(Dauntless manifesto poster by Risa Rodil)Notes From a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World by Tsh Oxenreider (4 stars)
I reviewed this here.
Dancing Through It: My Journey in the Ballet by Jenifer Ringer (3 stars)
I reviewed this here.
Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant by Veronica Roth (4.5 stars overall)
I’m one of the last bookworms I know to read this trilogy – I waited until it was finished. As I said yesterday, I was hooked and tore through all three books in under a week. If you somehow haven’t heard about Divergent, it’s set in a dystopian future where everyone is divided into factions according to their dominant personality trait: Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). When people turn sixteen, they must make an irrevocable decision either to commit to the faction in which they were raised, or transfer to another one. Abnegation-born Tris loves her family, but feels too restless for her faction’s serene, sacrificial ways. When she takes an aptitude test before her Choosing Day, she finds out that she’s Divergent – well suited for more than one faction – and that she can never reveal this truth to anyone. This is all I knew going into the books and I think it was better that way, so I’ll stop summarizing here.
The Divergent trilogy is fantastic. It inspired, challenged, and moved me. I loved the worldbuilding, and I think Tris is neck-and-neck with Katniss and Hermione for the best YA heroine of the century so far. The only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars was… many of the events of Allegiant. Aside from the thing that everyone was angry about, I felt cheated and thrown for a loop by a couple of other things. But somehow it didn’t ruin the whole story for me.
Although I’m excited for the movie, I’m a little bummed now that they’re making movies, because I think this would have worked much better as a TV series. Oh well.
Books for February: 5
2014 year to date: 11
Looks like now I have to pick up that Divergent series…
I am right there with you on Allegiant. It did make me feel a bit ripped off. I have a harder time recommending it now that I’ve read the third one. I was hoping the book would grow on me like the ending of Hunger Games did, but I’m about 2 months out and it still frustrates me. It wasn’t even the events in the book, it was the way that they happened, I felt like someone had pulled something over on me.
YES. We need to discuss next time I see you!
So I’m super glad that I bought Divergent and the second book when they were on sale for the Kindle a month or two ago. I’ve been saving them for the perfect rainy weekend, in anticipation of them being a bit unputdownable. :) Everyone I’ve talked to loves them, so hearing you echo that sentiment here makes me want to say “forget saving them” and go start reading them right now. Off to read your Notes from a Blue Bike review!
:) Still, make sure you don’t have anything super important to do! I was pretty useless until I finished them.