Gerald’s Game: Netflix Movie Vs. Book

***SPOILERS***

The Dog:

In both the movie and the book or story starts out with a married couple (Gerald and Jessie) going to their lake house in the off-season. This is where the game begins.
In the film we are introduced to the dog as the couple is driving to the lake house and again when Jessie feeds him the “Kobe rib eye, from Kobe”. In the book the dog is first heard rather than seen off in the distance when Jesse is already cuffed to the bed.

The Handcuffs and Voices:
This brings us to our next subject, in the Netflix rendition we are meant to believe that this is the first time the handcuffs have been brought into the marriage bed but that Jessie has known Gerald has needed to use Viagra to get it up for sometime now. In the book however there is never any mention of Viagra or the little blue pills, but we are led to understand that Jessie is used to being subjected to her specially bought handcuffs. The plot for both mediums are strikingly similar in most aspects except for one in Netflix’s version Jessie has a sort of mental break after the dog comes in and starts to bite off and eat pieces of her now deceased husband (and who could blame her). When this happens she imagines Gerald getting up off the floor and starting to talk to her, and ridiculing her (also making a Cujo reference). Then she materializes another version of herself to both defend her and be the voice of reason. If the movie had followed closer to the book it might not have played out so smoothly and it certainly would’ve been longer. In King’s book the voices didn’t appear after the mental break on the bed because they were already with Jessie. They had been with her since the day the sun went out, the day of the eclipse on Dark Score Lake. Each was a woman’s voice, each with its own name and personality some even being Jessie at different stages of her life. Each voice is named after a person in Jessie‘s life or given her own childhood nickname. These are some of the voices:

• Ruth Neary: This voice is named after Jessie‘s college roommate, the voice is blunt and tells it how it is no matter how cringe worthy the topic. Ruth was always a person in Jessie‘s life who pushed her to open up but when Jessie wasn’t ready to open up about Dark square Lake she moved out never telling Ruth anything not even why she left.

• Nora Callahan: Named after Jessie‘s therapist who she stopped seeing another person who pushed to find out what happened at dark score lake.

• Goody Burlingame: The voice of the dutiful wife, she often shames Jessie when she is not lady like and blames the situation that Jessie ends up in on the fact that she wouldn’t just lay down and take it like a good woman. In small moments she becomes a voice of reason but she is often being told to shut up.

• Punkin: This is a younger version of Jessie. The Jessie that was, on the day of the eclipse on Dark Score Lake. The voice is given the nickname that Jessie‘s father had given her. She tells Jessie to look back on the day that the sun went out to find what she needs to escape from her handcuffs now. This is also a voice that we get to see materialized in the movie when Jesse talks to her in her head out on the swing by the lake and whom Jesse writes the letter to the end of the movie.

• The Young Girl: This voice is never really given a name it could be Punkin but we’re not told for sure it’s a voice that screams out for Jessie’s needs such as water and if I remember correctly it is only heard once or twice.

• UFO’s: There are several different voices that Jesse her self identifies as UFO voices they pop up every now and then and when they do they sometimes complement Jessie on how well she’s doing and handling her situation and other times they present a cold truth about what could happen to Jesse, of what her future could be. Like the imagined Gerald and Jesse in the movie the voices in Jessie‘s head guide her through her days coverage to the bed both convincing her to fight and belittling her.

The Dreams:

There are two different kinds of dreams that occur. The first are simply suppressed memories coming back to Jessie, memories from Dark Score Lake (these are the only ones shown in the movie), memories of when Jessie went with Ruth Neary to a support group in college where girls were sharing their sexual assault experiences and Jessie ran away and had a meltdown because she began to remember her own. The other dreams where feverish nightmares that mixed Jessie’s past and present all into one.

The Dolores Claiborne tie-in:

Anyone familiar with Kings books knows that they all connect somewhere, even when he's writing under his pen name. The books Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne share a celestial event, an eclipse. I have not yet read Dolores Claiborne though I plan to VERY soon I know that both books revolve around the events that both women lived through on the day of the eclipse in Maine on Saturday July 20th, 1963. The picture to the right is a photo of the map that can be found at the front of both books. It is a map of Maine where King's books take place and shows us the path of totality of the eclipse on that fateful day.

There is one very distinct scene in both the movie and the book that connects these two stories, but once we hear about them they are dropped and the scenes are never really mentioned again. Perhaps there is more on this encounter in the Dolores Claiborne book since it was published directly after Gerald's Game but I won't know until I read it. If it ends up being a big thing for me when I do, it will possibly Get its own post. Mostly because I don't really have anyone to go into depth on King books with, but back to the topic at hand. In the movie Jessie tells us "I had a dream, that night at the lake house. There was a woman standing over a deep well, looking down into the blackness. And I'm in the well looking up at her. The sky was so dark behind her, the eclipse burning overhead...she was standing there in her red dress, looking right at me." this is very similar to what happens in the book however it is not a dream! This encounter between childhood Jessie and Dolores Claiborne happens directly after the incident with Jessie's father on the swing when he sends her inside so that she can clean herself up. Its more of a vision, as Jessie walks into the hallway of the lake house she looks up to see pretty much what is described to us in the movie. We are never told how or why this has happened, and I NEED to know more.
Like with the voices, I understand why this scene had to be changed for the movie. It would have been extremely out of place to just be like, 'oh ya she randomly sees a portal on her ceiling that shows her a woman looking down a well somewhere else in Maine who has also lived through some crazy shit during the eclipse. BUT we aren't going to explain how or why because we probably won't make the movie for that book...'. Some things are better revised because they wont transfer well or will take additional explaining that will ultimately take you out of the movie and that's understandable. When reading the books your more open to this because well its a Stephen King book, and it ain't King without some weird ass crazy/scary shit going on, which is also why we never really question the voices or the moonlight man. Face it its the truth its why we keep picking up the books he pops out every year. We like that crazy/scary shit, and there is no shame in that.

 The Moonlight man:

Jessie called him by several names in the book some of which being the Space Cowboy, Dr. Doom, Monster of Love, and Death but the most screwed up of all of them is probably who she believes him to be when she first sees him, her own father. She thinks that he’s come back from the dead as a living corpse to take what he wanted on that day at Dark Score Lake and she is ready if it means everything is over. As time goes on she realizes that it couldn’t possibly be her father which leads her to the other names mentioned above. Jessie sees the moonlight man twice the first time after thinking he’s her father then realizing he isn’t she passes out from fear after he shows her his box filled with jewelry and bones. The second is when Jessie escapes her cuffs and is fleeing from the house and Throwing him her ring as she leaves as a sort of payment for her life and then later hallucinates him in the backseat of her vehicle because of loss of blood. This is similar in both the book and movie scenes and so is what she finds out much later that he was not death nor anything made from her own imagination but a living man named Raymond Andrew Joubert. We found out all of this when Jessie writes her letter.

The letter:
As mentioned before in the Netflix movie Jessie writes the letter to herself, her younger self, explaining what she’s doing now so that what happen to them can be used to help others. However in the book the letter is being written to Ruth Neary, Jessie‘s college friend. After so many long years Jessie is finally reaching out to tell Ruth why she ran away, what happened to her at dark score lake, what happened to her at the lake house with the handcuffs, her voices who had helped her escape, about the moonlight man and how Jesse had gone to face him to prove to herself that he was just a man and that she didn’t have to go on being afraid of the night.

Quotes from the book:

“It had all been a little too bright to be real,like things seen through a fever which is not quite high enough to be life threatening”

“He had been able to face her with his lies; it was the truth which had made him finally look away.”

Fun Side Notes:

It was brought to my attention recently that in Netflix’s movie Jessie does in fact have an IPhone and the movie could have ended much sooner if Jessie had said one little sentence “Hey Siri, call 911”.

Questions:

Was there any differences between the movie that you liked or didn’t like?

Do you wish they had done the extra work to get into Jessie’s voices or do you think it was a good idea to change it up for the movie?

How do you feel about the References to some of kings other works, and do you know how many are in both the book and movie?

You can follow me on Instagram @ybarra_bookstacks

ALL THINGS SERVE THE BEAM

If She Dies, She Takes The Truth With Her

I wasn't planning on posting anything until next week, however since I already stated I was planning to put up the Gerald's Game post then I figured an extra time this week wouldn't hurt and I really want this post to be up before the release date of the book. So here it is...

Title: Sadie

Author: Courtney Summers

Genre: YA, Thriller, Suspense

I had stopped reading YA awhile back. I just couldn’t get into what I was picking up anymore but that all changed this past month. Courtney Summers had me hooked by the second page with the line "And it begins, as so many Stories do, with a dead girl.". To be honest with you if I hadn’t had responsibilities at the time I started reading, I probably would have finished it in a day or two. Sadie starts off  as the story of a girl that everyone suspects to be a runaway, but quickly unfolds into a girls journey to find the man who murdered her sister at any and all costs.

The story is told from two points of view and on two time lines:

The first is told by West McCray. McCray's story is told through the script of his podcast titled "The Girls". McCray has been tasked with essentially following the story of our girl Sadie who has run away after the murder of her younger sister, whom she raised. Through the podcast we get to hear the side of the people and the life Sadie was supposedly running away from and the interviews of people who interacted with her on her journey after she left home. 

The second is told by Sadie herself. Sadie who unknown to anyone back home is on a hunt, a mission for revenge and she wants much more then for the man that murdered her sister to be put behind bars. The cops didn't know who did it but Sadie does and so as she begins her journey she tells us herself, "I'm going to kill a man. I'm going to take the light from his eyes. I want to watch it go out. You aren't supposed to answer violence with more violence but sometimes I think violence is the only answer.".

Courtney Summers really knows how to give substance to a character. Sadie is built up for us by herself, by her own thoughts, feelings and inner monologue. We come to understand her thought process for the here and now. Through West McCray we learn more about her back story, and come to understand a bit of why we see the things in her we do. This process helps Sadie's side of the story to move along without having to stop in the middle of her constant moving to recant a past she has no need to concern herself with, and also keeps the reader on track.

Sadie can be found in bookstores on 9.4.18

You can follow me on Instagram @ybarra_bookstacks

Stephen King TV and Cinema (2016 and on)

These past couple years have been very good to Stephen King fans. And no it's not because new books came out, because if you didn't know King has published about 2+ books a year, every year since his first book Carrie was published in 1974. So if you were thinking you wanted to start a collection your already about 71 books behind, and once October hits the next two books will have been released so that makes 73. That will also make five books released this year alone. It has been good for King fans because of all the movies and TV shows that have been coming out and will continue to come out, for the next couple years *fingers crossed*. Some people might be looking at their screens with confused faces right now and that's ok. Most people who don't follow along with the book continuity may not even realize what is King and what isn't when its on TV or the big screen or that it has even been released. 

Surprisingly Hulu and Netflix have played a big part in this. Hulu was ahead of the game releasing their first Stephen King show '11.22.63' (named after its book) in 2016. In 2018 Hulu has Taken it one step further with its new Stephen King show 'Castle Rock' (named after one of Kings made up Maine towns where many of his stories take place or near) which is currently on its 6th episode with new episodes being added once a week (no Hulu does not sponsor me, I just like to share!). Let me just say there is a SHIT TON of easter eggs in this show, I screamed when I saw the opening the first time because it shows pages and manuscripts from many of the books that are set in the small town. To be honest I'm probably going to have more posts to talk purely about Castle Rock so be ready because I need to move on for the moment. While Hulu has been making shows Netflix has been making movies releasing both 'Gerald's Game' and '1922'. Also released on TV in 2017 were both shows 'The Mist' (based off of a King short story originally published in 'Skeleton Crew' in 1980, was re-released as its own book in paperback July 2018), and 'Mr. Mercedes' (named after its book). The Mist comes on Spike, but can also be binged on Netflix!

The last two 2017 releases are the ones that you had to buy a movie ticket to go see. These are of course 'The Dark Tower' (Which is an 8 book series if you were wondering), and the new 'IT' movie (also named after its book). I didn't get to see The Dark Tower because I have not started its series but I have a basic understanding of the tower itself from what I have picked up from other readers and have gotten the understanding that it serves as an entryway into the settings of all of Kings works, the beam, and its animal guardians. I wont go into IT now because I have yet to read the book, but of course have seen the original TV mini series we all call the original movie. 

Now to the future! Here are some of Kings works said to be getting movies, TV series, or Remakes soon:

•  Pet Semetary and Fire Starter are both looking at getting their own remakes soon. I haven't seen the originals! I need to hunt them down.
• Sleeping Beauties TV series. This book was Released in October of 2017. All of the women in the world fall into a deep sleep even growing a cocoon like a butterfly but if they are awoken from their sleep they become rabid. Sounds normal to me besides the cocoon. Ha Ha... this IS on my bookshelf but I have yet to start it
• Hearts in Atlantis movie
• Doctor Sleep movie. sequel to the Shining
• IT 2 that ones a given. When are we getting a trailer though...I keep running into that damn fan made trailer!

I'm not 100% on if these are all real or hearsay so if I end up being wrong I apologize now!

What I can guarantee are the book releases:

• Flight or Fright (release date Sep.4,2018)
• Elevation (release date Oct.30,2018)

Next week I will be comparing Netflix's 'Gerald's Game' movie to the book! 

I have also have a checklist for myself mostly, of all of Kings books listed by and with original release date which I update as new titles are announced or released. Let me know if you would like me to post it...

You can follow me on Instagram @ybarra_bookstacks

Harry Potter and Norbert's great escape

Harry Potter and What You Missed if You Didn't Read the First Book

**SPOILERS**

The Harry Potter books may be coming into their 20 year marks but not everyone who grew up with the
series (Movie and book alike) have read the books or completed the series. I know that may make more
than one person *gasp* and faint on the inside but we all know its the truth and I will be the first to say
that in my youth I never made it past the third book, nor had I ever owned one of the books, and perhaps
that was what was holding me back. In the summer of 2017 however I took a trip abroad to London and
Edinburgh and decided to pick up the new editions that came out in the UK for the 20th anniversary of
the Philosopher's Stone. I’ve decided that as I finish the books I will compare the parts that aren't in the
movies or have been changed, there will be one post per book. We probably won’t go into the Fantastic
Beasts and Where to Find them or the Cursed Child books unless requested or decided upon later down
the line (So let me know if that interests anyone). I guess now would be the best time to Jump right in…

The Day Harry became known as “The Boy Who Lived”

The book begins earlier then the movie. We are first introduced to the Dursley's and get to follow
Vernon throughout his day as he goes to work and notices many suspicious things and weirdly dressed
people who all seem to be celebrating and in such a good mood. What Vernon was witnessing though he
didn't know it, was the wizarding world in celebration that the dark lord had been defeated and wizards,
witches, and owls were all out and about in the muggle world without a care and the muggles began to
notice.

Aunt Petunia's Hair

This ones not as big I suppose. Many characters traits from books don’t always get translated into
the movies. Aunt Petunia as well as Dudley are both blond in the books but have dark hair in the movies.

Meeting Draco

In the movie as we all know we meet Draco just outside the great hall when he introduces himself as
well as his minions to Harry. In the books this conversation actually takes place on the Hogwarts Express
during Harry and Draco’s second meeting. Yes, I said second! Harry first meets Draco on Diagon Alley
in Madam Malkin's Robe Shop where most of the talking is done by Draco and Harry never actually tells
him his name.

Kings Cross

Hagrid doesn’t drop Harry off at Kings Cross after taking him to get all of his school supplies. He returns
him to Privet Drive and the Dursley’s. The Dursley’s drop Harry off at Kings Cross laughing about the
fact that there is no such thing as Platform 9¾ (But we all know better…).

The Ghosts

In the movie we are only ever formally introduced to nearly headless Nick, though we see that there are
other ghosts wandering the halls of hogwarts. We miss out completely on the relationship between the
Bloody Baron, and Peeves the Poltergeist

The Sorting Hat

The Sorting Hat performs a song for the first years before McGonagall starts calling them up to be sorted
and it goes like this:

‘Oh, you may not think I’m pretty,

But don’t judge on what you see,

I’ll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat then me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I’m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There’s nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can’t see,

So try me on and I will tell you

where you ought to be.

You might belong to Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave of heart,

Their daring, nerve and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart,

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil,

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you’ve a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind,

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You’ll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don’t be afraid!

And don’t get in a flap!

You’re in safe hands (though I have none)

For I’m a thinking cap!’

The Mirror of Erised:

When harry looks into the mirror it is more than just his parents he sees standing behind him like we are
lead to believe in the movie. Harry sees many people who are described to have similar traits to his own
and whom are assumed to be his family and ancestors on his father's side.

Sending Norbert to Romania:

Dumbledore sends Norbert to Romania in the movie and that's the end of it. In the book Hermione and
Harry struggle carrying Norbert in a crate while hiding under the invisibility cloak. They make their way
all the way up to the astronomy tower to meet up with some of Charlie’s friends, who put Norbert in a
harness to be carried between their broomsticks to take him to Charlie in Romania. Also charlie is Ron’s
older brother whom they wrote to about the situation and pick up if that needed to be clarified!

Detention:

Our trio do not gain detention with Draco because they were caught out of bed at Hagrid’s hut by Draco.
Instead Hermione, and Harry are caught leaving the astronomy tower (where they took Norbert to be
picked up) because they forgot Harry’s invisibility cloak in the tower. Draco was Caught trying to catch
them with the dragon, and Neville was also caught out of bed trying to warn Harry about Draco.

The Centaurs:

We find out while the group is in detention that the Dark Forest is home to many magical creatures. The
centaurs that the group happen upon can be described as appearing to be CP characters, like from a video
game. When they would be asked a question they would simply repeat a line they had said before while
looking up to the sky.

The Nimbus 2000:

We all remember the excitement that ensued when Harry’s broom arrived in the great hall. In the book it
was a little different. Harry was told to keep his broom, and his spot on the quidditch team secret. One
reason was that first years are not allowed to keep their own brooms on campus, the second is that
McGonagall wanted it to be a surprise, that Harry was her “secret weapon”.

The Tasks:

There were seven tasks, seven obstacles set in place to guard the stone by 7 trusted people:

Fluffy -- Hagrid
Devil’s Snare -- Sprout
The Charmed Keys -- Flitwick
Giant Wizards Chess Board -- McGonagall
A Mountain Troll -- Quirrell
A Potions Riddle -- Snape
The Mirror of Erised -- Dumbledore

Both Quirrell and Snape's obstacles were not included in the movie.

Fun Facts:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone (as it was originally published in the UK and in every other part of the world except for the US it seems) has its title changed for sales in the US. I have never found out the reason as to why. Most Americans don’t even know it has been changed in US editions of the books or movies for that matter which also have changed wording based on where in the world you buy your copies. I Prefer the original UK version because it gives it all so much more substance and history. The Philosopher’s stone has real lore in human history, and countless stories of people who wish to obtain or create it. To me it makes the plot that much thicker!

Welcome

I'm hoping to post at least once a week. Most likely starting off with books, perhaps bringing in discussions about movies and maybe some other bookish things. I'm sure as this continues together we will find a rhythm. Don't be afraid to tell me what you think or to ask about topics you would like me to possibly go over!