The Shock of the Fall | Nathan Filer

"I'll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name's Simon. I think you're going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he'll be dead. And he was never the same after that."

Nathan Filer's award-winning debut novel, 'The Shock of the Fall' is a wonderfully penned, and deeply compelling novel in which we witness Matt Holmes, a 19-year-old schizophrenic spiral into mental illness after the death of his older brother, Simon. Filer's charming writing style (channeled through Matt's old typewriter) coupled with typographical tricks and doodles makes for a thrilling, and gripping novel. 

13 pages in, and Simon is dead. You only have to lay eyes on this rapid opening, and you already know the next 294 pages are going to be good. Matt goes on to reveal the circumstances of the death as the novel progresses, and his guilt is evident throughout. The way Filer has penned his voice is pure beauty to read: blunt, frank, puzzled but most importantly, determined. He transforms the setting of the book with ease; from the caravan park, to Matt's flat, to the mental ward, and back again. It is as if you have been engulfed by the page and are travelling with our protagonist. 

The novel manages to overcome a rather grim prognosis with the constant use of humour and caustic remarks. Our main character is the main source of these mordant comments; when joking about his medical notes he writes,"Matthew … suffers from command hallucinations, which he attributes to a dead sibling. Crazy shit, eh?"

Filer also successfully intersperses quirky characters in the story to break up some of the possible melancholy. My personal favourites would have to be "Claire-or-maybe-Anna" and Matt's ever-trying grandmother "Nanny-Noo". 

Filer's incredible penmanship, techniques, characters and expressive views all add up to make a beautiful piece of literature -  a thoroughly gripping, and engaging novel. Go and get a copy for yourself!

Love The Little Things | Week 2

My favourite weekly link up, hosted by But Why Mummy Why in which you appreciate the little things that have made up your week.

Read.

I entered the 'Dusting Of The Shelf' Read-A-Thon the other day, and so naturally, I have started to read The Maze Runner by James Dashner. And The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

Woop.

Watched.

I have been watching ... The Commonwealth Games. And surprisingly, England are beating the Aussies. 

Woop again.

I feel as if every emotion should be portrayed by a cat gif.

Heard.

P!nk. Her music is incredibly relatable, and she makes tracks with a beat! (so you can run to them!)

Woop for the 3rd Time.

Played.

There are two very annoying, yet extremely addictive apps at the moment, much emulating the sensation that was Flappy Bird. They are called Don't Touch The Spikes, and Ninja Up.

...I've only just realised how demonic that bird looks.

And...

I ran my first 5k this week. And my legs, rather unwillingly, managed to get me round in one piece. This is possibly the most effort I have ever put into something, that isn't sleep or blogging...

Woop for effort.

A rather amusing ending gif. 

Who are you supporting in the Commonwealth Games?

Dusting Off The Shelf Read-A-Thon

I found this little read-a-thon a couple of days ago and jumped at the chance to participate. For one, the topic seemed perfect, as it gave me the excuse to read a few old and neglected reads. The idea is inspired. Also, it only lasted 2 weeks and for once I actually WASN'T LATE TO FIND IT! Plus, the host is only Books & Cleverness, one of my all time favourite blogs!

Who wouldn't want to give it a go?

Here is a post where she discusses the challenges:

Click Me

And here is a post where she discusses the read-a-thon in general:

No Click Me

Challenges.

• Read a book set in the past.
• Read a classic.
• Read a book written before 2010.
• Read at least 100 pages a day.
• And of course…the books must be neglected by you!

MY UTTERLY SPLENDIFEROUS TBR.

• Read a book set in the past: Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Read a classic: I'm gunna have to pitch for The Great Gatsby by F. Scott. Fitzgerald. My sister literally raves about this novel... and I know it's shameful of me to say I have not read or watched it.
• Read a book written before 2010: The Maze Runner by James Dashner. This is the same choice as Emily's, purely because the film is coming out so soon and I need to read it before then. Also my brother raves about this ... we have a very raving family.

I would really love it, and I am sure Emily would too if you could participate in the read-a-thon!

I shall keep you posted on my progress through here and twitter using the hashtag: #dustingofftheshelf 

So what have we achieved in this post? We have learnt of my raving family, my lack in organisational skills when it comes to books as this post is a day before the reading starts, and the shame of me using the word splendiferous in a title.

I'm just that awesome.

Probably the best gif I have ever seen.

Top Ten Tuesday #2 - Authors I Own The Most Books From

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bloggish meme hosted by The Broke And The Bookish in which we list our top 10 of a certain topic. This week's topic was 'Authors I Own The Most Books From' and so here it is (... in reverse order because again, I'm not conforming to society's norms #rebel):

4 Books.
I have 4 books by both Malorie Blackman and Pseudonymous Bosch (that name took a long time to write...). 

The Noughts And Crosses series, as of yet, I am enjoying and have a signed copy of Noble Conflict. 
I can literally feel your intense jealousy.

And the 'secret' series I used to read when I was younger; they were actually really good, and I love the titles, and front page of these books.

5 Books.

I don't know quite how this happened, or if it counts but I have 2 books of both Catching Fire and Mockingjay... And because Suzanne Collins is amazing, I decided to allow it as 5 so she could make the list.

I also have 5 books of the Skullduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy

6 Books.

I'm guessing these are by multiple authors?!

I also have 6 Rick Riordan books. Of which I have probably read 2...

13 Books & 3rd Place.

I have 13 Enid Blyton books from when I was younger. I used to be in love with these mysteries, and my best friend from ages ago bought me the Famous Five book. 

I also have another 13 books from another favourite childhood author - Lemony Snicket (or Daniel Handler, his real name)

15 Books & 2nd Place.

Robert Muchamore and the infamous Cherub and Henderson Boys series. I absolutely still adore these books, and am pretty sure I have read all of them 3 times each.

8 of the books are on my Kindle hence why there are only the 7 in this picture 

20 Books & 1st Place

I'm pretty sure that's some kind of record

Anthony Horowitz. 

My pre-teen writing hero for the StormBreaker series and his horror short-stories, these books have been read at least 5 times each, and remain in the coveted top shelf of the bookcase.

I would love to read your TTTs so comment below the links and I will be sure to check them out! 

Which author has the top shelf of your bookcase?

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Review

An explosive addition to one of the most popular film franchises around, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes manages to blend together brutal war and moral depth with high success. 

Matt Reeves does a fantastic job, and I must admit surpasses my prior expectations, in the whole making and concept of the film; how they quite managed to pull of such an extraordinary and impressive feat of special effects still baffles me, with apes wielding guns and riding horses left, right and centre.I do think that this film has been pitched near-perfectly, with just the right amounts of drama, suspense, emotion and horror all encapsulated in the piece. 

What really surprised me about this film, is that there was a constant plot, and the pace didn't drop for too long. I'm not going to spoil it too much for you, as I thoroughly recommend you watch it for yourself, so here is just a basic plot line. A very basic plot line. 

I started the film off with a huge bucket of popcorn to the ready, and an open mind on what I was about to witness. A thorough ten minutes of animal grunted sign-language was to follow with a pretty spectacular 'monkey meets deer meets bear' type deal. The film, as I said, never really at a stand-still, moved straight into the major plot twist - the apes stumbled across a group of humans.

The apes and the humans had many different interactions throughout the film, with our protagonists Caesar and Malcolm (Jason Clarke) forming a strong alliance, or 'trust' in each other over a dam project for the survivors city. Meanwhile Koba, Caesar's former pal, is off shooting humans and hatching an evil plan.

A touching father-son scene, amidst a pretty fatal, yet spectacular all the same war scene later I ended the film with a couple of unanswered questions, a 'what used to be' huge bucket of popcorn and a very urgent need to pee. 

Firstly, shoutout to possibly the most kickass gentle giant ever, Maurice the ginger orang-utan. 

I left the cinema, having thoroughly enjoyed such a brilliant blockbuster, with the ending still replaying itself in my mind. The apes all accept Caesar as the leader, and there is a rather touching end scene of him standing with his family, and possibly the cutest baby monkey special effect I have ever seen in my life. And possibly the only baby monkey special effect I have ever seen in my life. 

But Caesar's ending line, 'war has only just begun' was hauntingly eerie, and surely has to open this major blockbuster up to making another sequel. 

The military are still on the way to fight the apes, which is an absolute disaster, as now Caesar is back in control, the apes are good once more (well until they fight the humans in the next film I suppose...).

Too much animal grunting, and no real need for 3D glasses put aside, I really did enjoy this film and thoroughly recommend it as it is worth the watch. The special effects are brilliant, as is the casting, the tension felt is immense and the apes are all pretty hardcore. 

Apes, fire, guns, a guy with glasses, and touching moments throughout, why wouldn't you want to watch this movie?

I give this film 4 1/2 Moustaches.

Oh the pun.

Do you have any film recommendations from recent releases/coming soons?

The Fault In Our Stars Review

CAUTION - SPOILERS.

You have to submit to the sheer emotional trauma experienced in this teen movie sensation, based on the colossal novel by John Green. The film portrays an 'epic love story' as told through the eyes of a certainly resilient Hazel Grace Lancaster (played by Shailene Woodley), and manages to take you through a whirlwind of emotions in the 126 minute running time. 

Hazel Grace Lancaster is a particularly intelligent and sarcastic teenage cancer patient whose thyroid lesions have metastasised to her lungs; her condition, once critical has soon stabilised with an experimental drug treatment, but leaves her wheeling around her portable oxygen tank, and forever having to sit down. After wanting to just be a normal teenager, she is forced, much to her dismay to go to a nearby cancer support group. It is here where she bumps into the other main protagonist of the story, Augustus Waters (portrayed by Ansel Elgort) as they joke about his prosthetic leg, oblivion and his infamous hamartia of putting a cigarette between his teeth and not allowing it to 'do the killing'. From the get go it looked as if they were destined to be together.

A debatably rash Augustus invites Hazel back to his house, where they both decide to read 

each others favourite novels: Hazel's being 'An Imperial Affliction' which soon, after more bonding, flirting and mind-blowingly effective quotes about oblivion, stars and love, would see them travel to Amsterdam together (much to Hazel's doctors' dismay) to meet the infamous author, Peter Van Houten.

A plane journey, and romantic dinner-date later and they show up at Van Houten's abode to find him drunk, uncooperative and down-right rude. He insults Hazel's cancer, and refuses to answer any questions about the book, the main reason for the duo's travel to Amsterdam. In an attempt to apologise for what a cantankerous sod Van Houten had been, his assistant Lidewjj treats them to a trip to the Anne Frank House, where Augustus and Hazel share their first kiss, after struggling up many flights of stairs. 

'After that I fell in love with him like you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once' Hazel Grace explains as Augustus and her become smitten in one another's company. The day after, as if to dampen the mood Augustus reveals his cancer has relapsed, and once back in America, his health dramatically worsens, forcing him to the wheelchair. He asks Hazel Grace and Isaac to read him their eulogies, and Hazel quotes Van Houten on 'big and small infinities'. After all three had shared tears, amongst every single person in the audience that night, all of a sudden Augustus was dead, and Hazel was left at the funeral with only a sheet of paper written by Augustus and delivered by Van Houten, stating his eulogy of her to show for their most definitely 'epic love story'.

I have to applaud how the movie managed to make you connect so much with the characters in such a short space of time that you both cry and laugh with them. The casting was perfect in my mind, as Ansel, and Shailene have such great chemistry on the screen, and the movie did a pretty good job at sticking to the books principles. I also have to applaud Shailene Woodley's ability to pull of that short hair!

I hate to be a downer, and however much I myself like this tragic story, but I feel as if the whole movie was leading up to something big, and then Augustus's death fell a little short, and happened all so quickly. If you had blinked in the cinema, you probably would have missed it. 

And is the whole franchise really worth all of the hype? I mean, it is a blooming good read, and very gripping to watch, but there are other books out there with slightly more to offer. Saying that, I think The Fault in Our Stars has a very unique ability to mix cancer, a love story, a death and no happy ending, and manage to pull it off. We connect with Augustus and Hazel, and really learn that we can dictate our lives. Oblivion is inevitable, but a sad ending isn't.

The title of the book is taken from Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/ But in ourselves, that we are underlings." Hazel and Augustus realise that cancer was always in the stars for them, though it was them to choose how to deal with it. And I think that is the best summary, or closing thought I could end on. Life is an object for you to mould, and that is exactly what our protagonists did.