The Disney Book Tag

Bonjour, mes amis! Today I shall be amalgamating two of my favourite things in an almighty behemoth of excellence in what is known as the Disney Book Tag! Technically, no one tagged me, but I'm just going with it because this is just too appealing to not do immediately. Without much further ado, let us open the story book and delve into it:

The Little Mermaid - a character who is out of their element, a "fish out of water".

This one is easy: Professor Andrew Martin after being bio-fused with the alien in The Humans by Matt Haig. He is an extraterrestrial experiencing life on Earth for the first time, having no idea of our cultures or how things work. All he has to go on is the scaremongering presented to him on his own world. Due to this ineptitude in the human world, the novel begins with him wandering around stark naked, which ends up in his arrest! This character is very apt for this category, I thought!


Cinderella - a character who goes through a major transformation.

I have chosen Dr Jekyll from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. If you don't know the next bit already, then *SPOILER ALERT*: The respected Dr. Jekyll is discovered to be Mr Hyde, the scoundrel who brutally murders a man in the street. Dr Jekyll becomes this alter ego after consuming a potion of some kind, which causes a terrifying metamorphosis, forming the monster that is Mr Hyde.


Snow White - a book with an eclectic cast of characters.


I had to think about this quite hard, but I settled on Dead Famous by Ben Elton. This has an eclectic cast of characters, because that's kind of the point! It's about a Big Brother-like show, which always brings people of different backgrounds together, making an entire cast of eclectic characters!


Sleeping Beauty - a book that put you to sleep.

Ugh, god... The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I never even got half way through this, it was dull as anything. Even though what was going on could have been exciting, I did not enjoy it because of the way it was written! So, yeah, thanks Salman Rushdie for giving me a good night's sleep, I guess. Not sure if the novel was worth the controversy it caused... (I may power on with it at some point though).

The Lion King - a character who had something traumatic happen to them in childhood.

This has to be Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky! *SPOILER ALERT* He was molested by his aunt when he was a child, and then his aunt died on her way to buy him a gift for his birthday and he basically spent his whole life blaming himself, and he has a mental breakdown... so yeah, pretty traumatic!

Beauty and the Beast - a beast of a book that you were intimidated by but found the story to be beautiful.

This has to be The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Have you seen the size of it? I found the idea of reading such an epic, especially since it was likely going to be Victorian style, and thus rather hard to read, daunting to say the least. I was pleasantly surprised! It was quite easy to read, and the story was fantastic! The picture of Belle and the Beast express my feelings exactly! (I now own The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky which is giving me similar vibes! Over 1000 pages!)

Aladdin - a character who gets their wish granted, for better or for worse.

This has to go to Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Dorian wishes that he would stay as youthful as the immaculate portrait that is done of him, and finds his wish granted. Unfortunately, it was definitely for the worse. The scars of his debauchery taint the portrait instead of Dorian himself, and it leads him down a path to evil and vice.


Mulan - a character who pretends to be someone or something they are not.

I really struggled with this one! I chose the obvious choice, Barty Crouch Jr. from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. With the aid of polyjuice potion, he poses as Mad Eye Moody to manipulate the Triwizard Tournament and drive Harry to Voldemort in the graveyard; and evidently, he succeeded!


Toy Story - a book with characters you wish would come to life.
Harry Potter, of course! I want to learn magic so I can jinx people I dislike! And, I guess, it would come in handy in my day-to-day life, too.

Disney Descendants - your favourite villain or morally ambiguous character.

I love me some Erik (Phantom) from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux! Although, yes, he murders and kidnaps people, he does it from a kind place... that sounds weird to say. He was ostracised all his life for his disfigurement and all he wanted was love from Christine, and it seemed like he was close to it, until Raoul came along and ruined it for him! Hades expresses my emotions quite aptly.

Alas, the tag is finished! I hope you enjoyed it! Comment, like and follow if you did! Comment below if you have read any of the books I mentioned and tell me what you thought of them!
I tag Kristi and Crystal to do this next, and if anyone else wishes to do it, consider yourself officially tagged as well! Until next time, adjö!

Unpopular Opinions Book Tag

I was just tagged to do this by Crystal Santos (thanks!); you can check out her blog at http://infiniteink671.blogspot.co.uk/
Let the tag begin, thus:

A Popular Book/Series I Didn't Like
This was difficult, I generally tend to enjoy most of the books and series I read, or I simply don't bother! This was tied between two books: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. I actually feel a sense of shame for the latter; it is supposedly literature and poetry at its best and clear influences of this epic poem have been shown in a multitude of my favourite classics. In fact, it was for that reason that I picked the book up in the first place. However, I did not end up finishing it. It was just so dull and Dante himself in the journey through hell showed signs of his arrogance, which made me hate him as a character anyway. The novel was essentially a convoluted pious condemnation of every sinful person in the world; it is a strongly religious text, and is infuriating to say the least.While I didn't finish it, it apparently got an average score of above 4 stars on Goodreads, so evidently I'm going against the grain with my opinion here. A Clockwork Orange I did finish, and I did not like it. I gave it 2 stars compared to its Goodreads average rating of close to 4 stars. The disgusting and despicable acts described aside, I just found the integration of 'nadsat' into the narrative with no clear guidance as to how to decipher made it simply very difficult to read. I had to source an online dictionary just to finish it. The story as a whole lacks significant depth in my opinion anyway, so overall I just did not enjoy reading it.
So it seems I don't take much liking to sanctimonious testaments to a reader's guilt and a thug's recount of his many despicable escapades; I apologise.

A book/series I love but everyone seems to hate

I'm not sure if the wide consensus for this series is actually hatred, but whenever I have stated my liking for the series in my everyday life, I was met with comments that seem to suggest that people do not like it. It is the Demonata series by Darren Shan. I was obsessed with this series when I first discovered it; I found the integration of so many storylines and timelines into one was magnificent and exciting. Darren Shan is a master of the YA horror.

I realise this image is not in the correct order of the series, but it was the best quality image I could find.

A love triangle where the main character ended up with the wrong person or an OTP I didn't like. 

The ending to this book made me very sad, and it is The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux; the love triangle is between Erik, the Phantom; Christine and Raoul, the Vicomte of Chagny. This will contain major spoilers from here on in, so if you want to read this book, skip it from here. Erik's undying love for Christine is tragic to say the least. You can even say he is enamoured to the point of delusion. Christine picks Raoul over Erik, which Erik allows despite the intensity of his love for her because he realises she will never be happy with him. And thus Erik, after being victimised and ostracised all his life, is denied his last chance at happiness, in the form of requited love, before he dies, alone. It was just so sad. I was certainly hoping that Erik and Christine would end up together. Granted, Erik kidnaps her, and attempts at murder and other terrible things just to keep her, but no one truly believes he is a bad person; it is simply an expression of his desperation for affection, and I just find that tragic and depressing. Poor Phantom! 

I would just like to say that this is the cover I have on my version, and I think it is so pretty! I am obsessed with it!

Popular Genre I hardly reach for

I would say Crime for this, but I have at least read a few crime books. I don't think I have ever read a modern romance novel, and I honestly have no inclination to either. I just feel like modern romance concentrates on the development of the love without much storyline, and plot is very important to me.

A Popular Character I Don't Like

I have two for this category: Patrick Bateman from American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and Christian Grey from the Fifty Shades series by E L James. Apparently, the blood-thirsty misogynistic maniac is popular among the masses. If you are confused, I am talking about Patrick Bateman, but of course Christian probably fits that description as well. I do not see how anyone can identify or go as far as to like this man. You can like the book: in fact, I even like the book; but to like the eponymous character, the main character and yet the antagonist of the novel, is just absurd. Now, where to begin with Christian Grey. He is just an abuser. Plain and simple. And yet some people like him because he represents the excitement they never got in their sex lives (I apologise for this comment). He is a misogynist, a nympho and a terrible figurehead for the popularity of the BDSM community in recent times.

A Popular Author I can't seem to get into

Salman Rushdie. I tried to read Satanic Verses and gave up. His style of writing is just so pretentious and mind-numbingly dull. I doubt I will ever opt for another novel written by him. 

A Popular Trope I am tired of seeing

I am getting really tired of main characters who are so flawless and can never not succeed. I want some failures, some trouble in the road where I don't immediately think 'they will get out of this, definitely'. I need the exhilaration of their success being potentially jeopardised!

A Popular Series I have no interest in reading

Although this series blew up thanks to the release of the movies, I have no interest in this whatsoever. I've heard that it isn't even very good. It is the Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth. I am usually all for dystopia but this just doesn't appeal to my tastes from first glance, despite the evident success of the series.

The Book is not always as good as the movie

This book has been featuring so much on my blog recently. I promise you I'm not sponsored by Bret Easton Ellis (although I am open to that offer). It is, once again, American Psycho. While I still enjoyed the book, there were parts where it was just very long chapters with dense description and facts about a musical artist, that clearly showed contrast from the shocking scenes and Patrick's insanity, but they were similarly very boring. However, with the movie, any of these chapters that were actually included were integrated brilliantly into the script. Also, Christian Bale is a flawless Patrick Bateman. He portrays psychopathy expertly, I applaud his performance. 

That's my Unpopular Opinions Tag complete!

I tag Kristi from http://kristisbookshelf.blogspot.co.uk

and anyone else who wishes to do it!

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment and share your views with me, I would love to hear them!

Until next time, au revoir! :)