It's the holiday season! Which also means the gift giving season and I thought I should definitely do a post on what to get your favourite Book Nerd! 

Being a book nerd myself, I didn't want to be biased on my own opinions. Therefore, I asked a few of my book loving friends and accumulated the eight most common answers for gift requests!

This is one of King's more popular and older books which follows the Torrence family in their journey through what at first seemed like a fresh new environment and a perfect place for Jack to finish up writing his play, to a more sinister location - especially for Jack's five year old son, Danny who has uniquely gifted abilities.

Book

Okay let me start off by saying I LOVE Stephen King's writing. I know I continue to talk about him and his work but he definitely deserves it. His writing is just so pure and realistic, that it is bone chilling. 

The only negative aspect I could really say about the novel was how I didn't like some parts just ran on. Especially at the beginning where Jack was taught how the hotel worked; I generally thought that portion of the book, and a few others weren't necessary. Although, there were so many suspenseful scenes were incredible and they definitely overtook all the scenes that ran on a little too much. 

Character-wise, I loved Jack's five year old son, Danny. Danny has this thing called "The Shining" which is basically a telepathy ability with other Shiners. This also means he has an extra sensitivity to his environment in which he sees "visions". 

Danny himself is just an adorable character. Bright, hilarious and thoughtful. For his age, he is very smart and curious which I adore. He loves the outside and sees the good in everyone - especially his father who was an alcoholic and is abusive.

I found myself loving scenes that involved Danny way more than scenes that involved Jack and/or Wendy. 

Jack's character I seemed to like; but in a sense where I loved to hate him. His character throughout the novel gets quite interesting and terrifying. Especially when being in the Overlook Hotel for so long. But you do see certain aspects of Jack where he is loving and caring, even after everything negative he does. Which is one of my favourite aspects of King's characters. 

In novels, most stories portray characters as jerks or sweethearts. Jack had - I guess - a mix of both which really humanized his character and I loved that. You don't often see that in literature anymore. 

The plot had very interesting aspects to it that definitely made it as terrifying and equally as lovable as IT, one of Stephen King's most popular reads alongside The Shining. 

But would I say The Shining is better?

Maybe not better. But near the same level.

Movie 

The movie was definitely something special. 

There was a fair amount of scare and gore as there was thriller. 

Actor-wise, they picked pretty great actors for the film. Jack Nicholson and Danny Lloyd played amazing Jack and Danny - loved how the actors' names matched their character. 

I feel like Jack Nicholson will always be known as the infamous Jack Torrence for his creepy appearance as the writer. But Danny Lloyd also played an adorable Danny Torrence you fell in love with. Just his precious low toned voice which sounded almost fearful was amazing. 

And the "Redrum" scene was my absolute favourite. I had to grab the Danny Torrence Funko Pop! because one, its Danny and two, the infamous "Redrum" written on the box is incredible.

Although, personally, I didn't like the casting for Wendy as to me, she sounded a little too monotoned which made it difficult to follow her throughout the movie. 

Of course, just as any adaptation, the movie was nothing like the book. But for this instance, I mean it was nothing like the book. Scenes were cut out, or the plot was changed in one way or another. 

I disliked the fact that the movie made it seem like Jack just had cabin fever which is why he went crazy. When in the book, it's because the spirits in the Overlook Hotel thought it was difficult to possess Danny, so they possessed Jack instead. 

Usually when people think of the movie, they think of Jack getting cabin fever which is definitely all wrong. 

Supposedly even King doesn't like the adaptation which caused him to create his own version as a mini-series which I have yet to watch and review as it is incredibly hard to find it online now. 

Personally, as a movie itself and I'm watching it as a horror fan, yeah its a great movie. But as always, as a Stephen King fan, it definitely isn't good enough. 

Caraval follows our main character Scarlett who has grown up on this little, tiny island in which her controlling father owns. Since Scarlett was young, she had written letters to Legend, the creator of the infamous "Caraval." Years pass and just as Scarlett's father sets up an arranged marriage for her, Legend writes back and invites her to a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Caraval in a island a little ways from her own. Tella, Scarlett's sister, and a cute but mysterious sailor help Scarlett arrive at the event. Until Legend kidnaps Tella, and the game revolves finding Scarlett's sister and finding the truth.

Oh My Cheese Balls! This book was seriously amazing.

I had seen a lot of hype on bookstagram and booktube about Caraval and I love anything involving carnivals and the circus so I definitely had to dive into this book right away! 

Right off the bat, this book was super easy to read. There wasn't a moment where I thought a part of the book was slow. The book itself was very fast paced and detailed. Caraval itself, the land was written so beautifully and well-done that I could easily picture everything in my head. 

As for the characters, in all honesty, I didn't like Scarlett at first. I thought her character from the beginning of the book until about the middle of it, was really annoying. I just felt like she didn't have her mind made up on certain things; one moment she would want something and the next moment she didn't. Her personality is really hard to categorize in itself. But about mid-book, she starts to become easier to like for me.

I think Julian was my favourite character because he felt the most genuine to me. 

Romance-wise, I really wished it was more prominent mid-book until the end rather than just at the end. I felt like the romance aspect fell a little short for me. 

My favourite part was the ending, and if you've read Caraval before, you'd know what I'm talking about. The ending itself felt like that would never be imaginable. I cried near the end, but once the actually ending hit, I was in shock.

Honestly, I think Caraval should have it's own book-to-movie adaption. 

If you want a overly hyped book that is well worth the hype, Caraval is it. 

I know this post is a little late since my birthday was in September, but I received a few giftcards and was waiting until I used them all up before I posted a full birthday book haul! Which by the way, I want to thank everyone who has given me a book and/or a giftcard for my birthday! I'm so thankful and I love you all so much!

I haven't done hauls on my blog before which is something really new and exciting for me to post about since I love reading - and watching - book hauls! 

Before I get started, I want to mention that I won't get into the full plots of each of the books as most of them I'm not very sure of. I'll mention what I know and such, but I won't go into full detail; I usually mention the plot at the beginning of each of my book reviews!

I also want to mention that I'm not posting this haul to brag. I'm very thankful for all the books I've gotten and many of my readers ask for a haul.

Birthday Book Haul!

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas 

This is the second book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy - or series, I'm not really sure yet. Which I have a review of the first book here. If you have not read the series, or don't know what the series is about - where have you been? As I've read all the books published so far, I had only owned the first book prior to my birthday. And for a few months before my birthday, I was saving up for my little birthday vacation with my boyfriend which basically meant I was on a book buying ban. My boyfriend and I thought since I stuck to my book buying ban for a few months and I found this copy for cheap on BookOutlet, why not treat myself as a little early birthday present. 

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas 

This was one of my most anticipated reads of September so I was really happy I got it! Originally, I had pre-ordered Wonder Women by Leigh Bardugo but I decided to cancel my pre-order to get an Indigo Exclusive copy of Tower of Dawn - which was released a few days before my birthday. This edition has all the Throne of Glass characters on the inside of the dusk jacket and is the most recent book in the Throne of Glass series but is solely based on Chaol instead of Aelin/Celaena. As Chaol was one of my least favourite characters, getting into this was definitely very interesting. This is the second and only other book I had bought myself for my birthday - I think.

Divergent by Veronica Roth 

I was given a copy of Divergent by one of my best friends from my book club, Peyton alongside a little Target Exclusive sticker/bookmark/magnet set. She's a huge Divergent fan and was surprised I had never read or seen Divergent - let alone, I have no idea what Divergent is about. So as her way of getting me into this new dystopian world, she decided to get me a copy of the first book in her favourite series.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer 

This is one of the many books I've gotten from my boyfriend for my birthday! During this time - and it still is - The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyers is my favourite series. I love fairytale retellings but I love the fact that Marissa Meyers is known for adding a little sci-fi twist to each of her retellings. My review for the first book in The Lunar Chronicles is here. During the time when my boyfriend bought me this birthday gift (he was avidly asking me questions on what fairytale retellings I didn't have/read.) I was in such a retelling kick, I was reading different YA retellings by different authors and that was basically all I was reading. Although, I haven't read this book by Marissa Meyers yet and I'm not too sure what this book is about; I think it involves The Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.