Allegiant by Veronica Roth (Divergent #3) ★★☆☆☆ 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. I’ve been looking forward to this book’s release for months. I love the Divergent series and recommend it to everyone. But I feel like even two stars is generous for Allegiant. I was really disappointed with it; Roth’s world-building just completely fell apart, the believability of Tris’ world suffered, and the ending just sucked. SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT The main part of the plot seemed really disconnected from the first two books, for starters. The Bureau for Genetic Welfare and the whole idea of “damaged” genes was really hard for me to believe. The science behind it is pretty shaky, and it was a totally different direction from where the books were going at the end of Insurgent. It’s like Roth panicked and changed her mind at the last second, then scrambled to make it connect. There were also a lot of plot points that seemed thrown in or unnecessary, like Uriah’s death. Just to injure him in the attack would have been enough, and his death was glanced over. In the past two books, when a character’s death was barely noted, it was always because they were in the middle of a battle and there was no time to grieve, but there was no such excuse for Uriah. Not to mention the ending. There was absolutely no reason for Roth to kill Tris. Her death was unnecessary and I hated the way Roth handled it, almost glancing over it until Tobias is told. I could rant on for hours about this, but I won’t. I’ll just say that I think killing Tris was the worst decision Roth could have made. Overall I almost hated Allegiant. If Roth had ended it better, without killing Tris and then tying things in a pretty bow, it might have been okay. It still would have been a strange turn for the series, but the ending just ruined it, and nearly ruins the whole series for me. My advice is not to read it and pretend Tris’ story stopped at Insurgent.
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The Jungle by Upton Sinclair ★★☆☆☆ In some of the most harrowing scenes ever written in modern literature, Upton Sinclair vividly depicted factory life in Chicago in the first years of the twentieth century. The horrors of the slaughterhouse, their barbarous working conditions… the crushing poverty, the disease, and the despair - he revealed all through the eyes of Jurgis Rudkus, a young immigrant who came to the New World to build a home for himself and his family. Sinclair’s writing style is somewhat dense, some of his characters flat and plot points improbable. But at the same time, it’s interesting and rife with scandals and insights into life in the early twentieth century. Sinclair is an expert at making every misfortune that falls Jurgis and his family personal to the reader, even if we don’t live in the early 1900s. Parts of this book had me on the edge of my seat, praying for Jurgis’ life right along with him. However, towards the end (after chapter 28 or so), Sinclair deviated from his story of the stockyards and tyrannical packers to talk politics and Socialism. The last few chapters read more like propaganda pamphlets than a novel, and Jurgis actually has very little to do in them besides listen to long political speeches and debates. Up until that point, though, Sinclair kept me interested in every paragraph, and I enjoyed his book. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien ★★☆☆☆ Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who wanted to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf came along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo was drawn into their quest, facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders, and worse unknown dangers. Finally, it was Bilbo–alone and unaided–who had to confront the great dragon Smaug, the terror of an entire countryside … I am not completely in love with The Hobbit. I do like it, but it wasn’t what I expected. It’s more a problem of the hype being so great, the book could never live up to it. This may be one of the few instances where the movie is better than the book. The book was long-winded and a little boring at times. It keeps going long after it could have ended, and I almost didn't want to read anymore. There are definitely adventurous, exciting parts of the book, and they were great, but there was so much filler in between them I nearly fell asleep. Some of them - like killing the dragon - were mentioned only in passing. Because there are so many characters, there isn't a lot of character development. Bilbo changes through the story, but almost no one else does. There are also no female characters in the entire book. Middle Earth is complicated, and Tolkien obviously put a lot of effort into his world-building, though. He invented a language, for god's sake! Learning about the different peoples and creatures inhabiting Middle Earth was fascinating and my favorite part of the book. The Sin-Eater’s Confession by Ilsa J. Bick ★★☆☆☆ People in Merit, Wisconsin, always said Jimmy was … “you know.” But people said all sorts of stupid stuff. Nobody really knew anything. Nobody really knew Jimmy. I guess you could say I knew Jimmy as well as anyone (which was not very well). I knew what scared him. And I knew he had dreams-even if I didn’t understand them. Even if he nearly ruined my life to pursue them. Jimmy’s dead now, and I definitely know that better than anyone. I know about blood and bone and how bodies decompose. I know about shadows and stones and hatchets. I know what a last cry for help sounds like. I know what blood looks like on my own hands. What I don’t know is if I can trust my own eyes. I don’t know who threw the stone. Who swung the hatchet? Who are the shadows? What do the living owe the dead? The air of mystery around this book - the blood-spattered cover, the lack of description in the blurb - drew me in. And while I found the book interesting, I wasn’t really a fan of it. That air of mystery stayed throughout, but it no longer seemed like part of the story, if you know what I mean. It seemed more like Ben was confused and trying to give his confusion to the reader. In some parts, the book was homophobic and sexist. Which, okay, I get, it’s rural Wisconsin and that’s part of the story. But for Ben to go to the point of denying Jimmy’s sexuality was just a little too far. And then there was the whole thing with Ben questioning his sexuality because of a picture he hadn’t agreed to have taken. I didn’t like that Ben was so scared of being found guilty - of something he didn’t do - and his solution to that was to act guilty and withhold evidence, and then to go a little insane. I didn’t hate this book. Bick is extremely good at writing suspenseful scenes, and her descriptive language was awesome. But her book didn’t really end, there was no resolution, no tying of loose ends. Most of what it did was just confuse me. Small Damages by Beth Kephart ★★☆☆☆ It’s senior year, and while Kenzie should be looking forward to prom and starting college in the fall, she is mourning the loss of her father. She finds solace in the one person she trusts, her boyfriend, and she soon finds herself pregnant. Kenzie’s boyfriend and mother do not understand her determination to keep the baby. She is sent to southern Spain for the summer, where she will live out her pregnancy as a cook’s assistant on a bull ranch, and her baby will be adopted by a Spanish couple. Alone and resentful in a foreign country, Kenzie is at first sullen and difficult. She begins to open her eyes and her heart to the beauty that is all around her and inside of her. I liked Small Damages well enough. It didn’t astonish me, but it was a different kind of story, and a good one to boot. The one thing that both made the book and broke it was the writing style. While beautiful and poetic, it also shrouded the story in so much metaphor and symbolism. Still, the story was memorable, and I liked that Kephart didn't portray Kenzie as a ditzy, irresponsible girl just because she was pregnant. The other characters were well-developed and interesting as well. And Spain - Spain was the best setting this story could receive, and with Kephart’s writing, Spain seems alive and thriving under Kenzie’s feet. The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse ★★☆☆☆ As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up. The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway. As dystopian books go, there are much better ones than The Forsaken. The plotline is great, but it isn’t executed very well. The way Stasse writes creates a bit of disconnect to the characters, and readers don’t get to see them as many-sided. At times the relationships between characters are hopelessly confusing, like that of Alenna and David. Still, The Forsaken doesn’t fall very far down the ranks. The civil war between the Wheel’s inhabitants - those belonging to a religious cult run by the only elder on the island, and those who haven’t gone crazy - is interesting and adds a lot to the book. A few good plot twists thrown in makeThe Forsaken a good read, if not a head-over-heels-in-love one. Plus it has a really awesome cover. |
Once Upon a Time...As a longtime lover of stories and a believer in the power and magic of books, I've spent my life seeking out the best reads. This blog is dedicated to reviewing the books I read - good, bad, or magnificent - to help other readers find their next favorite books. Currently ReadingKing Zeno
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