REVIEW: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

Oh hello there Muggles,

so after I finally ordered "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and already finished it I just had to write this review. I hope you enjoy it! :)

What it is about:

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is about Charlie, who is an 15 year old freshman in highschool. All you get to know about him and his surroundings he tells you through letters, who are addressed to a "friend". 

Although Charlie is very intelligent he is socially awkward and too shy to find real friends especially after his friend Michael killed himself before Charlie starts to write the letters. 

After some time in his new school he meets Patrick and Sam, who are siblings, and they become friends like Charlie never had them before.

He also starts something like a friendship with his English teacher, who gives him books to read and write about and this is how Charlie discovers that he wants to be a writer one day.

Charlie writes the letters for about a year and he tells you what happens in his life, which includes first kisses and drug-experiences but you're also confronted by his difficult personality and background.

Picture by teaser-trailer.com

What I though about it:

Shame on me but I only found out about "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" because of the upcoming film starring Emma Watson. I love her because she "incarnated" my favourite book-character ever: Hermione Granger. :)

After reading about the book on Hayleys Blog Water Painted Dreams I looked for it in local book stores and the library but couldn't find it in English (an extra loud hurray for Germany -.-) and when I read about her loving it SO much again I just ordered it on Amazon. Well, this is why so many order things on Amazon, I guess. :/

Long story short: I got it with my mail on Tuesday and I finished it Wednesday evening and now I am sitting here writing this review because to say it as modest as I can: It was mind-blowing! :)

I would like to start talking about the characters because I think they are the leading role - the most important part in a book. 

I felt kind of connected with Charlie right from the start. I felt with him when he was talking about being nervous starting school. I was overwhelmed by his strange way to look at things. Sometimes you think of him being a 10 year old and one moment later he writes down the wisest words I ever heard. And during the whole book he is just pure honesty in person - probably just because he sometimes is not aware of what goes on or how to react and that always reminded me of a child. You definitely notice that something is not right with him and the end just left me standing there feeling helpless for him - but enough for now: I don't want to spoiler.

Charlie often talks about his friends Patrick, Sam, Mary Elizabeth (worst name ever... sorry for all the "Mary Elizabeth's" out there^^), the rest of the "group" and also his English teacher, who he addresses by his first name "Bill" - all those characters are described so detailed that you think they're real and I'm sure everyone can find some character traits of their one friends in them.

Last but not least there is his family, which is just so perfectly not perfect. There is a lot of love within the family but nevertheless they are in a constant sea saw just as the whole story is basically.

Let me pass into the story in general. And this one is hard because I don't want to spoiler here. Let's just say it's a combination of fun(ny moments), tragic and normality in a very special way because Charlie as the main character is special. There are many, many emotional moments especially because Charlie cries a lot but I never found this to be annoying but moving.

As I said before it is quite a sea saw and you never know what to expect next. Because you can only see the whole story through Charlies eyes, or better say his words, you feel especially connected to him and there are moments in which you can't really understand why he acted like he did - at least I thought so. 

In almost every letter Charlie mentions famous bands, songs, books or films, which makes you feel that it is real and a true happening and I love those little details. You can listen to "The Smiths" and try to understand what Charlie feels when putting one of their songs onto a mixtape he gives to his best friend. :)

Final Conclusion:

I enjoyed every minute I read "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" - no matter how happy or tragic or awkward the storyline was. I felt like I experienced everything with Charlie and I would like to meet him and his surroundings because it's like every person in the book really exists.

The most important part and the thing why I already love "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is that it makes you think a lot and it makes you feel with every character. 

I think it's one of those books that leaves a permanent impression!

I really hoped you liked it.

Please let me know if you already read "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and tell me what you think of it!

I would also love to know if you saw the film or if your going to see it in cinemas! :)

See you next time,

Hermione :)

Tops & Flops (September)

Hello Muggles,

September has already come to an end and I thought of telling you what I liked and disliked. :)

TOP:

1) Danisnotonfire

If you could see me writing you would know how red my cheeks are right now. :') 

I'm turning into a creepy girly-girl when thinking about Dan from danisnotonfire 

I don't watch his videos because he's handsome as hell (oh yeah, we all know it's true - you know it's true, Dan) - although this probably is the reason why I watch so many of them - BUT he's just the funniest guy ever and he makes me laugh every single second - pure entertainment especially in the grey days of autumn that are to come! :)

Watch his videos, if you like a good laugh... and you can handle the handsomeness. ;D

(I also love AmazingPhil, of course! Rawr!)

2) Essiebutton

Let me just talk about Youtubers at once. You probably already know how much I adore Estée from essiebutton but I can't get enough of watching her videos. :) She is hilarious and entertaining like no other and you just have to watch the video I put up below - especially the end will demonstrate you why I'm so in love with her. :D

3) Books ("The Future of us")

As "books" is quite a lame headline for something I liked this month (because I didn't just like books in September...) I added one of the novels I read, which was "The Future of us" by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. I read within 24 hours because it's just very easy to read and to be honest I had a lot of time and fun reading it so it was ticked of very fast. I will do a more detailed review about it because it's one of the few books I read in the last couple of months that is actually written in English - so everyone of you should be able to read it, which makes the whole thing of writing / reading a review more interesting! ;)
Other books I read were "Log Out" by Sylvia Witt and Oliver Uschmann, "Das Portal" by Elke Pistor (which I didn't like), "Der Krähenturm" by Kerstin Pflieger and last but definitely not least: "Solange die Nachtigall singt" by Antonia Michaelis!
I also finished the "Jane Eyre" audiobook - which I loved! :)


 

4) Dark red / Plum lipstick

Picture by P2 - I bought the middle one (Rue de Rivoli)

 

This is probably mostly autumn inspired but I love darker lipsticks on other people and so I bought my first really dark one, which you will also see in an upcoming collective haul very soon. :)

My favourite look for autumn is wearing a dark lip and only mascara on your eyes - no eyeshadow or anything else that diverts from your lipstick.

There`s a quite interesting "Dos and Don'ts of Dark Lipsticks" on the Glamour page. Just click here to check it out. :)

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FLOP:

1) The Hunger Games (Film)

Picture by mmm-mag.com

Okay, I know that it's not nice to talk about anything in a bad way but I'm just being honest here and I don't want everything to be perfectly good every time because it just isn't. 

After this short disclaimer I would like to talk about how disappointed I am about "The Hunger Games". This film is SO hyped and everyone I know watched it in the cinema and liked it so I wanted to have a look myself. Here's the truth: I watched 30 minutes! That's it.

Firstly, the camera was driving me insane.

Secondly, I think the actors aren't good and convincing at all - worst of all: Liam Hemsworth! I just didn't believe him. He was like thrown in there like anyone told him: "Just be the "pretty" friend of Katniss, don't show any personality:" o.o

Thirdly, the animations. How can a film, which was this expensive have animations that look like in Blue's Clues? 

And in the end: I felt sooo bad watching! I literally felt like one of those crazy people in the Hunger Games world that watches the Hunger Games in TV or something. I couldn't deal with that and felt so bad after thirty minutes that I decided to end my Hunger Games experience there. 

Maybe I will read the books but probably the topic in general is not for me.

Don't be mean with me because I'm just talking about my opinion and if you liked the film than why shouldn't that be okay? Hurray for you. ;)

2) Learning Latin in 3 weeks

Yes, it's as stupid as it sounds. Because I'm about to do "English Studies" in university I have to learn Latin. It's not enough that I already did 4 years of French and 3 years of Italian - no, it has to be Latin, as well! -.-
The genious I am, I decided to do two crash courses for three weeks each. I finished the first one last week and should be able to know about 600 words and a million forms of grammar. Sad story is I am not. So the plan for the following 11 months is to do revision all the time. Hopefully that will work because there is an Latin exam to come next year... and I have to pass! 
Hurray to the future. ;D




 3) Bye, bye summer - hello autumn

Picture by wallpaperzzz.com

As romantic as this autumn picture might look like... I don't like it. I'm surprised how many Youtubers and Bloggers adore this time of a year - but they mostly said they like it because of the fashion... I also like autumn fashion but I fancy warm and sunny days anyway. :'D
I don't know how to survive winter yet... -.-
xD


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Okay, I think that's enough for now. I hope you enjoyed it.

Please let me know what your September top and flops are or link your own blog in the comment section down below! :)

See you next time,
Hermione 

"10 Day You Challenge" - Three Films

Hello Muggles,

today it's time for another part of the "10 Day You Challenge":

Three films:

1) Grave of the Fireflies

"Grave of the Fireflies" was the first film I watched that really made me cry. When little Setsuko puts buttons into her mouth thinking they were candy (and because I don't want to spoiler, I won't talk about what happens after that) just made me cry SO hard! I felt confused and sad.

It is just an excellent movie.

 Aaand it's representative for all Animes and especially Studio Ghibli films, which I looooove! *.* My favourites are: My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo

 

2) The little Mermaid

It was so hard to choose one Disney film because I love so many of them (my fav's beside The little Mermaid are: Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled...).

What else is there to say?

3) Emma

   
Since the last two or three months I'm obsessed with Jane Austen and the Bronte Sisters' work and the most fun I had watching "Emma". This won't be an all time favourite of me but I just like it at the moment, so I included it. :)

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Although I always answer the question "What's your favourite film?" with "Harry Potter" I chose to not put in on the list because I don't really like the actual films but it's much more an emotional thing because I love the books, characters and the story in general so much. Unfortunately I don't think they made a big deal out of it and I was extremely disappointed with part 7 (1+2) because even J.K. Rowling said that they are close to the books... uhm, no? -.-


Well, the challenge is almost over - I hope you enjoyed it so far and I hopefully "see" you tomorrow when it's about two songs. ;)

Leave a comment telling me your top three films if you'd like to - it would make me happy. :)

See you next time,
Hermione 

The ultimate Harry Potter TAG! :)

Hey everyone,

today I watched the Harry Potter TAG by Joey Graceffa and Jim Chapman (click on their names to get to their Youtube-Channels) and I just had to do it of course! By the way: I did the full TAG - I think Joey and Jim left some questions out. ;)

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I hope you'll enjoy it and I would be sooo happy if you would do the TAG as well. You can either answer it in the comment section or link your channel, where you did the TAG. :)

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Let's get started...:

1) Favorite book

- My fav's are Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban (because you get to know more about Harrys father, Lupin and Sirius and it's just so interesting!) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (just because it's the ending of it all - not that this would be a good thing but I love how everything becomes clear and gets explained).

 2) Favorite movie

- It's part 3 again. I think there are still huge gaps in parts 4-7 and this is why I don't prefer the last movies.

 3) Least favorite book

- I don't have a real least favourite book but I don't like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as much as the other because Prof. Umbridge just drives me insane! She's even more horrible in the book than in the film! 

 4) Least favorite movie

- This is quite easy: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! I just don't like the whole atmosphere in the movie and I really don't like Beauxbaton and Durmstrang and their people in the movie. :/

  

 5) Parts of the books/movies that made you cry?

- There were so many but as an example I choose the death of Fred Weasly (I was sitting in an overcrowded bus full of pupils reading that scene for the first time and people were starring at me like I was crazy^^) and the scene when Bellatrix tortures Hermione and Dobby dies shortly after this (I cried my eyeballs out in the cinema!).

 6) Twilight vs. Harry Potter...

- Wtf? 

 7) If you could hook up with any HP character who would it be?

- Actually there is nobody I'm very attracted to... when I was younger I had a crush on Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) but not nowadays anymore. :D

 8) Favorite character?

- Easy-peasy: It's Hermione! She's just so intelligent and helpful and I just love her for doing "S.P.E.W." :')  I also like Sirius Black a lot. :)

 9) What would your Patronus be?

- It would probably be a Deer... or a Koala. :D

 10) If you could have the Resurrection Stone, Invisibility Cloak or the Elder Wand which one would you choose?

- None of them because they are the "Deathly Hollows" but if I really had to choose one I would go for the cloak.

 11) Are you upset with any parts left out in the films?

- Hell yeah! I think there's a scene in every book, which is not in the movies but right now I'm quite mad about the scene from Part 5 when Harry & co are in St. Mungos and they meet Nevilles parents. Especially because Nevilles part is quite big in the last movie I think it would have been important to show his parents and his situation. 

The second scene, which isn't in the movies is when Dudley says goodbye to Harry at the beginning of part 7. They filmed it but it git deleted in the end. :/

I could go on and on but I don't think that anyone's interested in reading it, right?^^

 12) What House would you be in?

- I'm sure that I would be in Hufflepuff. In Pottermore I'm a Hufflepuff as well... and I like it! I'm nobody, who laughs about them - I like being a Hufflepuff. :D

 13) Favorite subject at Hogwarts?

- There was a time when I did some "Hogwarts online" stuff and we had to take classes and do homework and so on (was quite fun actually - although it's nerdy as hell^^) and I enjoyed "History of Magic" the most. But because I didn't like history in my real school life I would go for "Charms" or "Defense Against the Dark Arts". :)

 14) Favorite professor?

- Professor Lupin! :)

 15) If you could meet any member of the cast who would it be?

- Maybe Emma Watson.

 16) If you could do one spell in real life what would it be?

- It would be "Lumos" because I'm afraid of the dark and that would help. :D

 17) Have you played any of the video games?

- I started several of them but didn't like them that much. I played the 1st one on PlayStation, the 3rd / 4th (I think) on NDS and the 7th on XBOX360.

 18) If you were on the Quiddich team which position would you play?

- I would suck at Quidditch! Seriously! But being a seeker sounds better than the rest. ;)

 
19) Were you happy with the ending?

- Yes, I was. I didn't like the "19 years later" thing but the ending before was totally fine.

 20) How much does Harry Potter mean to you?

- Oh, quite a lot to be honest. This is what I grew up with and I always saw Harry Potter as my hero (like Spiderman or whoever is for other people). I'm just in love with the whole magical world and the character and I'm really thankful that Joanne K. Rowling wrote the books and got the opportunity to publish them! :)

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Thanks for reading my TAG, I hope you enjoyed it and like I said: leave some replies! :)

See you next time,

Hermione 

Talking about ... Harry Potter!

Hey everyone,

today I would like to introduce a new "topic", which is "Talking about...". I will just talk about random stuff in this category, which you maybe already figured out yourself. ;)

As my Bloggername is Hermione and I'm actually always talking about Harry Potter I thought it would be nice to have it all written down in this specific Blogpost. 

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Let's get started...

When I was about 8/9 years old my Mom bought the first Harry Potter book because everyone read it, everyone loved it and she thought my brother and I would like it as well. Mommy, you did a good job! - I loved it! I have to say that reading a "real" book was not that easy when I was 8/9 years old... especially when there are names like Hagrid and Hedwig and I always took Hagrid for Hedwig and the other way around, so for a period of time I thought Harry had a speaking owl :'D What I also didn't get was the term "Sir" because it's not very German and because I thought Hagrid was the speaking owl I thought "Sir" was a noise "he" made. o.o  Oh my god - I was stupid. :D

Okay, well in the end I read it and I loved it and just wanted to have anything Harry Potter related. I had a Harry Potter and a Ron Weasly doll, Harry Potter sparklers, Harry Potter letter paper with little owls on it, a Harry Potter pullover and last but not least: Harry Potter shampoo and shower gel! I really owned a Barbie-sized figure of Harry Potter, which you could "screw apart" and then you had some shampoo in it. I  still remember the smell of it! 

In 2001 (I think) I went to the movies to watch the first Harry Potter film... and of course I loved it! I probably was in love with Daniel Radcliffe and I still own a real autograph! If I find it, I will definitely post it because it is just too cute! :)

Aaaand here it is - best signing ever! xD

After that I had to deal with my classmates, who didn't like my Harry Potter pullover that much and who thought that Harry Potter was for children only - of course 11-year-olds aren't children no more...

I think Harry Potter and the prizoner of Azkaban was the only film I didn't watch in cinema, although it is my favourite by now!

When I was about 14 I watched Harry Potter and the goblet of fire with my best friend Sarah and I know she will hate me for it but: she loved Robert Pattinson back then! She always said: "Oh look at this Cedric Diggory - he is hot!" xD
Afterwards I read all the books again (had to lend them because I didn't own them anymore whysoever) and fell in true love (again). :) I really was overwhelmed by the whole world Joanne K. Rowling created and I wished it was real so badly - I still do btw. 

When I was about 17 my boyfriend gave me books one to seven for christmas (*.*) and one year later I bought the english versions myself.
I actually got two versions of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows because I bought one in Berlin when I visited my Grandpa and when it was brand new and the other one I got in the set I bought later. Maybe I can do a little giveaway when my Blog is bigger and has some followers?! :)

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My love for Harry Potter just doesn't stop - it actually becomes stronger and bigger. xD Of course I am a member on Pottermore and my Username is ZauberHimmel5, so feel free to add me to your friendlist. ;D 

Currently I am listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks. I finished the first five ones and listen to Harry Potter and the halfblood prince at the moment - and (what can I say) I love it. I'm so into english accents and Stephen Fry just has an amazing voice especially because he speaks in like 10.000 different accents!

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I think I have to stop now - this post is long enough already and I hope you liked it.

Please let me know what you think of Harry Potter in the comments section! :)

See you next time,
Hermione