Four: A Divergent Collection

Much of the fourth novella here takes place during Divergent, while I found it entertaining enough, it was a little less engaging due to the familiarity of those events, whereas the first three novellas give you a deeper dive into Four’s past, his transfer to Dauntless, the initiation, friendships, parents, etc. Those first three novellas flowed together so well that all-combined, they felt like their own novel you could sink into.

As for the bonus Divergent scenes from Four’s point of view, they just didn’t feel all that necessary, as Veronica Roth did such a good job in Divergent of conveying Four through Tris’s eyes, you already felt like you understood him and how he saw Tris without needing it spelled out in his POV.

I had show more some trepidation going into this as it had been a long time since I’d read the trilogy, and sometimes revisiting a character, you discover that what appealed to you back in the day no longer holds true, thankfully Four’s hero vibes held up to how I remembered him and Veronica Roth stays true to the strong silent type he appeared to be in the trilogy, too, while giving you a little more insight into what shaped those traits in him. show less

Anyone who knows me well, or knows what I like to read at least, knows how much resentment I have towards the entire Divergent series now. I hated Allegiant, it is my least favourite book I've ever had to read in my life and It is by far the worst series ending that I could have ever imagined. On top of that, I am not a fan of the movies and so in general I am very violently against the series.
So you can imagine that I did not want to read this book at all. I wrote off Divergent and everything it was and as far as I was concerned it was dead to me. However, I am running out of audiobooks to listen to when I am working and this was one of the only ones available.
All that being said, I missed this book series so much. SO MUCH. I forgot show more how much I loved Tobias, how much I loved this world Veronica Roth created, and how much I wanted to love Allegiant.
Reading everything in Tobias' pov made me want to reread the first two books again and just to bask in how much I used to love them. I read them back when they were first released and I think I forgot what made me fall in love with them.
I truly missed these characters, the way they were when I still loved them, and I feel like maybe it's about time I reread Divergent and Insurgent.


Book Challenge book #6: A Book Written By Someone Under 30 show less

Veronica Roth first began writing the character of Tobias Eaton four years before she found Beatrice "Tris" Prior to be the true voice of the Divergent series.
I found this collection of stories from Tobias "Four" Eaton's POV to be fascinating. After reading the entire Divergent series, it is very interesting to step back and think about the younger Tobias, before he met Tris.
The book has four sections (fittingly) that cover his Choosing Day and transfer to Dauntless, his experience as an Initiate in training, his role as the Son to his no-longer-dead mother, and his budding relationship with Tris as he determines that he will be a Traitor to one faction or another.
The fourth section overlaps with a part of Divergent and feels so show more right. I found myself trying to figure out Four while reading Divergent and I am rewarded by Ms. Roth - I figured him our correctly.
A satisfying collection of stories from Four's POV. show less

I was so excited to review this as soon as I started, as per usual, and I was racking things up in my brain to say about it. I didn't like the fact that Allegiant was split into two perspectives (for understandable reasons) because it made me feel like I would never be able to fully understand Tris that way. However, seeing as Tris is, for the majority, not in this book, I didn't have as much of a problem with Four's perspective. The first three stories were great, if a little "I've-read-this-all-before", but the fourth one felt weird. I think it was because at that point, I still see Four as Tris' leader, and thus the relationship from his perspective seems a tiny bit creepy. I was a big fan of it during the trilogy, but it felt show more awkward here. Especially with the fourth story, I felt even more that I had read it all before, in Divergent. I didn't like the time jump between the third and fourth story, either. I liked that Zeke and Shauna were in these, as I really liked them during the trilogy. Overall, I did enjoy this - it didn't feel too new or exciting, and a lot of the time I felt déjà vu, but to read more about Tobias before he became Four was kind of interesting. show less

Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this book! It was the perfect remedy for my hangover ending the Divergent series! If you're like me and REALLLLY enjoyed the series, then definitely get your hands on this book. After finishing Allegiant, I really learned to enjoy reading as Tobias so this was a great way to indulge in his life that much more.

I, personally, enjoy when the author releases more books that tie into the series - IF - it's done well, and I feel this did just that. Although some people like when series end *ehhhhh*, I really enjoy getting one more book to celebrate it; I enjoy getting one more piece of cake before it's gone - especially when it's really good cake like chocolate, and this was my chocolate cake :]

All show more in all, if you LOVED the Divergent series as much as I did but have NOT grabbed this book, then my question to is: WHY?! What are you waiting for? Go get it now! RIGHT MEOW!


** To see my FULL review visit: The Nerdy Bookmark - A Not-So-Serious Book Review Blog ** show less

Written much better than the books from Tris's point of view, this collection shows great insight into how Tobias's mind works, and the problems he faced during and before the original series.

Eh, this was... fine, I guess? Just like "Divergent", this book benefits from taking place almost entirely in Dauntless headquarters. It benefits from not having to go through the other factions and show how ridiculous and non-sensical this world is. It's confined to a small location, and it can be easy to forget about how none of this world makes much sense when the reader is almost entirely focused on Dauntless initiation and life. [return][return]It was somewhat interesting learning about Tobias's early days in Dauntless and how he transformed from a timid Abnegation nobody to an intimidating Dauntless leader in such a short period of time. It was also interesting seeing him reconcile his various identities and goals as he started show more assimilating into Dauntless life and figuring out its various secrets. [return][return]However, at the end of the day, I still don't see much of a point for this book existing. When it comes to prequels for the Divergent franchise, I would have much rather read about the early days of genetic damage, the Purity war, and the forming of the factions. That would have provided so much more information about this extremely shallow world than whatever this is. Dude, the last 100 pages of this book actually contain the exact same events that we read in Book 1, with the only difference being that they're from Tobias's point-of-view rather than Tris's. Was this really necessary? [return][return]In the end, I'm excited to say that I'm done with this franchise. Despite re-reading it a couple of times over the years, it's never really affected me in the way that the Hunger Games franchise has. I don't think it's awful in any way, but I'm honestly kind of glad to say that I don't have any intention of revisiting it in the future ever again. show less