Allegiant - The Review

I realized today that I'm not going to make this year's challenge. I had set forth to read at least 45 books in 2014, but with the year almost over and done with and still having to read three novels, I'm surrendering already.
I have a choice. I know. Whether to face up and read those damn three novels in 10 days, I could pick very slim novels at that, but I rather choose to enjoy what I'm reading now instead of rushing through just to meet own appointed dead line.

Choice is also the main theme in the last installment of the divergent series by Veronica Roth. I had first heard of this serie when the movie came out, if you can believe me. No word whatsoever about these great novels had reached me, must be because I live in a cave with no living souls in a 100 miles.

I've read Divergent and Insurgent before I began reading Allegiant. Both the prior novels are written well, not taking note of a few beauty mistakes, but I was a little terrified starting Allegiant, expecting it to be not as great as I wanted it to be.
Take the Hunger Games for example, another great series comparable to this one, but the last book kind of went haywire. It didn't show any growth in the series heroine.

Veronica Roth must have read the Hunger Games as well, and must have come to the same conclusion, because I never expected Allegiant to be so full of heartfelt advice and grown up characters. Keep in mind that they are still just in their teens when everything unfolds around them, but Tris is an example how becoming responsible isn't age-related.
The struggle Tobias went through is very well written, how feeling ashamed can turn you away from the people who want to help you, especially the ones that love you the most.

The pace of this novel was slower, yet more intense. The switch between the characters was confusing in the beginning (Sometimes I was reading a Tobias chapter, thinking it was Tris and not even realise until the next chapter). Luckily the similarities that exist between Tris and Tobias fade out and they both show their own strenghts and weaknesses, coming to a heartbreaking conclusion.

Review of Insurgent

I loved it!
I loved it more than Divergent.

Insurgent gave depth to the world Tris Prior lives in. It gave depth to her personality. It explained the ending of Divergent. It explained the ongoing restlessness in the factions.

Insurgent begins where Divergent ends. Tris and her friends seeking refuge after succesfully ending the simulation which controlled the attack on Abnegation.
In the aftermath half of Dauntless choose Erudite's side, the others side with Candor first and after they're made scared of Erudite, they side together with the factionless which are led by Tobias' mom.

Not much is being said of the factionless, just that it is stronger than the factions believe and they have a lot divergents among them.
The novel opens and ends with Tris. She suffers from having to shoot Will, a good friend, and isn't able to defend herself properly. Also losing both her parents she unconsciously sets out to be killed herself, by jumping into life-risking missions. She and Tobias grow apart, as each of them keeps secrets for the others.

Insurgent is a realistic take on how a sixteen year old would feel after she has murdered a friend, and seen her parents get killed. She tries to be strong, knowing she needs help but thinking she doesn't deserve it.

Insurgent ends with a sudden twist. I wonder how the last installment will go on from here. I won't be telling any spoilers, but it's a touch fact to introduce to a novel without it getting to depressing.

Insurgent was written for the younger audience. The language rolled easily of the tongue. The sentences were short, funny sometimes, drought with much meaning at other occasions. Tris makes a believable character, Tobias not so much, but that could be because we see him only through Tris' eyes and love will make you blind.

I'll be lending out Allegiant next time I'm going to the library.

I'm giving Insurgent 7,5 out of 10.

Review of Divergent

First of all...

WE WON

Belgium - Algeria

2 - 1

Now, back to the review. 

Divergent is one of the better YA novels I've read. 

I've heard of this novel because it has already been adapted, so I was curious what it was about. Of course, film adaptation doesn't always mean that the source material is a great book. 

I'm glad this one was alright.

In short, it's about a young girl, Beatrice, age 16, who has to choose how she wants to spend the rest of her life. In this dystopia a war has happened and when that war ended, survivors began to analyse how it could begin in the first place. They developed 5 factions where each could thrive as best as they could. 

Candor - here live the ones who think dishonesty was the cause of so much trouble and they strive to be always truthful, even if it hurts.

Abnegation - People who think selfishness is the root of all evil thrive in this faction, as they put themselves second

Dauntless - Here you'll find people who believe that cowardness was the base of the trouble that occured and they challenge themselves to be as daring as possible.

Amity - Friendship lies at the base of this faction, as the people who join this group think that if everyone could get along war wouldn't exist.

Erudite - Knowledge is power, they think that the ignorance of too many people is the key to causing problems and eventually war and they work towards gaining as much knowledge as possible. 

Beatrice has to choose between these five different direction in life. She's been born in Abnegation and has been following that direction since then. Now she has to face the possibility of leaving her family to join a group that fits her. 

Of course this is only the premise onto which this story builds. Beatrice makes a startling choice, but she's somehow different. Before they choose they have to do a test, a kind of simulation which will tell them in which faction they belong. When Beatrice takes the test, something goes wrong and the girl doing the testing tells her she's divergent and she has to keep quiet about it. 

Beatrice chooses Dauntless and sets herself up to be tested to the very limits, but her curious test result keeps haunting her. She encounters friends and foes, even a romantic involvement and in the end she needs to solve a horrific chain of events. 

In the beginning Beatrice follows the same path as so many of the YA heroines have done before her, meaning she was unsure of herself, low selfesteem and an attraction to one of the teachers which she doesn't understand from the beginning and later on when it becomes obvious that he's as much into her as she is into him, she reads his signals wrong. At 16, you're supposed to know what this is all about. 

Luckily the author steers aways from this quite soon and she becomes more confident and I loved reading of her conquering the hurdles in her education. A wonderful role model. 

The climax being a bit over the top, mainly because it's completely unexpected (the moment between Beatrice finding out what is going on and the event actually happening is maybe two pages apart), doesn't hurt the story too much but I'm not sure the second novel can be as good as the first. 

I think of the Hunger Games. The first novel was wonderful, the second also because it followed the first in a lot of ways but made it more sexy and dangerous, but the third was a let down. It had fallen from a wonderfully stylished YA novel into something a bit off and on. Too much anticipation, too little action. 

That's why I'm wary that Divergent will travel along the same path. 

It's not going to stop me from reading it though.