Divergent / Insurgent / Allegiant

Where to start? “Divergent” by Veronica Roth was absolutely fantastic. I can’t believe that I didn’t jump on this ban wagon three years ago when it first started. I know the reason why I didn’t, I knew that I would want to binge read the series and if I had to wait for a year between each book, I didn’t think I would be able to survive. Since “Divergent” is coming out soon in the theaters, I figured i needed to read the book as soon as possible. How do I explain “Divergent” without giving a ton of spoilers away. The country is divided into factions. There is Candor: The Truthful, Abnegation: The Selfless, the Dauntless: The Fearless, Amity: The Peaceful, and the Erudite: The Knowledgeable. When a child becomes sixteen they have to take a simulations test to decide what faction they are recommended to go into, but in the end, the child has the option of choosing where he or she wants to be. When Beatrice’s test results come back inconclusive, she is told that she is Divergent and that she must not tell anyone. Divergent is where you don’t fit into just one faction. You test results come out to be less specific. Beatrice tests into three of the factions. Beatrice decides that she is going to join the Dauntless. Beatrice’s father looks like this at being a betrayal. Beatrice wonders if her mother will feel the same. Taking control of her life, Beatrice jumps right into her new life. As she begins training, Beatrice changes her name to Tris and learns a lot more about herself. Tris finds out who she really wants to be. I really liked “Divergent.” I thought the plot was great. I was hooked right away wanting to know what was going to happen next. I think “Divergent” was a successful debut for Veronica Roth. I think I am even more excited for the movie than I was before. I think the plot was the big attention grabber this time, just because I felt completely consumed by the book. I needed to know what happened, so it took a lot of convincing from others for me to put the book down. I also think that the characters were absolutely fantastic. Tris I swear could be anyone’s best friend. She is kind to everyone until they start getting on her bad side but if they ended up on her bad side, it was because they deserved to be there. Tris wants to be a little of everything faction, so she is thriving to be the best that she can. I think that makes a great human being. In a way it was heart breaking for her to leave the faction that she grew up in because she knew that there was a possibility that she would never see her parents again or her brother. Four. Where to begin with Four? He is definitely swoon worthy. Four seems to be scary in the beginning but he is like an onion. Once Tris started to peal back the layers, she got to see different sides of him and she got to know him better. The reader got to see Four as an actual human being instead of just a drill Sargent. I have to say that Four seems to be the perfect guy. He wants to be the best person he can be. Not only is he a drill sargent to make the recruits stronger and fearless, but he also cares about what happens to them. He does the background work for when others need someone to help or care. I like that Four risks his job by helping the others. I felt so many different emotions while reading “Divergent..” I think that if a reader can have many different emotions while reading, than it means that it is a great book. Actually I think “Divergent” is more than great, I think that it is fantastic. I will have to let my readers know what I think of the movie. I think I am going to go see it tomorrow, or technically it would be today once this post goes live. http://dazzledbybooks.com/2014/03/book-review-divergent-by-veronica-roth/ “Insurgent” starts out where “Divergent” left off and let me just start by saying I am not a happy camper at all. I was extremely disappointed. I felt like “Insurgent” was disappointing compared to “Divergent.” Tris lost all of her appeal and in general she would make me mad. I felt like “Insurgent” was just so slow. I thought “Divergent” kept a really good pace, things flowed quite nicely and the reader was able to keep on going but with “Insurgent” there is another story. “Insurgent” played out so slowly. I felt like I was dragging my feet the entire time just to finish the book. Here are the good things I am able to point out. I think Roth’s writing has grown. It has grown hugely but you can see some differences, I think the writing is pretty good. The plot of the story was the hard part and the pace like I mentioned earlier. It was hard seeing the characters I like and what they had to go through now because of the trauma that happened in book one. I know that the characters are going to go through trials and difficult times, but do they really need to have their heads in a completely different world. I felt like Tris became a completely different person in book two. Four is who really kept me interested in the book. I feel like Four grew as a character. He started to have more depth to him and honestly I wanted to see what he was going to do with the situations that he was in the middle of facing. I have to admit, there is that appeal there. You definitely see who people are and what they will become during those hard times. I wondered a few times if Tobias (Four) was going to give up on everything. He really pulled through and I liked that about his character. I think Veronica Roth is going to follow in Cassandra Clare’s footsteps and be known for her cliffhangers. Seriously?! That ending. Now I know I have to dive into “Allegiant” right away because I need to know what is going to happen next. I need to know that things will be okay for Tris and Four and everyone else. I have come to care for these characters. I hope things work out for the best but I will have to wait and see. With everything being said I still think that “Insurgent” was worth reading just to get to know the characters a little bit better. I was just disappointed because I was truly expecting more than I received. http://dazzledbybooks.com/2014/05/book-review-insurgent-by-veronica-roth-2/ Woah! What to say? I am still trying to get over my book hangover. Here is the low down (if you haven’t read Divergent or Insurgent yet, I would walk away now because things will be spoiled for you. BUT…there are no spoilers for Allegiant). Tris, Four, Christina, Cara, and several others venture out beyond the wall. To discover old and new friends already living there. Not only do they go through the process of finding out what is beyond the wall but they also have to process what the world is really like. Roth has done a good job at starting off the next book around where the cliffhanger was in the previous book. Tris and Four have some big decisions to make in “Allegiant.” Lives are at stake many and they have to figure out how far they have to go in order to save the people that they love. I think Tris and Four have been on an incredible journey and now it is coming to an end. I think Veronica Roth has grown a lot in her writing since “Divergent.” I am slightly confused on the change of tone within “Allegiant.” “Allegiant” has a completely different tone than both “Divergent” and “Insurgent.” Everything became completely mellow. I am not totally sure why there was a change of tone. It seemed as if the characters really didn’t care anymore. It seemed as they accepted the world they live in and don’t care much about what happens next. It just seemed really odd to have the mood so mellow. I think all of the characters are amazing. It was sad to say goodbye to them. I have to admit that I think the characters grew a lot in their journey. I was beginning to strongly dislike Tris in “Insurgent,” I just couldn’t get around her selfishness and the fact that she was trying to kill herself recklessly. Now that Tris is over that phase, it seems that she is still doing things recklessly, just with better intentions this time around. Tris is the heroine of the story so it only seemed right that she got to play her role right? I just wish things ended up differently than how they ended. Tobias or Four, whichever name you would like to call him by because he seems to go by both. I became attached to Four right away. He was the strong hero that always seemed to save people. As Four became more attached to Tris, he began to open up. He began to open up and share himself with Tris to where he was vulnerable to her. It was sweet and romantic to see what loving someone could do to someone. I really think that Four is a great character. I think Roth’s best writing was with him. I was devastated for Four throughout “Allegiant.” I couldn’t believe how much he was going through. Four is a fabulous character and I thin he makes a really great book boyfriend. Since Tris and Four are the main characters in this tale, I am only going touch base on them but I really think that all of the other kids have grown a lot and deserve to be recognized for that. The characters have come together and have grown. Characters that weren’t friends before, are friends now. I think there has been a lot of growing up since the beginning and that is nice to see in a series. Surprisingly I actually liked the plot of “Allegiant.” I wasn’t sure if I was going to based off of all the information I had been previously told about the novel but I was giving it a shot anyway so that I could form my own opinion. I wish I could ask Roth why she decided to go down the path that she did because I am extremely curious why she made the choices that she did for her novels but I have to admit that I didn’t hat the ending as much as I thought I would. I definitely had to say that I had a bit of a book hangover after “Allegiant.” I wasn’t sure how to process the ending of this series. I had a “UHHH” moment. I still don’t know how I feel about the end but I don’t think it ended as bad as everyone thought. I think I would have made different decisions for the series but then again I am not the writer and I wasn’t the person that came up with the original idea. I thought “Allegiant” was pretty good. I think the “Divergent” series is definitely good. It isn’t necessarily my favorite but I think it makes for a great read even with its ups and downs. I would definitely read it again. http://dazzledbybooks.com/2014/05/book-review-insurgent-by-veronica-roth/

(I will try to keep this as spoiler free as possible). I really enjoyed this book series. The books kept me wanting more and I felt like I could really identify with Tris and I had a hard time putting all three of these books down. However, there were also some not so great things. Divergent: This book was awesome! It was interesting enough to keep your attention but at the same time didn't have so much going on, that you had a hard time following. Probably one of the biggest things I like about Roth is that she is not afraid to do whatever she wants and she will surprise you. Insurgent: This book picks up right where Roth left off in Divergent. This book was just as interesting and just as much of a page turner as the first book. However towards the end of this book, I became a little disappointed that things weren't really getting resolved in the book and more problems were being created. Allegiant: I LOVED and HATED this book all at the same time. Again, I couldn't put this book down and I just had to know what was going to happen because I feel like this series really sucks you in and you get invested in the characters, especially Tris since it is told from her point of view. Some other reviews said that they felt this book was all over the place, however I feel like that was probably because the chapters went back and forth from being told from Tris' point of view, to Tobias'. Now reading from Tobias/Fours point of view was refreshing and I really enjoyed it. For the things I HATED about this final book: You find out the reason behind the factions and the government, essentially the reason behind everything and I thought it was one of the most stupid and worst explanations ever. After finding out the reason for the factions etc., I kinda felt like it made the entire series pointless. Personally I did not agree with Roth's explanation of why things are the way they are. I felt like it invalidated the entire series and everything that the characters had worked so hard for. Last thing I hated: Like I said before, Roth is not afraid to do whatever she wants and she will do it. She did that in this final book and there is a twist, and it was so incredibly maddening that I almost through my book across the room. Again, I felt like this plot twist essentially made everything the characters had worked for pointless. Roth could have easily changed that twist so that when it happened, you would be like "OMG! I can't believe that just happened!" and then you flip the page and there is an explanation for why it didn't really happen etc. Like a twist to the twist. I was disappointed with that and also, I felt heartbroken after finishing this final book. I didn't have that sense of euphoria and "everything is right in my fantasy world", kinda like you do after finishing Harry Potter. I really wish that Roth hadn't had ended the series the way she did, I really think there is a better way to have ended it with just as much flair.

I went into this series from the first few chapters of Divergent thinking it was just going to be another typical teen fiction type of story with simple writing. I was pleasantly surprised when this was not the case as I kept progressing through Divergent. While I'm still not 100% into Roth's writing style, her story is extremely captivating. At first I was not a fan of the first person style, either, but as I kept reading, it definitely made the book much better than it would have been had it been in third person. This continued throughout Insurgent and I just found myself reading one book right into the other. Many people have had mixed feelings on Allegiant. I, personally, thought it was the best of the three books in the series. The perspective shifts between Tris and Tobias every other (or so) chapter was, at first, awkward, but once again made the book what it needed to be. And then there is the big scene that everybody seems to hate Roth for. When you get to it, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. It will "rip your heart out" as other people say. And yes, it probably will. But, if you actually think about it, it was definitely what should have and would have happened in the story, so it was believable and wasn't just the typical happy ending, which I greatly GREATLY appreciated. All in all, this is a fantastic series, a quick read, and extremely satisfying to finish.

Feminists would praise the movie adaptation of the books, but i personally found Katniss "not interesting". I could see Katniss yearning to be a "strong" character, but it wasn't clear to me what she was really fighting for, which made me difficult to cheer for her "struggles". What started as "saving" her sister, somehow suspended in the mid-air, and her "complicated" conflicts of love, trust, and law somehow mixed up like a chicken noodle soup. At the end of the movie, Katniss is impressed as not-so-hot-or-warm type of character who is difficult to get along with. Divergent series, however, brings an environment that is more sensible, yet having dystopian quality. Here, we see a female character who abide by the given virtue, (one of five factions) who is not necessarily rebellious, (although feeling unfit at times) which makes the audience easier to believe and connect to the character. The society is not a blood-bath-for-the-sake-of-my-district-that-she-deeply-understands, but a "hegemonic" approach to create a more peaceful society. Five may sound limited, based on our "diversity" of the country, but on the other hand, having too many factions might steer away the focus of the story, (creating their own conflicts among the factions) so it is a reasonable number. Beatrice jumps into the category (it's a pun if you watched the movie) that she always felt belonged to, but haven't experienced in there herself. This is a common, yet effective approach to set the audience attended to the story--something she always believed in, and finally facing the reality of the outcome. And we see her struggles, ups and downs. She's not totally-suck-at-everything-heading-down-toward-an-outcast, but someone who can be "flexible", as in she has enough potential to get-by any given situation. From a feminists' view, this brings an interesting notion. We hear women want to have equal rights as any other human beings. That implies everyone should be "treated" equally. Particularly from the movie, Tris has to be completely masculine to get-by for, quite possibly, the rest of her life. But this does not mean she should be a savage. And again, she's not a pathetic peon either. She even has strengths that her "boss" cannot conquer. The echoing message portrayed in the movie is that Tris can be flexible--whether being tough, talented, friendly, as well as "vulnerable"--and this is how Tris is ultimately different from Katniss. I have not read any of the Hunger Games books or Divergent books yet. (Shame on me...) However, as soon as i watched the Divergent movie, i rushed myself to get this copy of box set, because i heard enough fans feeling disappointed that the movie missed so much details from the book. And i understood it right away. If Hunger Games wasn't so much of a saga-of-the-decade-that-will-make-you-jump-out-of-the-seat, then Tris and Divergent may be for you. I will give 5 stars once i finish the novels.

Wow! Wow, wow, wow!! This was incredible! Completely heartbreaking in soooo many ways, but so beautiful! I was a wreck all day when I finished it. I couldn't be around people because I kept bursting into fits of tears (the kind where you're gasping for air, the "ugly cry"); it was pretty embarrassing but so worth it. I had to go for a walk and sort everything out with Jesus because not only was I grieving fictional characters but I also felt personally convicted. What does love look like? It looks like something. Tris understood that. I think I'm still learning. At the same time, Veronica Roth encourages us that it's about the journey (not the destination); change takes time; love takes time, but in the end, it's worth all that you are. Love is reality, so I think that those who decide to bravely explore the last book of Divergent will embark upon a spiritual and emotional journey with Tris and Tobias as well as with themselves. I feel like this book propelled me into a better place with my Beloved because He is love and sacrifice and all things beautiful, and He loves to use books to speak to my heart. ;) Similar to Mockingjay in the Hunger Games series, Allegiant moves a little slower than Divergent and Insurgent. Roth spends a lot of time establishing her dystopian world and what life looks like outside of the faction-filled city of Chicago as well as solidifying the relationship between Tris and Tobias, but the action is guaranteed at the end. Stick with it. All the description is completely necessary to answer all of our questions and to help us understand the extent of Tris' decision. There are so many beautiful nuggets of truth hidden throughout this novel. Know that--even though I compared Allegiant to Mockingjay to help explain the pace--Allegiant is unlike any other book I have read... Roth does something really special and meaningful that many authors wouldn't have the guts to do... I don't think I could do it! Well, not in my own strength anyways. Oh man, please read if you can handle it! So blessed!! ;)

These books were amazing! I just could not get enough of them. I also purchased the book, Four (purchased separately and highly recommend to add to this collection), to continue this amazing journey with these characters. The pace of the story was perfect. I didn't feel like I was dragging through any parts of the books. I purchased the hardbound, boxed set of this trilogy. My only negative comment about this purchase has to do with how the books arrived. The top of the outer box came with some damage that was very disappointing to me. I take great care of my books and this was a major bummer. Other than that, I think that many people will enjoy this series. You won't want to put these books down.

I have read already two of her books but decided to buy this box set to have them all in hard cover because well, they are of my favorites now. Veronica writes like a queen, she's amazing, she takes the words and puts them as she wants. She's an amazing writer and her idea, how she came to the idea, well, she's amazing. Period. Besides, she's the cutest and sexiest writer I've read but that's for other day. The box set is beautiful, the colors of the book jackets, everything, besides it comes with a little mini-book, I don't really know how to call it with cool info about the factions and else. If you've read anything of her you know this is worth buying, if you haven't you should, her books are pretty good. You'll love this box set anyway.

I am not reviewing the content of the books here, because I probably will not do the books any justice. I absolutely LOVE these books but I am only going to review the boxed set and the overall product. I am a VERY VERY VERY picky person when it come to my books and my collection. If I do not have a series in the same size and binding, i just cant have them. So, I really enjoy when they make boxed sets like this. In this case not only is the box very nice but the books are also hardcover with the paper sleeves. I love the uniformity and the look of the set. I was even more overjoyed when the box was the perfect size.... if they manufacture the box too big, when its on your shelf, it looks like you're missing something. Then I've bought other box sets where the box is so precise that once you take one of the books out you fight to get them to all go back in..Seriously not very smart. this one thankfully was great! I was able to remove and place all books back in the box without issue, and was not over sized permitting any gaps. If you have any other questions about the set let me know, but as far as the book review... the movies do it no justice. :P