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

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.

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 assimilating into show more Dauntless life and figuring out its various secrets.

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?

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

Four (A Divergent Collection) by Veronica Roth is a pretty quick read with large font from the perspective of probably my favorite character of the series. I’ll be honest and say I never finished Allegiant and I can’t say I plan to finish it. I just couldn’t get into it. The way Four is written allows the reader to pick up each story as its own separate event which I really enjoyed doing. I didn’t feel as though I needed to read it straight through and, if you’ve read at least Divergent, you can probably jump around this pretty easily. I read the end stories before I read the beginning and I don’t feel as though I really missed or spoiled anything for myself by doing so. If you haven’t fallen in love with Four, like I did show more which is what caused me to devour Divergent in the first place, you’d definitely be in love with him by the end.

So what is it? It’s simply a set of novellas. That’s probably the best description I can think of. I’ve noticed lately that a lot of YA authors love to publish novellas from different perspectives, especially minor characters that readers love. I realize Four is a main character but you get what I’m saying, right? Four chronicles not just how he got his name, spoiler: he has Four fears, but also how he transformed from the timid abused child from Abnegation to the leader we know him as. Each story (chapter?) shows a different part of his life from finding out about being Divergent to meeting and falling for Tris. We learn more about why he is the way he is – which for a long time I wrote off as cold and distant. Also, Theo James. Even picturing him while reading was enough for me. show less

4 Korte verhalen over Four die zich een paar jaar VOOR de gebeurtenissen in Divergent afspelen.

Four, of eigenlijk Tobias Ethan, is geboren in 'Zelfverloochening', een van de facties in het dystopisch Chicago. De andere zijn Oprechtheid, Eredutie, Vriendschap en Onverschrokkenheid. In Zelfverloochening. Dan zijn er ook nog de factie-lozen, mensen die om een of andere reden niet tot een factie willen behoren.
Op hun 16e kiezen alle jongeren, tijdens Kiesdag, tot welke factie zij willen behoren. Tobias krijgt het advies om voor Zelfverloochening te kiezen, maar kiest uiteindelijk voor Onverschrokkenheid. Dat doet hij deels om van zijn vader, de leider van Zelfverloochening te ontlopen.

We volgen Tobias tijdens zijn introductieweek in show more Onverschrokkenheid en maken zijn twijfels mee, als ook zijn successen. Als hij de introductie succesvol heeft afgerond krijgt hij het aanbod om zich aan te sluiten bij de l4ding van de factie. In eerste instantie is hij trots, maar geleidelijk ontdekt hij dat er een plan gesmeed wordt om de andere facties te onderwerpen. Hij besluit te stoppen met deze training en wordt liever onderwijzer voor de volgende lading nieuwe adspiranten.
Een paar jaar later ontmoet hij het meisje Trish, dat net als hij overgestapt is naar Onverschrokkenheid van Zelfverloochening.

En dat was het dan eigenlijk. Een aantal korte verhalen, waarvan ik meer had verwacht. Had gehoopt om meer van de achtergronden van Tobias/Four te lezen.
Schrijfstijl is geheel in stijl van wat we kennen van de auteur. Op een gegeven moment valt het verhaal samen met delen uit het eerste boek, maar dan gezien vanaf Four's kant.

Al in al is het een leuk boek om er bij te hebben, maar je kan zeker ook zonder. show less

This book was a lot of fun and a great filler between other reads. It was great to explore more of Four's character. There isn't much new here, just a chance to get to know Four a bit better. Which isn't a bad thing at all.

It did seem to take a long time for Four to get his own voice. Maybe it's the first person, present tense that Roth likes to write in, but it took a very long time for him to really develop a personality. Although, I felt the same about Tris when reading Divergent.

It surprised me a bit to learn that Roth had originally planned for Four to be her protagonist of her trilogy. So I guess this is an exploration (and a bit of a tease) of what if that had been.

All in all, it was really interesting to learn more about Four's show more past, amp up the hate for Eric even more, get to know some of the other players in the game (like Max), and to see a lot of what he was up to while Tris was going through initiation. Four is a fun read, and a good addition to the Divergent trilogy. show less

Loved getting insight into some of the characters that were so pivotal in the Divergent world. It was also fun to see some of those relationships develop with Tobias before Tris came along. This book really served to flesh some of those mysteries out.

And the parts of the story revolving around Tris from Tobias' POV...beautiful, touching, and kind of heart-wrenching all at the same time.

I miss these characters so much, and this was a wonderful way to look back on them.

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