Tag Archives: divergent

Review: Four: The Traitor (Divergent #0.4) by Veronica Roth

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Title: Four: The Traitor
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher/Year: HarperCollins 7/8/14
Length: 49 Pages
Series: Divergent #0.4

Overview

Fans of the Divergent series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be excited by “Four: The Traitor,” the fourth of four stories, each between fifty and seventy-five pages long, set in the world of Divergent and told from Tobias’s point of view.

“The Traitor” takes place two years after “The Son” and runs parallel with the early events in Divergent. In this robust story, readers follow Tobias as he uncovers the details of an Erudite plan that could threaten the faction system, and makes plans of his own to keep Abnegation safe. At the same time, Tobias is getting to know a new transfer initiate: Tris Prior.

My Thoughts

We finally sync up with Divergent, and it’s nice to see what’s going on from Four’s POV. In this last novella, we’re seeing the beginnings of the relationship between the 2 of them, and it’s nice to see that the tension that i perceived from the bigger book is real from Four’s side.

The interesting thing here is that we don’t see the day to day of Four as the initiate trainer, we see the day to day of Four the Dauntless, who’s trying to figure out what’s going on and what that means for the future. Again, like i said in the last one, i don’t think that i realized the extent of Four and his mom’s interactions just based on the series alone, so this gives things a new meaning, and maybe the next time i re-read the series, i’ll look at it in a different light.

What these novellas do for me though is makes me wonder if we’ll get more since we’re just getting into the first book here -and not even the meat of the first book. i feel like there’s def more to come that we could get into, and i would love it if Ms. Roth gave us what we want.

Review: Four: The Son (Divergent #0.3) by Veronica Roth

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Title: Four:  The Son
Author:  Veronica Roth
Publisher/Year:  HarperCollins 7/8/14
Length:  39 Pages
Series: Divergent #0.3

Overview

Fans of the Divergent series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be thrilled by “Four: The Son,” the third of four stories, each between fifty and seventy-five pages long, set in the world of Divergent and told from Tobias’s perspective.

In “The Son,” Tobias struggles to find a place in the hierarchy of the Dauntless. He also begins to suspect that a foul plan may be brewing within the Dauntless leadership and discovers a truth about his past that could greatly affect his future.

My Thoughts

The journey continues – we’re not just post initiation, getting into Four’s head a bit as he has to make a decision on what he wants to be in Dauntless.  What makes things more complicated of course though is that he’s realized that someone’s been in his room, when he finds a broken glass that he didn’t break.  then the next day there’s a note in his room that’s cryptic, yet he thinks that it’s from his father, asking for a meeting.  The nice thing is that this wasn’t part of the main series at all, and the result of this conversation only now makes us realize why Four’s reaction in Insurgent was what it was.

The other nice thing about this story is that we get to know Zeke and Shauna a bit more – and see how that friendship/relationship is just way more complicated.  I can’t wait to see what comes next in the 4th and final novella in Four’s story.  Enjoy!

Review: Four: The Initiate (Divergent #0.2) by Veronica Roth

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Title: Four:  The Initiate
Author:  Veronica Roth
Publisher/Year:  HarperCollins 7/8/14
Length:  39 Pages
Series: Divergent #0.2

Overview

Fans of the Divergent series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be delighted by “Four: The Initiate,” the second of four stories, each between fifty and seventy-five pages long, set in the world of Divergent and told from Tobias’s point of view.

“The Initiate” provides readers with a glimpse into Tobias’s Dauntless initiation experience, including an epic game of late-night Dare; his first tattoo; the beginning of his passion for training new initiates; and his nascent understanding of the danger of being Divergent.

My Thoughts

It’s been a while since i read the first book from Four’s POV and this was a nice one.  I think that it’s nothing of a surprise, but i think that part of what we love about this series is that we get a lot of the backstory where it’s necessary and this is exactly that.

We’re at the end of Four’s initiation period, and we see what he struggles with but internally and with trying to make it through to be Dauntless – and it’s a tough journey.  One of the nice things here is to see how he begins to relate to others differently because he’s choosing to open himself up to what the Dauntless do, and i don’t know if i’m alone here, but i would have loved to see something between him and Shauna, even for a minute.

The other great thing is that we see that the dynamic between him and Eric isn’t just because Four was #1, there’s more to it that Four began to see early on and it lays the groundwork for the first installment of the series. Enjoy!

Divergent: Book v. Movie

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I’ve read the book now 4 times and I have seen the movie twice, so i think that it’s fair for me to do a little comparison and see what you guys think too.  I have to start off by saying that in the realm of books being made into movies, this is one of the better ones – especially in the genre.  I really enjoyed it – so the misses and flaws that i saw, fortunately they weren’t game changing.

Here we go…

1) How come we don’t get to know more about the Dauntless initiates?  specifically Uriah?  we only see him in 1 scene, the zip lining scene, which was actually taken out of context in the movie?  I feel like Uriah and his brother Zeke play such a role in the future books that it wasn’t set up well in the movie

2) Edward wasn’t as featured in the movie – and we totally forgo the eye stabbing scene.  why is that?  remember that in the coming books, the boy with the eyepatch is a recognizable person among the factionless

3)  Will’s sister Cara isn’t in the movie at all, and that’s odd to me given that we spend some time with her in the next installments too.  I just wonder how they are going to introduce her in the next films, although i’m sure there’s a way

4) When Tris and Four kill the simulation, they never take any hard drive from the computer – they just wipe the program.  I think that’s going to be interesting how things play out since we know that the hard drive itself is something that people want in the coming book.

in the movie there were also a few liberties being taken, meaning that Four doesn’t point out that he noticed the Erudite bringing in supplies to Dauntless – no one realizes it until it’s almost too late – and it’s Tris in the book that connects the dots.

I also didn’t think that Erudite would be so futuristic in the movie.  given what we know of the city from the book, how Chicago was destroyed, i figured anything that was renovated would be nicer, but not futuristic.  Any everyone had tablets – while in the book it was all about pages of paper being printed (remember when Tris tried to get her closure by throwing the articles into the Chasm).

Anyhow, like i said, i thought that the movie was really well done and all those things above that i feel weren’t consistent, they weren’t game changing.  I’d love to hear your thoughts

Re-Review: Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth

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Title:  Insurgent
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher/Year:  Harper Collins  5/1/12
Length:  544 pages
Series: Divergent #2

Overview

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

My Thoughts

Just a few more days until Allegiant comes out and i felt that it was time for me to finish #2 in the series to get fully up to speed.  I think that it’s key to re-read stories like this so i’m not wondering why certain people are alive and others not, and why some are on one side vs. the other.

This 2nd installment takes us past the chaos of the ending in Divergent into a completely different set of obstacles.  The questions that remain to be answered are vase and wide spread and that makes for a really exciting bridge book.  Tris and Tobias are in an endless battle to survive and fight for what’s right, all the same while trying to get to Jeanine and figure out what’s going on.  Marcus continues to play a strong role in this book, yet i don’t think that we ever really find out what his deal is…well not until the end.

The action continues to be packed into every scene, you never know who will be next to be injured, or which faction will be the one to help out the Dauntless (not the Dauntless Traitors).  We continue to see that Euridite has their own motivations for just about everything that they do – and while the underlying need to seek information and learn is the core of the faction, we find that it’s more of an evil motivation based on their leader’s choices.

All hope isn’t lost for them since we do find that there are some that are willing to help and they do at that.  Among the Dauntless though, there’s a lot of flip flopping.  We never really know who is on Tris/Tobias’ side, even when they prove it one way or another.  Peter for example, he’s an enigma.  Working with them in one scene and against them in another.  The same with Tori.

And what makes me really angry the 2nd time that i read this was Caleb.  I remember his actions the first time around, but i guess i blocked them from my mind because when i read this installment again, i realized that he really has his own personal motivation.

What i loved…the ending.  I mean really – it’s not that i didn’t see it coming, but i really like where it’s going.  I think that throughout the first 2 books, you get this idea in your head of what the factions are and what ‘chicago’ is all about but i like that there were hints throughout of Amity being the only faction ‘outside the fence’ and then to see where things go in the last few pages of the book.

So, next week is D Day – meaning that the book will be out and i’ll finally get to see what it all means for both the story, society and Tris and Tobias.  I can’t wait!

Re-Review: Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth

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Title:  Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher/Year:  Harper Collins  2/28/12
Length:  576 pages
Series: Divergent #1

Overview

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

My Thoughts

in this 2nd (or maybe 3rd pass at this point, i have one thing to say and don’t hate me for my social speak #LOVEIT!.  i’ve decided that since Allegiant is due out in 1 week’s time, i owed it to myself to re-read the first books so that i’m fully up to speed on who’s alive, who we like, who we hate etc.  Well, whatever i thought of Divergent before, i love it more now.

We are taken on a ‘soul finding’ journey in a sense where Tris, our leading female is 16 – coming of age and has to make the decision of whether she’s going to take the safe path as stay in her family’s faction – Abegnation and live a boring yet safe life, or if she’s going to take a risk, and change EVERYTHING that she knows and transfer.  It’s not surprising the Tris has decided to transfer to Dauntless no less, and well, we see that she hits her stride during initiation.

she finds that she’s much stronger than she thought, and she breaks out of her shell quickly.  Along her journey, she makes actual friends in her fellow initiates, Christina, Uriah, and a few others.  She also begins to feel an attraction to someone else, when she gets a sense from Four (Tobias) that there’s maybe more to the trainer / trainee relationship.

What i love here is that not only do we get the complex story of a teen having to choose her life’s path, but we get to see that evolve, and then we get to see the greater picture of what’s happening in society and who’s pulling the strings.

Where this first installment leaves us off is a GREAT bit of a cliffhanger.  We see that there are evil intentions all around, and that Dauntless is a pawn in this.  We see that folks that are supposed to be the good guys really are the puppeteers, and that’s going to play out nicely i’m guessing in the final installments.

Good news is that i have Insurgent already so i can dive into it tonight, bad news is that i’m sure i’ll finish it before Monday night so that will leave me feeling a bit empty until 10/22/13 comes around.

Poll: Best of….Dystopian

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Several follow up books are due out in the coming weeks/months and as I’m eagerly anticipating them, i thought I’d get your opinions on which series you enjoy the most.  I”m on the fence since i LOVE Divergent and Legend the most i think but i feel like there are so many good ones out there.  What is your fav?

Cliffhangers

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you know a good author/book when you’re reading reading reading and you can’t seem to put the book down, and then all of a sudden it’s like you’re SMACKED in the face because the book has ended with a major cliffhanger.

Veronica Roth and Insurgent is that example right now.  It took me just over 2 days to read the whole thing and i’m really happy to say that i didn’t figure it all out while i was reading which is my biggest problem.  it’s kind of hard for me i think because my mind jumps ahead to figure out what the twists are going to be and what’s going to happen in the ending that sometimes i rush through what i’m reading to just GET THERE.  With Insurgent, i really wanted to read it all through quickly of course, but at the same time, making sure to catch all the details since there was a lot going on.

what kind of always leaves me feeling a bit depressed after reading such great books though, is that i always wish that i could be that creative and have a story like that holed up in my brain just waiting to come out – but it never happens that way does it?  i like to consider myself to be relatively creative, but i wonder if i’d have it in me to write a story like Divergent/Insurgent, or well…just about anything great that’s out there.

aside from lack of personal creativity (clearly) is the notion that i just realized an author to one of my new favs Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi is really young.  she’s an AMAZING writer yet she’s sooo young.  i don’t know how she did it/does it, but that takes a lot of talent (for lack of a better word).

anyway, now i’m 1/3 of the way through Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue and that’s going to be yet another one that i have to stop myself from trying to figure out before i get into it.  i’m already 200 pages in and I wish i knew the twists and turns that i know i’ll figure out if i just read patiently.

 

FINALLY…..

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It only took about 18 hours, but FINALLY – my day has turned a corner and i’ve FINALLY been able to download both Insurgent by Veronica Roth and Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore.  now all i really have to do is finish the last 30 pages or so of Incarceron and i can get started on my long awaiting sequels!

the question now becomes – what do i remember of each story – and what can i mange not to confuse?  it’s really funny when you think about the aspects of a story that you really hold on to and then what you take to other stories when you’re awaiting sequels…and then what you’ve managed to work into your real life like the books ARE REAL.  (aren’t they?) 

yea – i know – i’m not making sense – but this is what happens when you’re trying to make sense out of thoughts and have toddlers screaming at you about ‘stuffins’ or ‘dabba dabba’

i’ve got a lot of reading to FINISH and a lot of reading to START – so FINALLY yes FINALLY – i’m going to get to it.  here i come #DivergentNation – #INSURGENT and #BITTERBLUE!