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Reading, Wellington, and whatever else – teenblog@wcl.govt.nz

Tag: Divergent

New DVDs in the YA collection

This week I thought I would highlight a few of the newest DVDs we’ve received in the past few months. With your young adult library card you can reserve any of these movies for free, and there is just an 80c fee per DVD issue. Let us know if there are any you’re looking forward to, or have seen and liked!

Divergent

Cover from amazon.comIn a world where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues, Tris Prior is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy by a faction leader to destroy all Divergents, Tris must learn to trust in the mysterious Four and together they must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it’s too late. (Syndetics summary)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro

Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father’s former partner. (Syndetics summary)

Vampire Academy

Cover from amazon.comRose Hathaway is a half-human and half-vampire, who is training to be a guardian at St. Vladimir’s Academy. Her best friend, Princess Lissa Dragomir is a peaceful, mortal vampire. After ditching school and being on the run for a year, Rose and Lissa are caught and brought back to the Academy. Lissa struggles to reclaim her social status while Rose risks everything in an attempt to protect her best friend from the immortal, evil vampires that lurk just outside the walls of the school. (Syndetics summary)

Pretty Little Liars Season 4

In the aftermath of the mysterious lodge fire, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer turn to a surprising new ally to help them discover what happened that night, and to figure out Red Coat’s next move. The girls are drawn into yet another murder investigation, one that puts a cloud of suspicion around them and their closest friends and family. With Red Coat lurking in the shadows and the truth about Alison closer than ever, finishing high school has never been more dangerous! (Syndetics summary)

Star Wars trilogies: Original and prequel

Lastly, we got new box sets of the original trilogy and the later-made prequel Star Wars trilogy. If you haven’t seen these before, or you just want to revisit some classics, check them out here for a marathon viewing!

Dystopias for all!

You probably know all about The Hunger Games and Divergent by now, right? And if you’re anything like me, they hooked you right in and you just can’t get enough of those dystopian wastelands. So future, much wow. There are heaps and heaps of really great dystopian novels which lurk in the shadows of their better-know literary cousins, but I’m here to shine a spotlight on a few of them.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsBumped, Megan McCafferty

“In 2036 New Jersey, when teens are expected to become fanatically religious wives and mothers or high-priced Surrogettes for couples made infertile by a widespread virus, sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony find in one another the courage to believe they have choices.” (from library catalogue)

The first in a trilogy, as dystopias tend to be.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsPastworld, Ian Beck

In 2050, Pastworld is a Victorian London themed park where teenaged Caleb meets 17-year-old Eve, who knows nothing of modern life outside Pastworld. They both become entangled in the diabolical plans of a murderer, revealing disturbing facts about the muddy origins of both Caleb and Eve’s lives.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsLife As We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer

A meteor hits the moon, throwing it ever so slightly out of sync and causing disastrous havoc for everyone on Earth. Tsunamis, earthquakes and eruptions interrupt every day life what with the moon being out of whack. Told through the diary entries of 16-year-old Miranda, Life As We Knew It explores the struggle of Miranda and her family to survive through this catastrophe.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsWither, Lauren DeStefano

Modern science has turned every living human into a genetic timebomb, with men all dying at age twenty-five and women all dying at age twenty. In these cruel and unusual circumstances, young girls are kidnapped and forced to help repopulate the planet. This is the first in the Chemical Garden trilogy.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsCinder, Marissa Meyer

Cinder crosses a classic fairytale with cyborgs… Cyborg-ella! Cinder is a gifted cyborg mechanic living in New Beijing. She is reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s sudden illness. But when her life becomes entangled with Prince Kai’s, she finds herself forced to confront her own past in order to protect Earth’s future.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsShip Breaker, Paolo Bacigulupi

Teenage Nailer works as a “ship breaker” scavenging copper from grounded oil tankers. But when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl aboard, Nailer must decide whether to strip the ship of its worth, or save the girl inside. This one is gritty and harsh and completely action-packed. It also has a follow-up companion novel called The Drowned Cities which takes place in the same universe.

There are so many out there, what are your favourite dystopias?

More Divergent countdown trivia

In anticipation of the Divergent movie coming out, there’s also the Divergent soundtrack to look forward to. It’s available a couple of weeks before the movie, and the tracklisting is:

1 ‘Find you’, Zedd, ft. Matthew Koma and Miriam Bryant
2 ‘Beating Heart’, Ellie Goulding
3 ‘Fight for You’, Pia Mia, ft. Chance the Rapper
4 ‘Hanging On’ (I See MONSTAS remix), Ellie Goulding
5 ‘I Won’t Let You Go’, Snow Patrol
6 ‘Run Boy Run’, Woodkid
7 ‘Backwards’, Tame Impala and Kendrick Lamar
8 ‘I need you’, M83
9 ‘In Distress’, A$AP Rocky, ft. Gesaffelstein
10 ‘Lost and Found’ (ODESZA remix), Pretty Lights
11 ‘Stranger’, Skrillex, ft. KillaGraham From Milo & Otis & Sam Dew
12 ‘Dream machines’, Big Deal
13 ‘Dead in the water’, Ellie Goulding

The big winner is Ellie Goulding!

We will be getting this! We have other movie soundtracks in the Young Adult collection also: The Great Gatsby, Catching Fire, City of Bones, Avengers, Glee (lots of Glee, lots and lots of Glee) and much more.

Trailer Tuesday: Shailene Woodley edition

I LOVE Shailene Woodley. I think she’s a fantastic actress and has a great career ahead of her! She was great in The Descendants alongside legendary George Clooney, and she did a fantastic job in The Spectacular Now which screened at the Wellington leg of the NZ International Film Festival in August last year. We have the book of The Spectacular Now if you’re interested, and here is the trailer for the film:

No word on the DVD release date, but late February to March is rumoured. Stay tuned!

Shailene is a popular leading lady, playing Tris and Hazel in the upcoming Divergent and The Fault In Our Stars movies. Phew! Here are the latest trailers for each of those – first, Divergent (which we are super excited about!)

And The Fault In Our Stars – this one will definitely be a tear jerker. You may have seen we already posted this to our Facebook page, but if you didn’t know that – we have a Facebook page! Check it out for library updates and other cool book- and movie-related links.

What are you looking forward to most?