Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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This book is the first of the dystopian trilogy. Even though the whole massive dystopian trend is getting over-done (aka: boring), I still felt attracted to this book because of the character. Human and evolving, not a whining damsel in distress and (thanks to all the goodness in the Universe and Veronica’s wits) no-love-triangle. The character is Tris, whom at 16 must choose one of 5 factions in which this futuristic Chicago society is divided. The five are Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Abnegation and Candor. Dauntless, the one she chose, promotes the value of courage. Tris chose this even though her true results were “Divergent”, which meant she could belong to any of three and her mind and will is stronger than the rest, thus being dangerous for the powers-that-be in a society where they want to control everyone. She is not the only one, which are kudos points for Veronica. Nothing about the “you are the one” subject.
The book is fast phased and fun. A long initiation ritual filled with conspiracies and Tris’ struggles with her identity. The fact that she needs to belong somewhere, stopping her from becoming who she wants and is supposed to be, and how she overcome this (though tragic) made this story worthy of my time. Her emotions were complicated and real. She was both selfish and unselfish, a coward and brave, a liar and honest, sweet and bitchy. The romance was light and strong, like the perfect amount at the perfect moments. Sure you puke a bit at the end, but hey, let her write what she wants. I still liked it. The way Tobias supported Tris’ strength instead of feeling the need to protect her, was an amazing way of showing how love should be.
The whole society itself in a way don’t make sense, I have to admit. It’s a bit stupid how they came up with such rules. But, again, it’s fiction, so chill about it. Just imagine is the only way the world could be and enjoy the ride. That is the point of these dystopian stories, what if. What if a society is divided in attributes rather than money or power, or even hierarchy? What if you must choose one or live disconnected form the whole world forever? And what if the revolutionary time arrives and the characters need to confront the fact that all those attributes combined are stronger than just one? What if they realize, they are just all humans with one simple goal, to belong?

ART: Wake up spring!

Finally. Some drawing :D!

Art Recovery

It has taken me three days to get this far… fifteen minutes a day. Just like with writing. Little baby steps and I can keep doing all I love. This picture has a long way to go but I missed playing with color like this.

BOOK REVIEW: The Catastrophic History of You & Me

The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

May you always have love ♥

Thank you for not doing the X3 sounds again until the end.

Lovely story ♥

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It took me a while to decide to read a book with such a long title, featuring the endless cliché covers of the  beautiful girl on front. But, “don’t judge the book by it’s cover”, they say. So I judged it by the reviews.

What made me read it was the constant: “WOW! That was unexpected!”comments. And my curiosity got the best of me. Even if at first the repetition of sounds like in children books were annoying me. But fortunately Jess cut them half way into the book.

I love this kind of afterlife stories. They are my favorite. I always cry when they narrate the goodbyes and I always cry in the end. I always love how they capture the essence of life’s natural cycles so beautifully instead of grim. Brie was turning 16 when she died of a broken heart. Literally. The heart broke in half, dead. She blamed her boyfriend… or ex? And she meets Patrick in the afterlife. Now, I did expected their story. I knew since the moment she mentioned her nightmare and his description of death what was their relationship. But I liked him. So I kept reading just because he was fun to read. I didn’t like her as much but she had my sympathies for being so human. Kudos Rothenberg. She was supposedly perfect, too perfect, with a flaw, impulsive. Which made her story run. If it wasn’t for that trait NOTHING would have happened if she just stopped and listened to the others. Which she learns at the end. I still didn’t liked the whole perfect athlete girl with perfect romance thing. Then again, some 16 year olds do go through that stage and then BAM! Real life darling. Real life. She got her BAM after life though.

All in all, I am trying a lot not to spoil the story. The Jacob story, yes, it wasn’t a big shocker, but it was unexpected. I did, for a moment, wanted to slap Sadie and believed what was going on. Again, kudos Mrs. Rothenberg.

Jess’s ability to grab my attention , play with my mind and predictive abilities, and capturing the essence of true love and friendship, won her 4 stars. Which is why I am writing this. Anything bellow 4 stars I ignore. It would have been 5 if you mix this story with a beautiful writing style like “The Lovely Bone” (another afterlife story book). I’m not a fan of 1st persons… but it seems I have no choice there since it seems to be in fashion.

I recommend this book if you believe in soul mates, afterlife and love.

15 minutes a day, goes a long way

 

Since I can’t write much anymore. I decided to stop whining about not being able to spend a whole hour writing and take small steps. The small steps are doing great and I’m writing better since it’s 15 minutes in pure writing inspiration. June is an approximate of when I expect to finish like this.