Good afternoon!
I recently read Cloud Atlas and I wanted to write a little about it seeing as I have some spare time. I'm currently relaxing because I had an exam today (which turned out to be ridiculously easy) and I'm rewarding myself by having a few hours of doing whatever I like. Which is why I'm writing.
"An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution." - IMDB.
Everyone went a little Cloud Atlas crazy when the film came out; I hadn't heard anything about the book before that. I saw the trailer for the film at a cinema whilst watcing Les Miserables and got super excited about wanting to see it because I really like Tom Hanks. I prefer to read books before I watch films, so I decided I wanted to read the book before I watched the film.
Cloud Atlas started appearing in the book charts in supermarkets and book stores, and everyone was requesting it at the library. I was lucky enough to get a copy from my library which saved me a little money. The book was really big which was a little inconvenient because of all my exams, so I was a bit hesitant about it taking me a while to read, missing it at the cinema and not having the time to revise as well as learn my lines for the plays which I'm in over the next few months.
When first reading it, I was a little confused about what was going on. I'd read a few reviews here and there saying how it's a mixture of different stories all linked together, but I was really confused for a while so I didn't enjoy the first section too much. Then onto the second section I started to grasp it a little more, and from then I started to thoroughly enjoy it. I really wanted to talk to someone in person about the book and ask their opinion, but no one who I knew had read it. That sucked quite abit, but I was enjoying the book nonetheless.
I don't really want to write what it's about, as it's hard to explain and I definitely don't want to spoil anything. I especially enjoyed the Orison of Sonmi-451 chapters which were set in the future. I'm not always too keen on futuristic themed books, but I thought this was really interesting. What I really dislike is futuristic books/films with no explanation of how the world/society ended up that way, for example: The Hunger Games Trilogy. Orison of Sonmi-451 didn't have much explanation either, but I think this worked quite well as it was so short and interesting. I was impressed with the casting for this part of the film aswell, they matched quite well with the characters I'd imagined in my head.
I'd rate the book overall about 8/10. I'd give it this score as it's brilliantly written, and keeps the reader thoroughly engaged through many sections of the book. I really enjoyed many parts, apart from the two sections called: The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing & Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After. I didn't enjoy these parts as much as for the first section (The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing) I didn't really have a clue what was going on, and for the middle section (Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After) I couldn't imagine this in my head very well. Many abbreviations were used throughout this section, which I highly dislike.
Apart from those two, the book was BRILLIANT. I can definitely say that it's not one of my favourite books and it's likely that I won't be reading it again, but I'm definitely glad that I tried it out. I'd recommend this book if you're going on holiday and need a good, chunky book to read whilst in the car/aeroplane/ferry/etc.
Unfortunately, I never managed to see the film. On the trailers that I'd been watching, it always said "Coming Soon" which was unhelpful, and I saw no other advertisements that it was coming out in February! I searched for the release date last month, and when I saw that it was at the cinemas two months ago my reaction was WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!
I'll probably rent it sometime when it comes out on DVD from Blockbusters.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening! Thankyou for reading. ^_^
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