Book Vs Movie: Between Shades of Gray/Ashes In The Snow

Hi all! This is the second of my new monthly feature where I compare books to their movie adaptations and decide which one of them is better. This month, I’m going to be talking about Between Shades of Gray and it’s movie adaptation, Ashes In The Snow, since it seemed like a timely one to talk about because the film was released this week in the UK and I just watched it last night. I read the book about four years ago now, but luckily I did review it on here, so it will be much easier to remember my thoughts.

Book Thoughts:

I really loved this book when I read it four years ago, I liked that it was something a little bit different for a WWII story, so often they focus on the atrocities of Hitler and what happened under Stalin’s regime gets somewhat forgotten, and I love learning about parts of History that I don’t know much about. I loved the characters and I thought Ruta Sepetys’ writing was beautiful. If you’d like to read my more detailed thoughts, the review is here:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/22/between-shades-of-grey-review/

This film is really harrowing, I cried multiple times throughout, as I did with the book. I thought Bel Powley was a brilliant Lina and Martin Wallstrom did a great job as Kretsky, in fact all of the actors really captured the emotions of the film. I will say that I felt like the book felt more hopeful than the film did, even in her darkest moments, Lina still holds out hope that things will be better, which I didn’t feel so much in the film and the ending was very different from the book, but on the whole, the film was very true to the book and captured the story wonderfully.

Movie or Book Judgement:

Book, but honestly both are really great, I think I just loved the writing in the book so much that it edges it for me. I would definitely recommend the film too though!

I’m going to be back with another Book Vs Movie post next month, where I’m going to be talking about The Hunger Games, one of my favourite books! In the meantime, I should have a review of my latest read, Priory of The Orange Tree up tomorrow.

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Book Vs Movie: The Perks of Being A Wallflower

Hi everyone! Today marks the start of a brand new feature for BookLoversBlog, something I’ve been wanting to start for over a year now but just haven’t had time to with everything going on with Uni. It’s going to be a monthly feature, where I compare a book I’ve read to it’s movie counterpart and come up with a judgement as to which one I prefer, as hopefully a fun way to integrate my love of films a little bit more into this book blog!

For the first instalment of this new feature, I’m going to be talking about The Perks of Being A Wallflower. I actually watched the film for this one before I read the book, I saw the film when it was released back in 2013 and didn’t actually read the book until last year.

Book Thoughts:

The book is written in an epistolary format, which kind of put it on the back foot for me from the start since I’m really not a big fan of that style, I find it kind of jarring to read, it just doesn’t feel like I’m reading a story. I also found the book kind of difficult to follow, if I hadn’t already seen the movie, I’m not sure I would have had a clue what was going on. I didn’t really love Charlie’s narration either. I can definitely see why some people love it so much, but I personally wasn’t a massive fan.

Movie Thoughts:

I actually really liked the movie! The film has a far more cohesive narrative than the book, and I felt like the other characters were a lot more fleshed out, in the book, you only really get to know Charlie and the other characters seem more like side notes. I thought the casting was great, especially Ezra Miller as Patrick and I felt like the film offered a lot more hope than the book did? I think I liked the story, but the book didn’t necessarily express it in the best way and it came across better for me in the film.

Movie or Book Judgement:

Movie! I know the saying is the book is always better, but I think in this case, the story was more suited for the screen than the page, at least for me anyway.

So there we go, the first instalment of my new feature! I hope you guys enjoyed this and if you have any suggestions of films/books that you’d like to see me talk about on here, then please let me know, I can’t promise I will get to them right away, especially if I haven’t read the book yet, but I will definitely try.

I’m going to be back with another Book Vs Movie post next month, where I will hopefully be talking about Ashes In The Snow, the film adaptation of Ruta Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray, it comes out on the 15th July, but I think it’s going to be a largely digital release, so fingers crossed that Amazon will have it! In the meantime, my next post will be a new Top Ten Tuesday.