the absence of Meg’s twin brothers, for example, as that would have taken extra time and potentially distracted the audience with two new faces that would really only be a part of the story for about a minute). There were some other changes that I wasn’t quite sure why they did it (Mrs. Whatsit turning into a giant lettuce lady comes to mind).

Whether you’re for or against the various changes from book to film (I won’t get into all of them), there was one thing that stuck out in my mind as I watched it. I felt like I didn’t truly know who these characters were, at least not from my movie watching experience. I knew who they were because I had read the book. There just seemed to be something lacking.

One example in particular involves Charles Wallace. As we head towards the climax of the story as told in the book, it is very clear that we each have strengths and flaws and that both of those things can either aid or inhibit us in certain situations. In the book, Charles Wallace is specifically warned upon their arrival at Camazotz, and it becomes blatantly clear why he was given that warning. Although he believes he’s doing what’s best, he ultimately is nearly lost to the darkness and has to be rescued. This sequence in the movie didn’t have quite the same effect, and I believe that’s because some of the dialogue and setup was either omitted or slightly changed.

While one of the overarching messages of the book is still present—Meg’s struggle with self-esteem while learning about her own strengths and flaws as well as the power of love—it still felt like we were missing some of the essence of the original story. There are some scenes they could have done differently, or even possibly cut, to make way for a deeper sense of connection with the characters.

The movie did some things well, but in the end, the book was the clear winner for me.

What are your thoughts? Is there anyone out there who liked the movie better? I promise I’ll still be your friend if that’s the case.