Star Rating

A lot of people are giving this book low stars. I gave this 4 stars because . . . well, Veronica Roth must have iron writers armor and a keyboard of steel. She wrote with power and wrote the story exactly how it should of ended. I know a lot of people complain about the ending, but sometimes, well-written and real life endings are extremely hard for some readers.

Book Details

Allegiant by Veronic Roth was published by Katherine Tegen Books in October 2013. It had 545 pages.

The novel’s premise

Tris and Tobias leave Chicago, everything they have ever known, and see the surrounding world only to find out the people outside their windy city are not quite as oblivious of Chicago as they were led to believe.

Point of View

Quality: Needs Improvement

So in this third book, Veronica switches points of view between Tris and Tobias. This was not executed well. The only difference between the points of view was that under each chapter heading, the point of view character was listed: Tris or Tobias.

This POV switching didn’t work well for me. After two books of exclusively Tris’s point of view, Veronica needed to write in some obvious tag at the start of each Tobias chapter. Multiple times I was pages into the chapter before I realized the point of view was Tobias’s.

Also, I didn’t get the feel that Tobias had his own personality. In writing his chapters, Veronica really needed to give him his own voice. It seemed like we were getting Tobias’s point of view from Tris’s voice. To make matter’s worse, Tobias’s voice wasn’t exactly a man’s voice.

Editing

Quality: Standard

I highlighted a single comma overuse issue.

However the content editor should have helped with the point of view issues.

Imagination and Uniqueness

The imagination seemed quite limited. Veronica let us out of Chicago but she didn’t seem to be able to show us the world very well. We got to see a single government facility and a single fringe neighborhood.

There were a lot of ways the outside world could have gone. Being stuck in a government facility the whole book, except for Tris’s single trip to the fringe, which while good, was not enough on its own.

Characters

This is the third book, so by now we are all familiar with Beatrice Prior (Tris) and Tobias Eaton (Four), and their budding romance. Though the relationship wasn’t as awesome as it could have been after last been when it seemed so stressed. There relationship was once again stressed.

The addition of a few characters from outside helped this book along. However, Tris and Tobias remained the focus.

There were a lot of side characters and that made it hard to focus on any particular side plot and this story really needed some better side plots.

eBook Quality

Quality: High

Very high quality eBook and extremely easy to read.

About the Author

Veronica Roth is from Chicago, in fact, she and her husband still live there.

While a student, she often chose to work on the story that would become Divergent instead of doing her homework.

I am going suggest that you do your homework first and stay in school.

Apart from writing and reading, I like to cook.

— Quotes form Harper Collins web site

After this series we know that Veronica has no qualms about killing characters and we love to hate her for it.

Star Rating

This one is 4 stars because it didn’t keep me up reading, but I still liked it. I would have liked to see Tris overcome her PTSD a little better and not freak out constantly. The idea that she couldn’t use a gun just wasn’t believable to me. The paintball guns didn’t affect her and they should have either affected her or helped her get over shooting Will.

The relationship between Tris and Tobias was done pretty well but wasn’t enjoyable because it was the crappy keep-secrets-and-drift-apart part of the relationship. Very believable and well-written, but again, not fun.

The plot was pretty cool. Divided factions, rise of the factionless, and an interesting ending.

Book Details

Insurgent by Veronica Roth is published by HarperCollins and released in 2012. Having reviewed, the first book, we decided to review the second book. The book is 544 pages and may have been just bit too long for the content.

Like in Divergent, the story is told from Tris’s point of view and is in present tense, which after reading Divergent, I am already accustomed to.

The novel’s premise

With the attack on Abnegation by the Erudite leaving most of the political leaders dead, Tris and Tobias must find a way to protect those around them in the midst of war.

Editing

Quality: High

I highlighted two obnoxious comma issues where the comma should not have been there. Other than being disrupted by these two commas, the book was pretty well edited.

Imagination and Uniqueness

I think she struggled to be imaginative in this book a little. She rode her imagination from Divergent, which fortunately had big enough shoulders to ride on.

The Erudite headquarters could have been described a bit better. A lot was left to my imagination, and fortunately I have a good one, which is why I like books better than some who don’t have their own huge imagination.

Characters

Beatrice Prior (Tris) is a no longer a simple character. She is a short blond girl who now struggles with PTSD. I still liked her, but I started to feel a hit of annoyance directed at her.

Tobias Eaton (Four), son of Marcus Eaton (the last living political leader) and Evelyn Johnson-Eaton (leader of the factionless) becomes a leader himself. He doesn’t trust his mother or father.

The side characters need some descriptive work. I am confused with Christina’s character. Sometimes she writes her like a pretty blond but she was described with short black hair and dark brown skin. I think she needs to do a better job with the side characters.

eBook Quality

Quality: Average

Except for one huge editing issue, the eBook was pretty good. Unfortunately the editing issue occurred over and over again. The problem was that every time a new section (chapter’s in Veronica Roth’s books seem to have sections) starts, there should be a divider. It could be a space, or a symbol or three asterisks *** or something. Unfortunately there was nothing. So the start of the new section was just the next paragraph. However, there is no indent at the start of a new section. So it looked like she had about 45 paragraphs missing an indent. Oops!

I almost dropped a star for this, but didn’t quite feel this eBook issue was bad enough to warrant a dropped star. If this issue isn’t fixed soon, I may come back and drop at least a half star.

About the Author

Veronica Roth is from Chicago, in fact, she and her husband still live there.

She studied creative writing at Northwestern University. While some who study creative writing, never learn to actually write a good book, she seems to have figured it out.

In an interview posted on GoodReads, Veronica said: “When I was 16, I would have chosen Candor.”

Star Rating

This book gets five stars because I couldn’t put it down. I read until 3:00 A.M. two days in a row because it was that enthralling.

Book Details

Divergent by Veronica Roth is published by HarperCollins and released in 2011. With the movie coming out, we decided to review it. The book is approximately 500 pages.

The story is told from Tris’s point of view and is in present tense, which is a little annoying at first, but I got over it quickly.

The novel’s premise

In a world that is limited to the borders of post apocalyptic Chicago, the remaining society is divided into different factions. Each faction focuses on a different aspect of humanity such as selflessness, courage, honestly, knowledge, etc. Beatrice Prior grew up in Abnegation, the faction for selflessness, but at age 16, she gets to choose whether to stay in her faction or transfer.

Editing

Quality: High

This book had pretty much zero editing issues. I highlight all the issues I find, and this was the first book in a while to be devoid of editing issues.

Imagination and Uniqueness

Veronica Roth limits her dystopian world to only the city of Chicago, but that does not limit her imagination. The different factions give her plenty of material to play with. Her imagination is greatest in how she imagined this world’s society.

Characters

Beatrice Prior (Tris) is a simple character. She is a short blond girl who struggles with being selfless. I immediately liked this character and just couldn’t stop reading about her.

Tobias Eaton (Four) is in Dauntless, a faction for courage, and his character gets pretty deep.

I struggled a bit with the other characters training with her. They are part of the book often, but I would imagine them one way but then she would describe them another. Perhaps clearer descriptions of them and descriptive character tags used throughout would have helped.

eBook Quality

Quality: High

This eBook was a perfect reading experience.

About the Author

Veronica Roth is from Chicago, in fact, she and her husband still live there.

She studied creative writing at Northwestern University. While some who study creative writing, never learn to actually write a good book, she seems to have figured it out.