This is one of those books that would have sneaked up on me as a movie like "The Hunger Games", hadn't it been for a Twitter friend ( Thanks Nat!). The third part of this trilogy is due for release the next year. Additionally, Warner Bros have already purchased the rights and are in the screenplay-writing stage of the first movie. One hell of a dystopian year this is turning out to be!
The premise of this Young Adult fiction (YA) is pretty much akin to "The Hunger Games" in terms of a dystopian society. It is set in present-day Chicago where the female protagonist, Beatrice Prior, and her family live under the governing forces of "The Reestablishment". Based on their latent behavior, the masses were required to choose one of the five factions namely Dauntless, Abnegation, Amity, Candor or Erudite on turning 16. Beatrice's choice and her struggles thereafter, form the crux of the storyline.
First off, I found this book mildly engaging and the characters very well-defined. The storyline is progressively predictable. So what was supposed to be the element of surprise, didn't quiet strike me as surprising. The concept of factions is eerily similar to J.K. Rowling's concept of houses in Harry Potter. The faction names, well, didn't work for me because they were way too commonplace. Probably, the authoress intended them to be that way, because of the targeted age-group. The romance angle is underplayed and balanced. It doesn't end up hogging all of the print space, like some YA's do and I'd give the author points for keeping it just right.The climax though, did leave me kind of surprised because of two main things :
1. It was abrupt and hurried. The authoress seemed to be in a hurry to finish off the first part and there's no actual thrill ebbing, once you put the novel down. The meatier parts are reserved, I guess, for the next two books of the trilogy.
2. I even found Beatrice's behavior, towards the end, a bit strange. Considering the way, Veronica builds her character to be brave, yet, servile the climax doesn't justify either of the two.
I'd give this book a 3/5, considering the authoress was 22 when she penned the trilogy. It is refreshing because of the crisp definitions of characters and the very-well balanced storyline and makes for a very good one-time read.
-Divya
The premise of this Young Adult fiction (YA) is pretty much akin to "The Hunger Games" in terms of a dystopian society. It is set in present-day Chicago where the female protagonist, Beatrice Prior, and her family live under the governing forces of "The Reestablishment". Based on their latent behavior, the masses were required to choose one of the five factions namely Dauntless, Abnegation, Amity, Candor or Erudite on turning 16. Beatrice's choice and her struggles thereafter, form the crux of the storyline.
First off, I found this book mildly engaging and the characters very well-defined. The storyline is progressively predictable. So what was supposed to be the element of surprise, didn't quiet strike me as surprising. The concept of factions is eerily similar to J.K. Rowling's concept of houses in Harry Potter. The faction names, well, didn't work for me because they were way too commonplace. Probably, the authoress intended them to be that way, because of the targeted age-group. The romance angle is underplayed and balanced. It doesn't end up hogging all of the print space, like some YA's do and I'd give the author points for keeping it just right.The climax though, did leave me kind of surprised because of two main things :
1. It was abrupt and hurried. The authoress seemed to be in a hurry to finish off the first part and there's no actual thrill ebbing, once you put the novel down. The meatier parts are reserved, I guess, for the next two books of the trilogy.
2. I even found Beatrice's behavior, towards the end, a bit strange. Considering the way, Veronica builds her character to be brave, yet, servile the climax doesn't justify either of the two.
I'd give this book a 3/5, considering the authoress was 22 when she penned the trilogy. It is refreshing because of the crisp definitions of characters and the very-well balanced storyline and makes for a very good one-time read.
-Divya
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