Head In The Clouds: Veronica Roth

Showing posts with label Veronica Roth. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

One choice will define you.
What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.

But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

(Picture and Summary from Goodreads)

Short Non Spoiler Review:

Fast paced, action filled (towards the end), answer fulfilling book. You will be nervous, you will be mad, you will be devastated. Prepare yourself. Still read it.

Long Spoilerful (I realize this isn't a word) Review:

What to the what just happened. My heart is broken. I am devastated. I feel empty. Why Veronica WHYYY?!?! *Tears and ugly sobbing*

Ok so that was what was going through my mind upon finishing Allegiant. Having been able to think it over for a little while I get why Veronica killed Tris. Well I get what makes sense to me, whether it's what Veronica was going for I don't know. It's a dystopian book, things are dark. It's not a fairytale and although we wish for happily ever after we don't always get it. Veronica kept it real by killing off Tris, she showed us that sometimes in order to get to the good you have to go through the bad. I'm not happy Tris died and I can think of all sorts of ways things could have gone so she wouldn't have had to, but its not my story. Moving on.

Up until the end I was very pleased with how the book was going. It really answered a lot of questions. In fact the book was mostly informational compared to the action packed Divergent and Insurgent books. It was also different from the first two books because the story was being told from both Tris and Tobias' POVs. (That should have served as a warning really) I didn't think I would like it, mostly because I don't go for books told from a male POV, but in my opinion it was nicely done. Others seem to think the POVs were too similar too each other, basically that Tobias seemed a little feminine, maybe that's why I was ok with it.

I was angry with Tris and Tobias pretty much the whole book, ok I was angry mostly at Tobias, for letting their relationship fall apart. I hated Tobias for not trusting Tris and for making dumb decisions. Of course he eventually smartens up and the make up (and more possibly). I think that helps to make me more sad about Tris' death. They had just gotten back to good and were looking forward to planning their lives together then BAM it gets taken away from them.

Overall I don't regret reading this series. Divergent was my first dystopian book and really is what turned me on to the genre. That being said, Allegiant really makes me think twice about reading another dystopian. It really opened my eyes to the fact that authors really hold the power to break your heart and that there is no rule stating they have to make a book end happy. Looking back I wish I would have waited a little longer to read Allegiant, just so it would have prolonged the sadness. I definitely won't be able to reread it for a little while, I need time to heal. *sniff*

I brand this end to the Divergent Series as Sad but Fitting.

I fell in love with him. But I don't just stay with him by default as if there's no one else available to me. I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me.

-Excerpt from Allegiant by Veronica Roth

*Tears in my eyes*

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THE AUTHOR

(Picture and Bio from author's Goodreads Profile)

Veronica Roth is from a Chicago suburb. She studied creative writing at Northwestern University, and wrote DIVERGENT (Katherine Tegen Books, May 2011) and INSURGENT (May 2012). The third and final book in The Divergent Trilogy, ALLEGIANT, will come out on October 22, 2013. In the meantime she will spend endless hours browsing Wikipedia in her pajamas as she eats corn flakes. (Or some other kind of bland breakfast cereal.)

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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

One choice can transform you, or destroy you.

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.

Second in my Divergent-read-a-thon is naturally: Insurgent. I really hadn't read Insurgent that long ago, okay maybe a year ago, but it was the one I finished most recently so I expected to remember a lot of what I was rereading. Surprisingly I did not. I think it was a defense mechanism, I forgot about the details in order to save myself from agonizing over the drop off ending.

REVIEW

Insurgent in my opinion is AMAZING. Suspenseful and action packed it resembles nothing of a middle book, meaning it isn't just filler. It has it's own twists and turns and doesn't rely on referencing the first book aside from some obvious need to. Of course I'm not saying it doesn't require reading the first book, you definitely need to read Divergent in order to know what's going on.

The book starts off right where Divergent ends; with the world, as Tris and Tobias know it, in chaos. Factions are split and no one knows who to trust, anyone could be a spy. Throughout the book there are multiple people who go from friend to foe and vice versa with some people, who we never would have expected, turning up. There are also more deaths (naturally) and strained relationships. The book leads up to an intense ending that reveals something BIG, I mean HUGE. It really answers my question of why is the story set ONLY in Chicago?.

Tobias and Tris' relationship is on the rocks throughout the book, which made me really sad. I feel like they are stronger when they work together but they spent too much time keeping secrets from each other to be any good as a team. It really isn't until the end that things sort themselves out again but by then it's the end.

I'm really excited to start Allegiant here in a few but it's been out for a little while now and the feedback I've been reading has been not so good. Not really because of the writing but more what happens. I have my own idea of how I want to end and I love this series so much that I am really scared about how Veronica may have ended the story. I don't think I've ever been so excited but so NERVOUS to read a book before. Because to be truthful, The Hunger Games trilogy was almost ruined for me when a certain someone died, when that happened I was all "WHAT WAS THE POINT OF EVERYTHING?!" So yeah, I'm a little (a lot) nervous.

Fernando hops out of the truck bed and offers me his arm.

"Come on, Insurgent," he says with a wink.

"What?" I say. I take his arm and slide down the side of the truck.

He opens the bag he was sitting with. It is full of blue clothes. He sorts through them, tossing garments to Christina and me. I get a bright blue T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans.

"Insurgent," he says. "Noun. A person who acts in opposition to the established authority, who is not necessarily regarded as a belligerent."

-Excerpt from Insurgent by Veronica Roth

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THE AUTHOR

(Picture and Bio from Veronica's Goodreads Profile)

Veronica's Goodreads Profile

Veronica's Website

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Saturday, November 2, 2013

Divergent by Veronica Roth

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, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

(Picture and Summary from Goodreads)

Allegiant was recently released and since it had been a while since I last read Divergent and Insurgent I figured I would have a little Divergent-read-a-thon. First up: Divergent.

REVIEW

On these mornings when my brother makes breakfast, and my gather's hand skims my hair as he reads the newspaper, and my mother hums as she clears the table - it is on these mornings that I feel guiltiest for wanting to leave them.

Divergent is set in a dystopian Chicago, where people are divided into factions based on their morals and principles. Beatrice is part of Abnegation which believe in selflessness. They constantly put others first and do everything they can to keep attention off themselves. When the book begins Beatrice and her classmates are getting ready to go through a test that will tell them what faction they should be in. After finding out their results they take an evening to think about what they want to choose; to stay in their own faction with their family or choose a different faction and leave their family behind.

"Faction before blood"

When Beatrice is told her results it changes everything and leaves her with an important decision to make. Beatrice's choice shocks both herself and her family. As soon as the choosing ceremony ends she is swept up into an intense initiation process. She gets tested and pushed beyond her limits, faces fears she never knew she had, renames herself Tris, makes new friends, and gains enemies. She also begins to have a confusing thing with her instructor Four (that's his name, sorta), at first it seems like he is being tough on her, then maybe he's helping, but it could be more than that.

Tris fits in really well with the faction she calls home and though she has to make some difficult choices, she really seems to grow as a person. Soon after finishing the initiation process a situation comes up that brings some horrible truths into the light. The book ends in chaos and has readers wondering what will happen next.

I really love this book. Veronica Roth does a really good job of developing her characters and the world they live in. The story is full of suspense and secrets, friendship and budding affection. If you have made it this long without reading Divergent, don't waste another minute! Read it now!