BOOK AND FILM REVIEW: House Rules - Jodi Picoult // Easy A

So I've been meaning to post a blog for a while. Well, since I finally have time to do so, I will talk to you guys about TWO amazing things that I enjoyed simply for my leisure.

1. Jodi Picoult's (author of My Sister's Keeper) novel:

House Rules

2. New Release:

EASY A

Let's start with...

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Ever thought you were, strange, odd, estranged, detached…DIFFERENT? Well, "different" doesn't even to begin to describe Jacob Hunt. He's an eighteen year old with a mind of a genius. He can name several known facts in a drop of a hat and he has a fascination for crime fiction. But what really makes Jacob different from all the other kids is his medical diagnosis.

Jacob is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. It's a syndrome on the other end of the Autistic Spectrum. It practically means unlike other children with Autism, he wants to be in “our” world rather than being in his own imagination. But for Jacob being in our world is a little difficult because it's full of sarcasm and odd sayings that he takes literally.

If you told him to "get lost" he wouldn't know what you meant because he knows where he is at all times. He wouldn't understand that you're not asking him to "go away", he'd think you're asking him to place himself in a situation where he doesn't know where he is – that, in it's irony, is where the complication lies. If he "gets himself lost" how did he do that in the first place? Wouldn't he simply re-trace his own steps to be "found" again? Hence NEVER really being lost in the first place.

But when his obsession with criminology gets him into trouble. If he thought "getting" lost was hard, how about being tried for murder? Accused for being his tutor's murder, Jacob has to find a way for the judge, jury and even his own lawyer to believe his story. He has to paint the picture in black and white where the grey lines have been blurred by fancy colours of well manipulated sentences and over analysed scenarios.

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I'm a big crime buff myself and I loved the concept the moment I read the blurb in BORDERS. I thought it was a fresh take on the usual CSI, NCIS, Law and Order cases, I mean you get the odd bipolar cases or someone with a mental disorder, but I thought the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" is well weaved into this novel.

I love the incorporation of past crimes that have been recorded in time to suit the plot of the story. I love how you receive the entire action through every single character. I also enjoyed knowing the truth and having to read the book through Jacob's eyes, but at the same time I was asking, "Oh, but did he do it?" The novel gives the reader that kind of suspense that constantly has you questioning, “What's going on?”, but it also drives you keep reading until the end is how the other characters see how the story unfolds. It reflects Jacob's own ritual of watching his Crime Busters show, hoping that the results are different each time he watches the same episode. As the reader you hope that someone will pick up the clues that you’ve picked up a long time ago.

The ending is the most chilling part though...but I won't spoil that for you!

sL star rating: 5 Stars

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Easy A starring: Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley and Alyson Michalka

The thing about this movie it that it is freaking H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!!! What makes it so funny is that it epitomizes high school. You have the annoying people, the anonymous people and the outcasts. A few things that I loved:

1. There were no distinct "popular" people - they were mentioned, but never really "put out there."
2. They took a concept - "the absolute truth" - and allowed it to develop the plot line.
3. They took literary works and made them understandable and let those readers out there know that they're not the only ones who do the ancient way of opening what we now call, "a book". :P
4. How satire was used to exaggerate Christians.

Call me a blasphemer, but I love laughing at how the world portrays us Christians; it just reminds me how so many people out there refuse to really get to see what we're about. But at the same time it makes me think, if satires exaggerate the truth there must be people out there who really get into peoples' nerves just for the sake of it. As Christians we have to remember that offending someone is never a good thing, but in saying that, there will be someone who will always be offended. We have to remember that everything has to be done with love, and characters in these movies that portray all Christians as "You're going to hell" should reminds us to do everything out of love.


sL star rating: 4.5 Stars

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