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thisismynickname2
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S/O of recent reads- Divergent Trilogy (includes spoilers)
thisismynickname2
member
abcdevonn you had mentioned recently if folks had read Allegiant to let you know....
I just plowed through not only all three of the trilogy, but also the four short stories written from Four's perspective.
AUGH!
SPOILERS
I am super bothered that Tris died. I get that it played into the themes of sacrifice and bravery and so forth, but it just makes me feel awful for Tobias. Especially reading the short stories from his perspective and knowing more about his character, for God's sake, let the guy be happy for once. Furthermore, Allegiant bothered me because both characters were written with the same voice. Whether that's poor writing or intentional, to show how good the two are together, I don't know. But I would forget who the narrator was. This was better in the four "Four" short stories though.
I also think Tobias is a more compelling character than Tris. Tris is your formulaic heroine and I don't see much motivation for acting how she acts, but in Tobias I see much more motivation for his actions and he seems a more natural protagonist for the overall story.
Oh, and Theo James is my new man crush and thankfully not too young for me.
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Re: S/O of recent reads- Divergent Trilogy (includes spoilers)
Oh jeez, I should NOT have opened this thread :-( I am on the last book and halfway through. Damn damn damn.
Edit: as you can tell, common sense is not my forte.
Yeah that was a shitty ending too.
BOXBOXBOXBOX
Why do the third books of trilogies seem to always suck? The third book in the Maze Runner series was meh too. Although, I didn't hate it so I guess that's something.
To the bolded: Veronica Roth wrote herself into a corner, and Tris' death probably was done purely for shock value. Roth has this great premise but had trouble coming up with the "why?" of her premise (I kind of sped through Allegiant just to finish it, but that genetics stuff probably wouldn't have made sense to me even if I had read normally), and that's where she lost me. Plus, post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, having the main character sacrifice themselves by dying seems a little ham-fisted.
I also listened to Allegiant as an audiobook with a male voice reading for Tobias and a female voice reading for Tris, so I didn't get as much of the "Tris and Four have the same narrative voice" thing, but I believe that thinking she gave the same narrative voice to both of them to show how alike they are is giving her too much credit.
@hellosweetie1015 's rant sums up my exact feelings on the last book. I really enjoyed the first two and the last one was really disappointing. I didn't bother seeing the movies.
@littlepep- I really loved The Maze Runner series. I'm definitely in the minority where I enjoyed it much more than Divergent or HG. The third book wasn't as good as the first two but it didn't leave me disappointed either. Did you read the prequel as well?
I did enjoy the first two books though. But they were no Hunger Games...
I've had the first one sitting in my to-read queue for quite awhile now. I think I need to bump it up the list.
I'm trying to force my way through Frankenstein right now. And I'm maybe a third of the way through The Casual Vacancy but I'm having trouble really getting into it.
Sorry not sorry to make everything about Harry Potter, but J.K. Rowling handled genetic purity wayyy better than Veronica Roth did. The Death Eaters are basically wizard Nazis. The Divergents were considered "bad" until they . . . weren't? It was hard to believe that the higher-ups would let the genetically-imperfect faction people trash the perfect Divergents that they needed. Instead, they just tented their fingers and were like, "Yes, this is proof that they are imperfect . . ."
I do agree that there's a degree of cynicism that leads me to enjoy dystopian novels. Like I consider Fahrenheit 451 to be one of my favorite books, even though last time I "read" it, it was through an audiobook with earbuds, which I think made Ray Bradbury roll over in his grave.
Which, I think, is an issue in YA publishing in general, and specifically certain genres in YA. Dystopian YA was exploding when Divergent came out, and I think they rushed the next two to keep it relevant, because with genre fiction the tide of popularity changes so very quickly. You can see the rush in urban fantasy as well - Cassandra Clare and Holly Black both had books releasing every six months or so there for a while. Maggie Stiefvater is dropping at least two books this year, too, I think. On the other hand, John Green and Sarah Dessen, who write contemporary YA, don't have that press for books. The Fault in Our Stars, for example, released in 2012, and he hasn't had a new book since. Sarah Dessen has about two years between books.
So I think the pressure to stay relevant is on genre writers much heavier than it is literary authors, and some are better up to the challenge than others.
Doesn't stop me raging when a book falls short of expectations, though.
It's alright, totally my fault. I skimmed through and I saw "Tris dying" and I'm like WHAT!? Hahaha I haven't even read anyone else's responses to this thread. Though to be honest even if I did, I would still enjoy the books. I do the same thing as you where I'll read the plot of a movie or book and then read/watch and still enjoy the story.
It's crazy that The Giver, Lord of the Flies, and Flowers in the Attic are all considered YA books. I need to re-read those...