Another Short Hiatus -_- (AYE AYE AYE..)

Herro Everyone :3

Its been awhile since I've made another review...and well....I haven't made much progress on any of my books for some times now...(what? like only one week... ._. )

Anyways, I'll be having a short break soon and hopefully I'll be able to head back to the land of lovely books and dreams for awhile ^_ ^ (SO EXCITED). And I'll be able to make more Reviews :D

Currently reading/ Going to read: Crossed, Insurgent, Pandemonium.

YUP THESE WEEKS WILL BE ALL ABOUT SEQUELS :D

so get yourselves prepared for an awesome, original, one of a kind review from yours truly... (POOOOP)
 (:

｡✿*ﾟﾟ･✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟﾟ･✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ¨ﾟ✎･ ✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ¨ﾟ✎･✿.｡.:*゜*゜Ｙ⌒Ｙ｡+ﾟ☆ﾟ+｡Ｙ⌒Ｙ゜*゜ ☆:*´¨`*:..:*´¨`*:.☆ .。+゜*☆⌒Ｙ⌒Ｙ⌒Ｙ

｡✿*ﾟﾟ･✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟﾟ･✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ¨ﾟ✎･ ✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ¨ﾟ✎･✿.｡.:*゜*゜Ｙ⌒Ｙ｡+ﾟ☆ﾟ+｡Ｙ⌒Ｙ゜*゜ ☆:*´¨`*:..:*´¨`*:.☆ .。+゜*☆⌒Ｙ⌒Ｙ⌒

-LIA <3

Book Review: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Greetings!

⋯ ✰ ⋯ www.hotsymbols.com

So to finish of this month's reading, I started a book so unbelievably peculiar to my type of reading. I've commenced a whole new genre in relations to sort of nonfictional historical moments in time. Leviathan takes place in the beginning of World War I, and although most of the events that take place in the book are indeed fictional like the 'beasties' and creative ships and or mechanisms; Scott Westerfeld also describes the many events that really did take place in World War I.
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( . .)♥
c(”)(”)
                                    

We start with the first main character named Aleksander. He is the prince of Austria-Hungary and also soon to be heir to the throne. Everything changes though when all his people have turned on him and he has to run away from home with a few of his loyal crew members in order to be safe. Our other main character is Deryn Sharp. She is a girl that disguises as a boy in the novel to be able to serve in the British Air Force. In this novel, everyone except her family knows her only as Dylan Sharp, which is her disguised name. Although in the beginning of the novel, these two characters don't know eachother; they meet in the middle of the story and become close allies.

For me this book is worth a good 7 stars. I thought that it was super addicting and creative. I felt as if I was transported into a whole new alien world and I could actually feel the struggles of the airmen like Deryn and even feel the emotion and hardships that both of the characters faced during the novel. It was like whenever an incident happened like if they were caught by a ship or attacked I'd just out of the blue say 'Barking Spiders!' (If you read the book, you'd know what I'm talking about). This completely beats the other bum ragged (another reference, lol) book versions of historical events and with all the sharp images and descriptions of out of-the-world machinery, I felt myself actually liking history.

The theme that I experienced during this novel was about 'trust'. Although Deryn and Alek didn't really know eachother, they both trusted eachother and their allies and had teamwork. Although Deryn still hadn't uncovered her disguise to Alek and her other allies in this novel, Alek though had trusted Deryn with an important secret about his real life. This novel does also fall into the quote of 'Be wise on who you trust' or 'Be careful of who you trust' as well. It doesn't mean to just give any secret of yourself away to just anyone and although I haven't read the second novel yet, I kind of already have a prediction of what might happen.

I also learned a lot about these so called 'Darwinists' and 'Clankers' which are the powers of the war in this novel. Darwinists have breeds of animals called 'Beasties' to use for the war and Clankers build many mechanisms and machinery to help them for the war. Although Darwinists sound pretty interesting to me and I like how they wear cool looking clothes (lol), I don't really acknowledge the transmutation of species. I do though find the Clankers to be pretty awesome and distinct in the novel. The Darwinists do seem to have a good companionship with animals like the Tasmanian Tigers and other so called 'Beasties'.

My favorite character would probably be Deryn. It didn't take much time for me to find out that she was indeed a tough and outspoken girl, and she didn't seem to have a problem fitting in with all the other airmen she worked with. Even Alek was jealous of her at times; being that she'd have done so many extraordinary things. She was also very courageous and brave and always seemed to be excited about everything. She even had the language of a tough airmen with all the 'barking spiders' or 'bum rags' you would read in her dialogue.

°\ ,,,,, /° .(◔␣◔) <( ▓ )> …╝╚ ♥ www.hotsymbols.com

Thinking back about this novel, the pictures were able to give me clarity of how the machinery and beasties looked like. I was also able to depict how the inside of the leviathan looked like. I definitely appreciated the images that were used for this book because it helped me out a bit. If there weren't any pictures at least depicting the leviathan or other ships, I would probably be confused to death...LOL.

                               

                               
                       (Both images are from http://wall.alphacoders.com. No Copyright intended)

My favorite quote(s) from this novel:

“Barking spiders!” 

“And a special thanks for not burning up the whole ship. Including yourself, you daft bum-rag.” 

“Most man's awareness doesn't extend past their dinner plates.” 

-LIA 

´¯) `*.¸.*´ ¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨) (¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.★ ¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)★ …(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.★ www.hotsymbols.com

Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Howdy! ♪

Ok Before getting started with this, I must warn you to brace yourselves for an emotional, unusual, sticky-sweet review, since I well, Haven't done one of these since 'How to save a Life' by Sara Zarr, lol. ✿◕ ‿ ◕✿
I'm going to be honest here, I was a bit hesitant on reading this book, seeing as I thought it'd be all about bees and such, but giving it a go, I discovered that it was about more than that and it was also about 'the coming of age' and family love ^_^

                                           

Lily Melissa Owens (Or lets just call her Lily (¬‿¬)) is our protagonist. She lives with her scathing and abusive father, who also owns a peach farm where she works most of the time to earn allowance. Her father also tells Lily that she accidentally shot her mother when she was only 4 years old, which is why she has now lived motherless. Since the setting of this story takes place during the civil rights movement, she also has an African-American maid named Rosaleen. In the beginning of the story, Rosaleen and Lily head to town to buy some supplies for Lily when suddenly a racist white man comes in their way and insults Rosaleen. Being the independent and brave woman Rosaleen was, she defended herself from the white man and that ended up in Rosaleen being arrested and Lily taken back home by her father. At that moment when Lily is back at her house, she comes up with a plan to get Rosaleen out of jail and run away with her. Although Lily was a little unsure of her plan, all she knew was that she didn't want to live with her father anymore and that she wanted to search for her mother. 

After reading this novel, I gave it 8 stars. I think that it was a very inspirational and emotional novel and it shows the hardships and good times that families go through and how families don't have to have blood relations. The message from this novel teaches us the importance of family and how strong the love of family is. In the beginning, Lily is in search of the truth of her mother and to find out whether she is really dead or alive, but at the end, Lily finds out that she doesn't need to worry or be sad just because she doesn't have her biological mother, and that she has mothers all around her to take care of her and love her. I was also quite inspired by the courage and bravery of Lily and how she wasn't afraid to get caught by anyone. She not only saved Rosaleen's life but also her's as well. She searched for happiness instead of giving up, which should be a lesson for all of us.

As I read this novel, I also learned about the hardships of African-Americans during a time of segregation of races and limited freedom for black people. How it was a very important milestone for a black person to be able to register to vote and how there were consequences for black people for just even communicating with white people. But I also learned about the great businesses that were created by black people like for instance the honey business that belonged to the Boatwright sisters or as Rosaleen would call them the 'Calendar Sisters'. By reading this book, I was also able to learn a lot of things about the life of bees. While August taught Lily about how to take the honey out of the combs and how to calm the bees before opening the combs, I also learned quite a lot myself like that if a queen bee has died, all the other bees would create swarms and fly all over the place until there is a new queen bee. 

My favorite character from this novel would probably be Rosaleen. Although she was alittle annoying and ungrateful at times, she was still a great mother figure to Lily just like all the other sisters. I also liked Lily in the story as well. I thought that she was a courageous and bold girl even though in some parts of the story you'd feel so sorry for her since she normally felt guilty about her mother's death throughout the story. 

I also had a lot of imageries from this novel. My own imageries did relate to the actual settings of the film adaptation(which by the way, was awesome!) I mostly was able to depict the fields and plantations from the story but also other things like the place where August and Lily got the honey and the bee hives.

                                        
                                         (This picture is from usgreenchamber.com. No copyright intended)

♫ My favorite quote(s) from this novel:♫ 

“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.” 

“There is nothing perfect...only life.” 

“You gotta imagine what's never been.” 

“I can't think of anything I'd rather have more than somebody lovin' me.”

-LIA  ♥ ✌

Book Review: The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers

Hi Everyone! (´▼ω▼`)　
*´'`°¤¸¸.•'´`'•.¸¸¤°´'`* ˜*•. ˜”*°•.˜”*°••°*”˜.•°*”˜ .•*˜ ˜”*°•.****.•°*”˜

(SIGHS....)...Have you guys ever been possessed by a book cover that it just put you under it's spell and pretty much forced you to pick it up?? Ah...seems that this situation has happened to me. HMM....The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers. Sounds rather alluring and charming doesn't it? How couldn't you resist the image of sparkly cute silver stars being blown away to the air? Simply how could you resist??! Lets see...having read this book, what do I make of it...

TICK TICK TICK.

                                      

We start out with a girl named Lucy. Now before getting into it I should remind you that this book is indeed narrated in 3rd person, since a lot of people I know normally prefer 1st person instead of 3rd person. Well that could be disregarded anyways. Lucy is about to meet with her boyfriend for the first time since he left her during the summer. She is so excited to see him because she is ready to tell him something important. When she finally meets him, it turns out that he had something to tell Lucy himself, and it wasn't good news. He breaks up with her and Lucy is devastated. Woah, it doesn't end there though (◑‿◐). An anonymous girl gives Lucy something to wipe her tears with that happens to have a note in it telling her to meet the stranger somewhere at midnight. When Lucy meets the girl, it turns out she is offering Lucy something. Pretty much an offer to train Lucy to become a heartbreaker. In the beginning Lucy is confused, but after thinking about Alex and how she might have another chance with him if she becomes a heartbreaker, she takes the offer.

Let's see....Magic...magic to get whatever you want...breaking boys' hearts..going out with every boy you see. Yeah, there isn't alot of messages that I like from this book. The only message I actually understand and is probably the only good message of this story is to be confident about yourself to actually look beautiful. The girls don't boast about themselves and they also tell Lucy that all girls are beautiful and the only way they aren't is if they do not think they are. The girls also teach Lucy that there isn't any magic to being beautiful (since Lucy is very insecure about herself), and while most of the time Lucy thinks that everything is working her way because of magic, it is actually because she is believing in herself.

Ok..now about the bad parts. Number 1: Who the hell is Lucy!?? We don't even get a proper description about how she looks like and I'm just sitting here thinking she's a blank person throughout the whole story. How tall is she? What's her hair color (If i missed it)???? Number 2: Can I just be plain honest here and say that I completely hate these so called sisters. If believing that you can pretty much go out with any guy and break their hearts, saying that it's a 'good thing' is completely bull. And Lucy just flat out believes them and does everything they say as if they are controlling her like a puppet. Even my little cousin (whose only 11 by the way) has more of a back bone than Lucy and can tell for herself that these girls are out to trick her. Who believes things a stranger says!? Oh, maybe Peter from Family Guy (¬_¬).

Oh and I'm not finished. The story ends in a catastrophe and would be the worst script if ever turned into a movie or tv show (Not that it could possibly happen). At the end Lucy becomes this 'whole new person' with a tattoo that only girls of the heartbreakers sisterhood could see. She breaks her friend's heart and has the nerve to tell him that she needs to find him a girlfriend. Geez, Lucy...are you that dense (maybe you are)?? Did YOU feel like getting a new boyfriend when your freaking Alex broke up with you. Nope, didn't think so. Okay, to make this ranting short...the whole story to me was a mess and it was poorly written. I had no idea what any of the characters looked like and couldn't relate to any of them. 

Maybe the story ended too short or whateves, it was still a disaster (using Esteban's voice from Suite Life)(≧ω≦)!!! Lucy is the weirdest person I've ever read about. Look, the dude's a jerk for dumping you...just get over it. You have an awesome cute friend named Tristan who really likes you if you weren't too dense to notice. Stop acting like your life is over and move on! You don't need any ounce of magic or witchcraft to make your life any perfect than how it already is (WORDS OF WISDOM) lol...

I can't even give you any imagery that I had of this book..since I had none!!! What, maybe a dark room!!?? The dark room that Alex used to do whatever to his photos. The bus with the happy seat?? You know, the one where it only took a freaking minute to read about and get nothing off of it besides tears from the broken heart of poor ol' Tristan?

                                            


Favorite quote(s) from this novel:

“The most important thing is believing your beautiful. The benefit of improving one's looks lies largely therein.” 

“We like to say that love is what unites us; however it's fear that we all share.” 

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-LIA <3

UPDATE: There will be a sequel to this book which will be released some times in 2013, I guess I'll read it when it comes out, but I'm not getting my hopes up -_-

Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Yo!

Today I present to you yet another review of a dystopian novel (honestly, I can't get enough of them these days!). When I read dystopian themed novels, I am able to actually imagine every good genre being mixed together to give us something extraordinary and never though up of. It's like reading a fantasy story, yet again it's sort of like reality. Then there's romance; then adventure; then action, and it all leads up to a jaw dropping ending. But of course there's always a sequel to make up for it and save us from hanging from a cliff.

So lets begin with this new review of 'Delirium'.....

                                   

Our protagonist is named Lena Haloway, whose last name also goes by the name 'Tiddle', which is her aunt's last name. In her society, there is a disease called 'Amor Deliria Nervosa' which is very dangerous if a person  contracted it. Okay, I know what you all who haven't read this book yet would say. 'What the heebie jeebies is Amor Deliria Nervosa!?'. Well there is only one way to answer that question for you...it means falling in love. YES, this society disapproves of love and during a few pages of the novel, you'll learn that the society believes that love is a dangerous disease that could make people go ballistic and kill people, including themselves. In chapter 10, it also states all the potential symptoms of Deliria including difficulty focusing and dry mouth which is just some of the symptoms of phase 1, then in phase 2, the symptoms get worse such as paranoia and rapid weight loss or weight gain. The last phase which is phase 4 has the most fatal symptoms such as emotional or physical paralysis and even death. There is a cure for this so called disease though, which takes a surgical procedure, and it so happens that Lena, who is also 18 in the novel, will be getting her procedure very soon.

Although Lena is super duper obedient to the regulations and laws and even appears to inhibit any kind of love she feels, that all ends when she meets this guy named Alex. When she first sees him, she doesn't know what to think. First of all, its already overwhelming, being that he is a male and Lena has never had a regular conversation with a male boy before, but it's also something about Alex that makes Lena feel different and even happy. Lena soon falls in love with Alex, and tries her best to hide her love for him from her friends and family members. The story then takes a dramatic turn and Lena's life changes forever.

This novel doesn't just focus on Lena's relationship with her new boyfriend Alex, but it focuses a lot on the family type of love other then the romantic type. Lena knows that she loves her family members and her best friend Hana, but being she lives in a society that disapproves of love, she begins to feel uneasy about her relationships with any of her family members. And although many of the people in her lives have talked about her mother, saying that she was a crazy person who didn't care about her life and her children's lives, Lena can't bring herself to hate her mom, and actually misses her dearly. In the novel, Lena learns that love isn't evil at all and it is what we need to be able to get through our lives and live our lives to the best extent.

I'd give this novel 9 stars, and I thought that it was a splendid read and I had no regrets what so ever for even picking the book up. Although the beginning and few chapters were sort of a lag to me, when she met Alex it seemed that her whole attitude and personality hopped on a meadow of flowers and the book seemed to light up. I enjoyed reading about her relationship with Hana and her conversations with her as well. I also loved reading about Lena's 2 younger cousins Grace and Jenny. Whenever Lena narrated about them, I had no other reaction than 'Awww!' or 'Oh my gosh, they are so cute!'. And although Lena seemed a little too obedient in the beginning, she showed us the badass in her, and her ability to explore all over Portland for whatever reason it may have been (like meeting Alex or making sure Hana was okay) without getting caught by the regulators.

My favorite character from this novel would have to be Hana. To me she seemed like the best BFF any girl could ever have. Not only was Lena able to describe how beautiful she was, but she also stuck with Lena even after all the harsh words Lena was confronting her with during the story. She didn't seem to take offense from all the secrets that Lena had been keeping from her, and honestly if that was me, I'd be pissed if my friends were keeping all those exciting secrets from me for that long, lol. I also like how Hana is just so free spirited and also open about it to Lena and how fun she can be when they're together.

When I was reading this novel, for the setting, I thought about regular neighborhoods like one that I live in, and also forests and dark woods when I thought about the wilds. I was able to depict the homestead where Alex once lived and all the trailers that encircled it.

                          

                           


Favorite Quote(s) from the novel:

“You can't be happy unless you're unhappy sometimes".”

“I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up.” 

“Everyone is asleep. They've all been asleep for years. You seemed ... awake.' Alex is whispering now. He closes his eyes, opens them again.'I'm tired of sleeping.” 

“You, Lena Haloway,” she says, “are a legend.”

-LIA <3

Book Review: Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Whats Up!?

So apart from watching a whole bunch of chick flicks and cheesy sitcoms this week, there...well hasn't been anything new, I guess. My excitement and enthusiasm for a novel has fell flat to the ground, and who knows what can lift it up again. I just finished reading 'Catching Jordan', and will admit that it's a pretty funny novel. It'll get you through those really stressful days where you wouldn't mind reading anything; as long as it has a bit of humor in it. I must also admit that this isn't the type of novel to be reading with ...uh, lets say your little brother! Cuz, seriously it was going great for a few pages, and then there came all the unnecessary and
restricted language and all, so I quickly closed it at that time and gave my bro an awkward smile as I suggest we read another Dr Seuss Book. Well, instead of giving of a ranting intro, lets just get into it, shall we!

                                       

Ok, so Jordan Woods, also our protagonist of the book is a female quarterback and captain for her High School football team. Now this girl has some big dreams and plans that she wants to accomplish. Not only enroll in the university of her dreams which is in Alabama, but also play for her dream team and become a football star like her dad. Things are going pretty smoothly at this point, and we learn about some of Jordan's pals and team mates, like JJ, Carter, and Henry, who she has known for over 10 years. We also learn about some of the not so great cheerleaders who Jordan sort of despises.

Going further into the book, the football coach has welcomed a new football player (who is also a quarterback, like Jordan) to the team, and Jordan, who normally stays under control and is never crazy about a guy, is well, crazy about a guy. She can't seem to take her eyes of off him (whose name is also Ty), and he is also all she thinks about. They start becoming closer (since they'll have to be working together), and Ty starts talking to her more. Things between them go pretty instense after a while (or shall I say by a number of days), and she and her long time best buddy Henry, start having problems. With Ty becoming Jordan's boyfriend and all, Henry feels that Jordan and him won't be able to do what they normally do together, that is hanging out at her place and usually sleeping over. He starts isolating himself from Jordan, which makes her feel upset and wishing that she could have the old Henry back. She also finds out the news, (which wasn't really a secret since everyone apparently knew) about how Henry feels about her, and Jordan, sort of regretting making it official with Ty, wishes that she and Henry can be like they were before towards eachother, open and honest.

While learning and making your way through the plot of Jordan and Henry and how they will work out their relationship, you also learn about Jordan and her dreams of going to a university in Alabama. Things change though when Jordan finds out that Alabama really isn't interested in her, and she doesn't know where else she will go. You will also learn about Jordan's relationship with her father, and how he becomes more supportive of Jordan and her dreams.

The novel has multiple messages to the reader, and doesn't just bring attention to one topic or plot. One message would be to extend our options and not just fight our way to one desire. In the novel, Jordan learns to be able to widen her options and be able to settle with other choices instead of the one she'd been dreaming of, because sometimes we must understand that not all these things can really be accomplished, and we should always have other options to look at. Another message would also be to follow your heart when it comes to love. Although Jordan knows that she feels warm and fuzzy when she's with Ty, she also knows that what she feels for Henry is even stronger.

Although this novel was a pretty good read, I didn't find myself actually getting into it, and I was curiously wondering when it was all going to end. I didn't really find any climaxes thrilling and to me; the drama was also really slow, so I didn't know how to actually react to anything that was going on. I felt like Jordan and Henry weren't really having a problem with one another, because one day you'd see them totally shun themselves from one another, and another day you'd see them acting as if nothing had actually happened. It was quite frustrating for me because I really wanted to like it; and I didn't find myself understanding one bit about Jordan's attitude and constant change of moods!

If I were to choose a favorite character; hands down, that'll be Henry! To me, he was the only actual interesting character EVER in the novel. Ty was super boring, and to me, he was just like any other guy you'd find in your school. Jordan frustrated me a lot, and I hated how she was so awkward with her own friends sometimes. Henry actually stood out to me, and I thought that he was a great friend that every person would love (Heck, I want him to be my friend!)

When I think about the setting and imagery that I had, I'd say that most of the time, I focused more on football fields and backyards. I did imagine the river that Henry and Jordan skipped rocks in and also the dock where Jordan sometimes wrote in her journal and where she swam and had her first kiss with Ty.

                               
                                  (This picture is from Thinkofone.wordpress.com No copyright intended)

My Favorite Quote(s) from the novel:

“When unrequited love is the most expensive thing on the menu, sometimes you settle for the daily special.” 

“Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. To get something better, you know?”

“Jordan, he's loved you forever. It's obvious. Have you not seen how he stares at you?”

“You don't need anyone's permission to do what you love. You should just do it.”

-Lia <3

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Hi Guys!

Well I'm back with another review for an awesome novel that I read ...well just about 10 minutes ago. I have a whole lot of mixed feelings at this moment particularly about the book. I'm sure every reader knows that feeling of their life kind of ending after reading a really great and memorable book. That's exactly the situation to define my feelings after having read this book.

                                        

So the novel focuses on a young teenage girl named Beatrice Prior. She lives in a world similar to many other dystopian themed societies; the thing that significantly separates her world from many other ones in dystopian novels are the 5 factions or parties of her society. There is Abnegation meaning Selfless, Dauntless meaning Brave, Amity meaning Peaceful, Erudite meaning Intelligent, and Candor meaning Honest. Beatrice who was born an Abnegation must make a choice of which faction she will choose and stay with for the rest of her life.  During her choosing ceremony, she apparently chooses to be Dauntless after watching her brother switch from his original faction to a different one himself. While Beatrice feels guilty for her action (since switching from your original faction to a different one is considered betrayal), she feels sort of relieved of it since she she does not think she is as selfless as she seems. Before the choosing ceremony, she took an aptitude test to check which faction would be right for her. Her results turned out to be inconclusive and 'dangerous' as the lady monitoring the test had said.

In the Dauntless compound, Beatrice changes her name to 'Tris' and meets many different initiates like herself who have switched from different factions. Dauntless trainees have to go through many different initiations to test their skills and bravery. Although it was very challenging and toilsome for Tris at the beginning, she learns to endure them and becomes strong and undaunted at the end of the initiations. I really enjoyed this book, and I think that I'm also ready to claim it as my favorite book so far since reading 'Matched'. There were a lot of intense parts of the book and even some where I just had to cringe at the thought of it, since there were a large amount of fighting parts. There were also some parts that left me quite teary eyed..but I'd rather not point them out, cuz that'll give away a lot of spoilers!

I'd give this novel about 9 stars for creative characters and parts of the novel that were just able to make my heart bolt. I really like how Veronica creatively wrote this novel with details in the setting and throughout the story that carefully interpreted the plot and conflict without putting anyone to sleep. I found Tris's friends and just the characters of her society in general very interesting and fun. I loved Christina and Will's humor in the novel and I even found Peter and his gang's intimidation towards Tris very engaging, although I wanted to pound their faces as much as Tris wanted to.

The theme of this novel is of course bravery and heroism, but it is also about rebelling to the rules of society as my theory of dystopian themes have always been looking to it as. It is also about romance between Tris and her instructor 'Four', who I find the most awesomest guy and probably my favorite male character ever! I think that this book would be great for readers who love action and adventure, but at the same time growing romance and friendship. It is sort of like the Hunger Games or lets say Uglies in a way, but there is something about this novel that is able to separate itself from the rest of the dystopian genres. I dont know about what you guys think, so maybe you should pick up the book and see for yourself!

My favorite character from this novel, other than Four, would probably be Christina. Although she did shun herself from Tris after scoring a lower rank than her, I thought she was a great friend. She let Tris wear her black dress and also her eye pencil. She was able to make Tris feel good about herself while also expressing herself in a spontaneous and sometimes silly way, which was also able to make me happy. In some parts of the book, I sort of found Tris to be a little annoying. I think it was about some of her decisions that she made in the novel, or maybe how she acted towards people. Sometimes I found her really uninteresting to read about, especially when she was crying (which she did in a lot of parts of the novel). She was strong though and was able to prove that there was a dauntless somewhere in her.

Imaging myself in Tris's world, I was able to imagine a large city sort of like any other city, but also sort of futuristic. I was able to imagine the fast trains that she would leap out off to land on roofs and buildings with many glass windows as she would describe them.


                     
    (This picture is by Colin Geller. This picture is from coolvibe.com. No copyright intended.)

The awesome part about this book, is that they are making it into a movie! That's something to get me relieved! At last I will finally be able to watch the film adaption of a novel that I've read! Hopefully, It will be released in 2014 and I'm thinking that cast auditions are still going on for many roles. Actress Shailene Woodley has already been given the role of Tris, so I'm very excited to see how she will portray her. ^~^

Favorite Quote(s) from the book:

“Politeness is deception in pretty packaging.” 

“Peter would probably throw a party if I stopped breathing.'
'Well,' he says, 'I would only go if there was cake.”

“Sometimes, the best way to help someone is just to be near them.” 

-Lia <3