Since I’m doing Sunday Funday, a part of me wants to also make Monday a themed day, too. I certainly don’t want to do it for every day of the week, but since Sunday is dedicated to games, maybe Monday can be dedicated for something else. Maybe books? I do read a lot.
It’s decided. You’re reading this as the thought process is coming out of me. No bars held. I’m going to come up with something on the spot…
Hmm…
Manic Monday is the only thing that’s coming to mind, and I’m not naming a theme for my blog after an 80’s (?) song. Don’t make fun of me, but I can only hear the song in my head. I can’t remember the decade it came from. Time lines and dates are exactly a strong suit of mine.
I think I may have to go do a google search on book terms that start with M, or rhyme with Monday. If there’s a word I’m looking for already stored in my brain, it’s completely eluding me.
Brb.
Back. Nope, nothing was screaming out to me.
I’m going to call it Hardcover Monday. Because Mondays are hard and books have hardcovers. Yeah, not the best, but it’s a split decision I just made, and it’s staying. So yeah.
I might as well get on with it while you’re here.
My reading endeavors last week were all used on the Divergent Series. A great set of books, even if some people are getting sick of the genre already. I don’t care, I love it. For the people who aren’t into them, well that’s their problem, not mine. Anyway, I watched the movie while it was on HBO a couple of weeks ago, and though I don’t usually read the book after I’ve seen the movie, I made an exception.
I’m not going to get into the intricacies of the book’s plot or whatever. This isn’t review. This is me wanting to talk about the books. For me, there is a difference. But for anyone who hasn’t heard of this book while living under your rock or on top of a cloud or something, here:
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are–and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
That’s the synopsis for the book. I’m about to talk about all three, but with no spoilers. Or as little as possible.
Honestly, I fell in love with the first two books, but am I alone in thinking the third one was a little weird (aside from the end, which I’ll get to in a minute)? It in part made me feel like the author couldn’t come up with anything else and settled on that scenario, but I was still on board. I’d grown attached to the characters, and even though as a writer it wasn’t the direction I would have chosen, it was ultimately her decision and I was going to respect that.
Then the end. I won’t say what happens. And if anyone reveals a spoiler in the comments, your comment won’t get approved, just so you know. Until I can find a way for spoilers to be hidden like they can be on Goodreads, I won’t allow them. I get that there’s an arbitrary time limit people believe in regard to spoilers and having time to read/watch/whatever before the world is allowed to speak without reservation, and in real life I’d probably join in with those beliefs. But this is the internet. Time is different here. And, well, if someone wants to know what we’re talking about, they’re a google search away from it. But right here, right now, it’s a moral low ground I refuse to step foot on.
But that end. I desperately want to call it a cop-out, even though I know that’s not what it was. But at the same time, just, WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? That entire journey for that? Seriously? The only thing that semi saved it for me (and let’s be real, that’s pushing desperately into overstatement) was the zip line.
Guys, it takes a lot for me to throw a book across the room and leave it there, walking away leaving it in a heap on the floor than I don’t make right almost immediately. It already takes a lot for me to throw the book in the first place (respect and awe and all of that). When it’s a library book that’s already going to take more than its fair share of abuse, forget about it. But I did that with the final book of this series. That’s how attached and how angry I got. It was difficult for me to pick it back up and finish those last fifty pages.
I’m actually struggling with returning it to the library now. Not because I want to harbor it, or because I did damage to it I’ll have to pay for (I didn’t, I swear), but because I want to spare anyone else from that ending. At the same time, I want people to suffer with me. On some level, that makes me like Tris, which makes me feel only slightly better. It’s nice to feel like a character from a book. That’s why we love the stories we do. We connect with the characters on some level.
I really used this first Hardcover Monday for a bit of a rage, didn’t I?
Box the Stars 