Chapter 3c: A Trilogy

Allegiant, Veronica Roth

I did it! I finished this series! After forcing myself to get through the second installment, I was kind of dreading this one. Turns out, the finale was better.

Anyone who has read the series this far would be brain-dead to not suspect nefarious plots outside the fence. Fortunately, we aren't subjected to repeated shock-takes from our ragtag group of characters. They basically get the news, make their decisions, and act. No wishy-washy sparkly vampires here. And I gotta say, I really appreciate that Roth does not waste a lot of time rehashing what has already happened. A reader invested in a series does not need to spend chapter after chapter catching up on what they already know. But I have an admittedly spotty memory, so it took me a few passages to remember who a few of the newer operators were. No biggie. I can catch up.

So after suffering through the I-want-to-dies of Insurgent, we now have I-want-to-survive-and-kickass Tris. She's realizing that good and bad are not as black-and-white as the factions led her to believe. She's also realizing that she has her own moral compass and she plans to act on it. This is the hero that I enjoyed in the first book

The plot of the final story is fairly formulaic for this genre. Outsiders are doing evil things to unsuspecting victims. Experiments take place. Institutional racism prejudice, class warfare, government overreach, blah, blah, blah. Not new themes, but ones that clearly still are worthy of discussion. I'm not going to write off this series just because it doesn't bring anything new to the conversation. In fact, I value that it continues bringing these subjects up. Silence as consent and all that jazz.

Overall I liked reading Allegiant. It was fast, easy, and kept me focused. Tris is faced with a major decision and her choice is foreseeable, but also reasonable. Roth could have ended it in a variety of ways that may have left a more warm, fuzzy feeling, but this is the right ending for the story.

Now the nitpicking- As much as I hated being in Tris' mind for all of Insurgent, hopping between her and Tobias every chapter was annoying. I'm sure this was a difficult editorial decision given the actual plot, but I'm not sure it was the right one. I feel like a third person narrator could have done as well without the jarring transition from character to character. The addition of Tobias' voice is already incongruent with the previous books and it doesn't really add anything we couldn't get through other means. This is by far my biggest gripe with the book. Not bad for a wildly popular YA trilogy finale.

I've been coming around to the fact that a book doesn't have to be literary or highbrow or even wonderfully written to be valuable. If I can justify watching trashy television for the sake of entertainment, then I can apply the same to books. I'm going to make a pointed effort to be open to books I normally would ignore. If I get lost in a story for a few hours, it's worth it.

Happy reading, friends.

Chapter 9: A Book Based Entirely On Its Cover

The Book Of Bright Ideas, Sandra Kring

"Your dad looks like Elvis," Winnalee said when Daddy and me got back to the yard (not even bothering to whisper), but that wasn't so. He had black hair like Elvis, and eyes the color of a navy crayon, but not the same nose and mouth, just regular ones.

Before I can even get into discussing the writing, I have to talk about this cover. It's popped up on my online library page a few times and has always been a Maybe Read. It's obviously Chick Lit and looks like it's probably pretty funny. This sassy little girl appears to be up to something. I finally decided to find out what and I was not disappointed.

Bright Ideas is narrated by 9 year old Button. She tells story of one crazy summer as only a timid child can. Winnalee (the cover girl) and her sister Freeda blow in to small-town Wisconsin and set Button's world on end. By the time Labor Day rolls around, no one is the same. The characters are lovable, if somewhat one dimensional, and the story, while predictable, is entertaining in large part due to the narration.

Early in the book, I assumed it took place in the South. People say things like "Bless her heart." I don't remember people talking like this in the Midwest of my childhood, but the turn of phrase is very charming. As I neared the final pages, I began to tire of the expressions, but for most of the book, I enjoyed how Button describes emotions as physical attributes: twirling me until my belly got the giggles and Some sad was sitting in her eyes. These were more powerful than the incongruent dialect, so I could look past that.

Another confusing aspect was the weather. Daffodils are blooming, but school is out of session, but people still need sweaters. Now, I am well aware that the climate of the Midwest can be unpredictable, but these little details just don't make sense. Perhaps school let out much earlier in 1961, or this town is somehow above the Arctic Circle. Even still, Wisconsin has four seasons and the shift described is too abrupt. And I'm the girl who had several feet of snow fall down the back of my parka while on spring break in Chicago. I think it's the flower detail that sticks in my craw because daffodils will even come up through snow in the Midwest. Regardless, these details rubbed me the wrong way.

Looking beyond details, the story is formulaic and shallow. It's not groundbreaking or revealing of some under-analyzed part of the human experience. It doesn't need to be any of those things, though. It is tender entertainment told in the light of childhood magic. Kring does an excellent job of creating and maintaining a voice for each character. The way they speak reveals as much about their personalities as their actions do. At times the author gets carried away with exposition, like when Freeda goes off on Button's mom, but I probably prefer the efficiency of it to a clumsy attempt to show these truths over time.

Overall, this is a cute book for some light reading. I doubt I'll read the sequel, but I did enjoy this one. If you like chick lit, a little absurdity, and family drama, this book is for you.

Chapter 3b: A Trilogy

Insurgent, Veronica Roth
I should call this discussion No Surprises. So here's a list of the Things That Did Not Surprise Me about this book:

• The second book of the trilogy is not as interesting as the first.
• The language has become repetitive. Every single time Tris gets injured, her vision goes black around the edges.
• Some of the Bad Guys are kind of Good Guys.
• Some of the Good Guys are kind of Bad Guys.
• The twists. I find it hard to believe anyone with a functioning brain stem did not see these coming. There's a fence around Chicago and you don't think there are people living outside that fence? Come on.

What did surprise me? The first person narrative of Divergent that pushed that story forward, drags this one down. 384 pages of Tris not wanting to live, wanting to die, wanting to sacrifice herself. 384 pages! And then when she has the chance to do just that, she changes her mind. One of the qualities that makes her the hero is that she stubbornly does things, even when she doesn't want to, even if it means hurting someone she cares about, if it means saving the world. As a Divergent, she has flexibility of character, but this sudden and major change is more like Sybil.

Editorially, I think this story could have been whittled down a lot. It seems that what could have been a handful of scenes has been stretched out into a whole novel. The war is beginning. Book One was enough of a buildup to the big battle. Here, we have more buildup, but without the emotional pressure and anticipation, and then the fight itself is glossed over and anti-climactic.

Part of me wants to grab Allegiant and be done with this series. Part of me needs a break from Roth. Here's hoping the final installment is better than this one.