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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/
