Allegiant (Divergent, #3) by Veronica Roth

Originally written on November 19, 2013

Allegiant (Divergent, #3) by Veronica Roth

Hardcover, 526 pages

Published by Katherine Tegan Books on October 22, 2013

Rating: 5 stars

Summary (Goodreads):

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. 


Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

**Note: This review may contain spoilers

My Thoughts:
Where to begin with this book? It takes the mind on a whirlwind of a ride, making one both feel immense joy and deafening heartbreak. 

The story begins with the factions in disarray, and the factionless in charge. The video of the reset of memories has just been shown, and the lives of many are drastically changed. Each chapter alternates between the first person point of view of the two main characters - Tris, the speaker of the first two books, and Tobias, or as others call him, Four, her boyfriend. Queue in the Allegiant, a rebel group who is wanting to reinstate the faction process into everyone’s lives. This is where Tris and her friends end up. They are left no other choice, being unhappy with the choices made by factionless leader, and Tobias’s mother, Evelyn. Grouping up with the Allegiant, Tris, Tobias, Tori, Christina, Uriah, Peter, and Caleb make their way out of the city and into the outside world, a place they have never stepped foot in before. 

As they begin to explore the new world, they are taken to a place known as the Bureau, run by the people controlling what is going on in the city they had come from. The city more commonly known as Chicago. They are running an experiment and have been watching them for years, making notes and doing what they can to fix what they call the Genetically Damaged people. This causes many to question all that has happened to them and what their genes really mean, and cause more and more disarray between what they grew up believing and what is actually true. Many more events occur, along with new questions, some shocking answers, and a bulldozer of emotions that bring the characters and their world to a new place - one far different than what it has been. 

The story follows a brilliant plot line with twists and turns that will keep you reading until the final page when you finally can start wiping the tears off your face you’ve ignored to stay engrossed in the story till the end. 

★★★★★

The Transfer: A Divergent Story (Divergent, #0.1) By Veronica Roth

Originally written on October 29, 2013

The Transfer: A Divergent Story (Divergent, #0.1) by Veronica Roth

ebook; 34 pages

Published by Katherine Tegan Books on September 3, 2013

Rating: 5 stars

Summary (Goodreads):
More Four! Fans of the Divergent series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be thrilled by "The Transfer," the first of four new short stories told from Four’s perspective. Each brief story explores the world of the Divergent series through the eyes of the mysterious but charismatic Tobias Eaton, revealing previously unknown facets of his personality, backstory, and relationships

NOTE: if you haven't read Divergent, this review will have some spoilers
My Thoughts:
The Transfer by Veronica Roth is a short story that follows the unforgettable Tobias “Four” Eaton through his time before choosing his path in his society. 

This short story begins with Tobias waking up from his aptitude test simulation. He goes through the motions of what his father has been coaching him to do, and he is left with the aptitude of Abnegation, even though, as most readers know from the main story, that he is, in fact, Divergent. 

After this, it follows his struggle between whether he should remain where he is safe, thinking he may stay happy in his safeness, or if he should rebel and change his life, be a different person, and leave his abusive father behind. 

Tobias has no idea what he is going to do until it’s the time to choose. He is called up during the choosing ceremony, and, in this fateful time, makes a hasty decision to do what he knows is best.

He chooses to become Dauntless. 

As the story goes on you get to read and experience the internal struggle of Tobias and the way his decisions affect him right off the bat, as we previously had only seen how he is years later in the main series. By the end of this story, the way he receives his new name, Four, is revealed to the readers in a more in-depth way than explained in the main series, and, as a reader with an intense love for the series, I feel that the story broadens the love a reader will have for Tobias, or Four, whichever you prefer to call him at any given time. It gives you good insight to how he is and why he turned out the person he is “today” or when the main series takes place. All we can do now is anxiously await the next installment of his story, the second of four short stories about Four.

★★★★★

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Originally written on October 29, 2013

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

nook book (ebook); 442 pages

Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on December 18, 2007 (originally 2005)

Rating: 5 stars

Summary (Goodreads):

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.


But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down

My Thoughts:
The Book Thief. Where do I start with The Book Thief?

The Book Thief is a Young Adult Historical fiction book written by Markus Zusak. It takes place during World War II in Nazi Germany, following a young girl by the name of Liesel Meminger, and narrated by Death.

Liesel is known as the book thief. She caught the eye of Death during her first encounter with him, the death of her little brother. During his funeral, she steals a book from the learning gravedigger called The Gravedigger’s Handbook. After this, Death becomes interested and begins telling her story. 

Unable to read and in a new town with a new family and all new environments, Liesel starts out behind all the other kids her age. She is left to be a part of the younger kids’ class instead of with her own age group. This infuriates her to no end. Not only that, but Liesel is haunted by the nightmare of her brother’s death, waking up every night in terror. Her new Papa, however, comes in to see her every night. This is how Liesel’s life goes by.

Then, the fateful night occurs where she wakes up drenched, having peed the bed. Liesel is ashamed and upset. Papa then goes to take the bedsheets off and help her get cleaned up, but ends up finding her stolen book. This leads to him and Liesel reading night after night, practicing words and learning new things. Though she was still behind, she was moved up to her age group, and Liesel grew as a reader and as a person. Little did she know, on that heartbreaking, tearful day her brother was buried, a bunch of dominoes were being set off, and it would be the start of her book thievery. 

Though surrounded by death and destruction on several occasions, Liesel lives on, working her hardest to learn and understand any and every word, absorb their stories, and love them unconditionally. She faces hardships no person should ever have to deal with, and experiences happiness in ways words are unfit to describe. Though not a quick read, and with a very unhappy ending, the book, oddly enough, left me satisfied. If you don’t like that type of thing, this book is definitely not for you, and if you really just want to be entertained for a while, it isn’t either. This book is more for those wanting to sit and ponder with the protagonist, love with them, learn with them, and really, just experience their life with them, whether it’s happy, sad, climactic, anticlimactic, any and all of these things. It’s for anyone who just wants to experience the life of a little girl who is growing up through all this, regardless of how it turns out. 

Really, I don’t know how to end this review. This book will most likely leave you crying, or at least leave your heart hurting in the end, and you’ll really feel for this girl. You’ll love her unconditionally, even with the flaws you know and she knows she has. Overall, you’ll be left satisfied with the course life takes Liesel on. 

★★★★★+