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
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