But I Smile Anyway…

Have you read a book, and just been desperate to see the film? Or vice versa?

Well, that happened to me with this book!

This sort of genre has not really floated my boat to be honest before, but something pulled me to want to download the series to see what the fuss was about. The film looked intriguing so I thought it would be good to read the fiction first!

It was slow moving at first, but once I got my head around the plot, and the characters, and what was happening, I was glued to my Kindle!

The worlds and character types that are created by fantasy fiction authors astound me! I know I like to write, but I could never make these kinds of worlds up, and link things back and forth like they do!

At the end I was thirsty to know what was going to happen next, so was glad that I already had Hollow City, the sequel, ready on my Kindle, to read straight away!

I reviewed it simply on Goodreads:

I downloaded this series of books, having heard intriguing things about it. The fact that a movie was coming out was also a catalyst. It seems I may have been converted to YA fiction! I found the story a little hard to get into, but once I had read the first couple of chapters, I was hooked. The peculiar characters, the development of Jacob and his character, were all excellently done. The introductions of Hollows, Wights and Ymbrynes add further twists and turns to the plot! I don’t want to ruin any of the story but I was glad of the ending, knowing that there was more to come! There were a few times where I totally got confused, so had to go back and reread pages, but that may have been more me being tired, rather than the writing! If you are a YA fan, then I highly recommend the book. Part way through Hollow City already!

Now to the movie…

I downloaded the movie today to watch with my son. I know it is rated 12, and he is eleven, but he’s pretty good with these kinds of films.

And I’ll start by telling you that he enjoyed it. He was a little freaked at the beginning, but after I explained a little of the back plot, he sat back and got into it!

Now for me… It didn’t take long for me to start getting really agitated with the filmmakers! I know there is that old chestnut called ‘Creative License’ but really? To have actually swapped the ‘gifts’ from one main character to another?

By gifts, I mean that each peculiar child has some gift or another, be it levitation, or invisibility, the power to see into the future, or a strange mouth in the back of her head. These ‘gifts’ make the characters who they are in the book, and from the offset, in the movie, they swap the main Peculiar, Emma’s gift with Olive’s! Enough to get any reader’s hackles rising!

Obviously, a lot was cut and rewritten (Boy was it rewritten! The whole ending fabricated by Tim Burton’s script writers!) so if you watched it as a stand-alone film, with no intention to read the books, then that was fine.

But if like me, you read the book, then I fear you would feel that the film did the book little justice. The book gives huge scope for the sequel, and the next instalment of the story, where I can already say that the characters are fleshed out even more, and the story taken deeper, but the movie puts a full stop at the end, not an ellipse.

If they ever decided to make part two, there would have to be a whole lot more rewriting, and it wouldn’t really be the same story!

So there you have it.

The book great.

The film on it’s own, good.

The film, after reading the book, beyond frustrating!!!!

4 stars for the book! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

3 stars for the movie! ⭐⭐⭐