YA Fiction / Dystopian
ALA Best Fiction for Young Adult Readers,
I was able to snag this Advance Release Copy at the TLA Conference in April, and YES, I got it signed and below is a picture of me with the author, Veronica Roth, signing my book. YESSSSSS again! As I waited in line to be one of the first to get this yet-to-be-published sequel to the most awesome Divergent, I wondered what it must be like to be Ms. Roth. At the tender age of 23, she's set for life and can look out amongst the middle-aged people like me, who jockeyed for a place in line, and think, "Dang, I hope I never have to sink to that level."
So the book. . . you know I'm not really into spoilers, but man, could I spoil this one for everyone. I will say that divergence (what it is to be Divergent) is more fully explored and explained, and that makes for some interesting twists and turns in the story. Tris is really dealing with the implications and emotional destruction of what she did in the first book, and at times I got impatient with that. Deal with it! Talk to someone! Work through it already! I really thought the book started off a bit slow, but it may have just been my impatience at getting the story rolling so I could find out where it was all going. I dunno. It was worth wading through the slowness to get to the meat of the story. Talk about conspiracies and confusion and the shaking up of everything that had been accepted as truth in their society. Good is not necessarily good, bad might be good, evil may not be in the form it seems. And trust is not easily given or received.
******WARNING: JUST A LITTLE SPOILER ABOUT TRIS & FOUR******
I was happy that this didn't turn into a cheesy romance between Tris and Four, and truly I was surprised that their relationship was survived in spite of the hardships and the psychological scars they both have. At times, they both displayed very real teenager-ish behavior, which can be the kiss of death. But they continued to be drawn back together and were really pretty patient with each other, considering how messed-up they each are. I was very glad that the romance aspect was not the focus and did not take away from the story.
****YOU MAY NOW SAFELY RETURN TO THE NON-SPOILER PART OF THE SHOW****
For the careful reader, there are plenty of hints and a bit of foreshadowing about where the book ends. I was not totally surprised by the ending -- maybe a bit by the specifics of it -- but I thought it was great because Roth hasn't boxed herself in. There are many directions she could go with it.
And here's a cool little trailer about it. . .
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