Divergent

Holy… I don’t even know where to begin with this book if I’m honest. I actually just fell in love! There will likely be spoilers in this article because I’m not filtering my thoughts right now. Also I am writing my thoughts on each book as I finish them. Anyways, here goes! I had, like most people, seen the divergent film trilogy. I loved the first film, but don’t really remember much from the second two (It was quite a while ago). But the first one, I’ve seen multiple times. After I watched it a few weeks ago for like the fourth time, I decided I had to read the books.

My first and probably only criticism of the film was that I wanted so much more from the relationship between Tris and Four. I needed context! I loved their relationship portrayal but just felt that it was lacking slightly in context. I wanted to know more about them and I knew that, as with most film adaptations, the book would be better for detail. I don’t typically watch the film without reading the book, but at the time it came out, I didn’t even know that there was a book series. I was NOT disappointed at all.

The book was just perfection. It was everything I was looking for and more. We as the reader get to see so much more depth in Tris and Four’s relationship. The development of their bond together is just the sweetest thing. At first, it was very similar to the film, but the more that I got into it, the more differences I started to notice. I mean, the story was the same, but the detail was just so much more than what you can get from a two-hour film.

My absolute favourite moment from this book is probably when Tris finally passes the Dauntless faction initiation and makes it into the top ten. My heart when Tris and Four kiss for the first time in front of everyone, letting them all know that they are together. UGH so many feels! I’ll put the part I’m talking about here so you can read it.

Then I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn to see Tobias standing behind me.

‘You think giving you a hug would give away too much?’ he says.

‘You know,’ I say, ‘I really don’t care.’

I stand on my tiptoes and press my lips to his. It is the best moment of my life.

This is just precious. I was smiling at my book like an idiot because it was just so out of character for Tobias and it was just so damn cute. Then where it follows to say that Christina’s mouth was open in shock and I just couldn’t even deal anymore. Comedy Gold. Their relationship is honestly just goals, even though he treats her like crap at the beginning. But then again we find out why. You wouldn’t peg Tobias as a vulnerable character from the way he is shown in the movie. But you just get to know the character so much more in the book, and I loved getting to see his vulnerable side.

One thing in the book that I was a bit surprised about, is the character Tris. I think in the films, she is just a bit more hardened and the books really show her mental and emotional struggles which is interesting. I thought I loved the film, but it’s literally nothing in comparison to my love for the book!

Did anyone else think that Tris’s mother’s death kinda sucked a little? In the movie, I 100% cried, but the book was kind of just meh. It didn’t make me sad at all as there were no emotions involved. She just died and Tris moved on so quickly. Even afterwards, when there was time to grieve, it didn’t really show any distraught moments. I can understand this after her father’s death because they weren’t really too close due to their differences in opinion. But her mother. They seemed to be closer than that, especially as she was also dauntless and they had that personality connection. But ahh well… it is what it is. Other than that, I really don’t have many negative opinions.

Also, can I just point this out for a sec? Marcus makes me EVEN more irritated in the book! I mean, we all know that he is an asshole, but wow. His arrogance and just his attitude around Tobias in the book just grates on my last nerve. I wished he would just die already, and then he didn’t. I was very disappointed. There is always hope for book two!

Overall, I think that I would give this book an 8/10. The Tris and Four relationship dynamic is definitely what keeps me reading and I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this book.

Insurgent

I have a completely different thought process on book two of the series. This may be an unpopular opinion, I’m not sure as I haven’t read any reviews yet, but I wasn’t a huge fan of Insurgent. I was majorly disappointed by the book as a whole, even though there were some good parts, I just thought the whole thing was a bit meh. So first of all, I like that it continues right where the first one left off. A lot of the time, there is usually a time jump between books that is super disappointing when you just want to know what happened straight away. So I appreciate this. However, after the first few chapters, it just didn’t really pick up the pace. There was no excitement and anticipation, which are both things that I felt whilst reading Divergent.

Before I get all critical of the book, I thought that I would mention two parts of the book that I did really like. The first of which is close to the start of the book when Tris and Peter fight and the Amity give her a serum to calm her down. Essentially, she goes all loopy, which I found absolutely hilarious. Below is the part of the book that I am referring to.

‘Tris,’ he says. ‘What did they do to you? You’re acting like a lunatic’.

‘That’s not very nice of you to say.’ I say. ‘They put me in a good mood, that’s all. And now I really want to kiss you, so if you could just relax-‘

‘I’m not going to kiss you. I’m going to figure out what’s going on,’ he says.

I pout my lower lip for a second, but then I grin as the pieces come together in my mind.

‘That’s why you like me!’ I exclaim. ‘Because you’re not very nice either! It makes so much more sense now.’

‘Come on,’ he says. ‘We’re going to see Johanna.’

‘I like you too.’

‘That’s encouraging,’ he replies flatly. ‘Come on. Oh, for God’s sake. I’ll just carry you.’

The interaction continues until the end of the chapter and I was literally crying with laughter! It was nice to have a break from the doom and gloom of the book and just read about this funny moment between Tris and Four. There aren’t many funny parts of the books, but the ones that do pop up always make me laugh out loud.

My other favourite part was right at the end of the book. It seems that I liked the beginning and end, but not so much anything in between. But anyway, this part was after Four finds out that Tris had betrayed him and trusted his abusive father, Marcus, and after all the angry shouting parts comes up to her and says:

‘You were right,’ Tobias says quietly, balancing on the balls of his feet. He smiles a little. ‘I do know who you are. I just needed to be reminded.’

Then he leaks the video that Janine and everyone else was trying so hard to cover up. Amazing. I loved this little act of rebellion against his mother, as I was starting to think that she had really gotten into his head and that he trusted her. It was a short but sweet moment that ended the book on a good note. The one thing that I found really annoying about the book was Tris and Tobias’s relationship. In Divergent, they are the cutest, most badass couple and they constantly have each other’s backs. But in Insurgent, they are constantly arguing over petty things, always lying to each other, and are just boring as heck to read about. Every time they had a conversation I found myself wanting to just skip over it because it was so dull and repetitive. I was like ‘dude just get over it’. But yeah, I’m hoping that now they seem to be okay again, that the next book will be just as epic as the first one.

I give this book a 5/10.

Allegiant

Okay, was the movie even based on the book that I just read? Like whaaaaat? So first of all, I liked this book better than Insurgent, I just feel like it still didn’t even come close to the love I have for the first book. The start and end of this book are filled with action and can be super tense at parts, but the actual story throughout the middle just wasn’t up to scratch in my opinion.

The first thing that I want to mention, yet again, is Tris and Four’s relationship. They are so annoying! One minute they are super pissed and arguing and the next they are making out. You can’t really have it both ways. I understand that real relationships aren’t perfect, but the majority of the dialogue between them just made me confused. They ended on good terms in the last book, and started on good terms in this one. Then all of a sudden they are hating on each other again. Wasn’t the whole point of Insurgent that they learn they need to listen to each other more? Respect each other’s opinions? Be honest? Don’t know what happened to these values if I’m honest. They just kinda annoyed me for most of the book.

The whole Four and Uriah situation where Four’s actions essentially get Uriah killed, seemed like a bit of a re-write of the Tris and Will tragedy. I just felt like I was reading it all over again. I get that something bad had to happen for Four’s character to see sense, but it just seemed like the exact same situation to me. Action, guilt, self-loathing, forgiveness. I don’t know, I just think if maybe it had been done differently?

Okay, let’s take a break from the negativity whilst I go through my favourite parts of the book. One of these definitely has to be the moment when Peter decides to wipe his own memories. He knows that he makes the wrong choices and maybe even resents his own actions. To stop himself making more terrible choices, he believes that the only thing he can do is to start again. As much as I hated Peter in the first book, his character has actually grown on me a little. Specifically in this conversation between Tobias and Peter.

‘You could just do the work, you know,’ I say. ‘You could make better decisions, make a better life.’

‘Yeah, I could,’ he says. ‘But I won’t. We both know that.’

***
So I have him sit on one of the couches, and I ask him what he wants me to tell him about himself. He just shakes his head. Nothing. He wants to retain nothing.

Peter takes the vial with a shaking hand and twists off the cap. The liquid trembles inside it, almost spilling over the lip.

‘How much should I drink?’ he says, and I think I hear his teeth chattering.

‘I don’t think it makes a difference,’ I say.

‘Okay. Well… here goes.’ He lifts the vial up to the light like he is toasting me.

When he touches his mouth, I say ‘Be Brave.’

Then he swallows. And I watch Peter disappear.

I think it’s Tobias that calls it the cowards way out. But I think that it must take bravery to wipe your mind completely.

Taking it back to the start of the book, when Tori dies and I didn’t even care. After the first book, I really like Tori’s character. I mean, she helps Tris, is waiting for her chance to screw over the government, and overall seems like a pretty badass gal. I get that she’s angry and stuff, but when she murdered Janine, even though she could have just waited five minutes, it just made me dislike her more. And ohh the irony! When they finally make it to the outside world, they discover that George is still alive and the whole murder revenge plot was for nothing anyway. I felt sad for his character, but could they not have sent her a message or something? There wasn’t any particular reason for her to stay in Chicago, so I don’t get why they wouldn’t have sent for her anyway. I mean, if that was my family that was left behind thinking I was dead, I would find a way to let them know about it. But maybe that is just me.

Can we just talk about the end of the book for a second? Like WHAT. So Tris literally holds Caleb at gunpoint as a cover and goes into the weapons lab instead of him. I saw this coming from a mile away, I knew she would do it and I predicted that she would make it through the death serum, which she does. But OH MY GOD I was not expecting David to be in there waiting and that he would shoot her, not once, but TWICE. Then I thought, okay someone will find her and she won’t die. But it just ends there. Then all we get is Cara breaking the news to Tobias and Christina and my heart just broke. She really died. This was definitely the biggest, most shocking moment from the entire series. I definitely did not see this coming at all. One thing I will say about it though is that the death itself wasn’t actually sad. I kind of hoped that if Tris or Tobias was going to be killed off, that it would be epic and emotional. I wouldn’t say that it was. But the book was beautifully ended, and I loved this part in particular:

‘How did she get in?’

‘Face-first,’ Zeke says.

‘All right.’ I hand him the urn. ‘Put this behind me, okay? And open up the top.

I climb into the sling, my hands shaking so much I can barely grip the sides. Zeke tightens the straps across my back and leg, then wedges the urn behind me, facing out, so the ashes will spread. I stare down Lake Shore Drive, swallowing bile, and start to slide.

This was absolutely the most perfect way for Veronica Roth to end the series. Don’t get me wrong, I would have preferred a happily ever after, with Tris and Four both surviving, but if Tris had to die, then this was absolutely the best way to do it. The fact that Four did that for her, despite his crippling fear of heights is amazing. So sweet. So props to the author for creating such a beautiful ending. I look forward now to reading the prequel, which is set from Four’s point of view.

I give this book a 6.5/10.

Four

I actually thought that this book was solely a prequel about Four, and his life from Abnegation, through initiation, and to Dauntless. I thought that the book would probably end when he first sees Tris, or around that time. But this book was so much more than that! It starts in Abnegation, where the reader is able to learn about Tobias’ backstory, and get a glimpse into the life that he had before he became dauntless. This part makes me want to beat the hell out of Marcus, and if I didn’t truly hate him before this book, I definitely did after. We, as the reader, get to see his initiation ceremony and be smug as hell when Tobias chooses Dauntless.

It then moves through his journey through Dauntless initiation, and we get to see a lot of the characters that died in the last two books. It’s really nice to see what they were like before. Zeke is my absolute favourite because he’s just so funny. It was also nice to learn about Amar, and the relationship he had with Four before his ‘death’. So cute. One of my favourite parts of the book is when Amar watches Tobias’ fear landscape, and gives him the nickname Four, knowing that Tobias doesn’t want people to know his real life. Amar just accepts this without even talking about it and gives him his new name. Four, for Four fears.

‘I wouldn’t want to tell people my name either.’ – Amar.

***

‘None of you did as well as Four over here though.’ – Amar.

It’s just nice to see someone on Four’s side for once, I guess, and it’s interesting to see his character’s development. This all makes Amar’s ‘death’ even more depressing. At least we know he’s not really dead though!

The first three parts; The Transfer, The Initiate, and The Son, are all full of details that we don’t necessarily know from the first three books. For instance, we know that Marcus is the reason that Tobias wanted to leave to join another faction, but we don’t see how these decisions were made. I’m fully aware that it’s fictional, but I would pay to be at the choosing ceremony just to see the look on Marcus’s face when Tobias chose Dauntless. Priceless. Does anyone else ever just want to jump in the book and give a character a hug? Or punch another in the face? This is how Marcus and Tobias make me feel. I’m assuming you can guess who gets which. When Marcus smashed up all of Tobias’ possessions, it made me so mad. This book does a really good job of making you feel a tonne of different emotions.

Finally, after the shocking and emotional death of Tris Prior, we get to see some of the best parts of their relationship from Tobias’ perspective. The one that I was hoping for as I read through came up at the end and I was so happy! The part that I was hoping for was when Tobias gets drunk with his friends and has a conversation with Tris and I LOVED that the author included this in the book as it was one of my favourite parts of the entire series. I’m putting the entire thing here because I loved it that much.

‘You look…different,’ I say. I mean to say ‘older,’ but I don’t want to suggest that she looked young before. She may not bend in all the places that older women do, but no one could look at her face and see a child. No child has that ferocity.

‘So do you,’ she says. ‘What are you doing?’

Drinking, I think, but she’s probably noticed that.

‘Flirting with death,’ I say, laughing. ‘Drinking near the chasm. Probably not a good idea.’

‘No, it isn’t.’ She’s not laughing. She looks weary. Wary of what? Of me?

‘Didn’t know you had a tattoo,’ I say, scanning her collarbone. There are three black birds there – simple, but they almost look like they’re flying across her skin.

‘Right. The crows.‘

I want her to ask her why she would get one of her worst fears tattooed on her body, why she would want to wear the mark of her fear forever instead of burying it, ashamed, Maybe she’s not ashamed of her fears the way I’m ashamed of mine.

I look back at Zeke and Shauna, who are standing with shoulders touching at the railing.

‘I’d ask you to hang out with us.’ I say, ‘But you’re not supposed to see me this way.’

‘What way?’ she says. ‘Drunk?’

‘Yeah… well no.’ Suddenly it doesn’t seem that funny to me. ‘Real, I guess.’

‘I’ll pretend I didn’t.’

‘Nice of you.’ I lean in closer than I mean to, and I can smell her hair, feel the cool, smooth, delicate skin of her cheek against mine. I would be embarrassed that I’m acting so foolish, so forward, if she had, even for a second pulled away. But she doesn’t – if anything, she moves a little closer. ‘You look good Tris,’ I say because I’m not sure she knows it, and she should.

This time she laughs.

‘Do me a favour and stay away from the chasm, okay?’

‘Of course.’

She smiles. And I wonder, for the first time, if she likes me. If she can still grin at me when I’m like this… well, she might. One thing I know: For helping me forget how awful the world is, I prefer her to alcohol.

I’m not sure if I’m mad that Tris died, or that Tobias was abandoned by someone he loved, AGAIN. Veronica Roth didn’t seem to want to give him a break throughout this series. But either way. this part of the book was perfect and I’m so glad that it was included.

I give this book a 7.5/10.

Overall, I think that the first book was my favourite, then Four, and then the middle two. I wasn’t a huge fan of Insurgent and Allegiant, but Roth sure does do a good job of starting and ending each book with perfection, and these were the parts that I enjoyed the most. I am definitely interested in reading other work by her.

Let me know if there are any other books that you want me to review!