I've had Allegiant sitting on my Kindle since it came out, but I'm afraid to read it based on everything I've heard. I'm hoping with some distance, I'll forget how awesome the first two were, and won't make unfavorable comparisons. So, maybe sometime in 2015...
'Lineage'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
I think I've heard of The Silent Wife, le nubian, but I haven't read it.
The Scorpio Games is killing me. She keeps twisting the plot unexpectedly, and it's SO GOOD.
JZ, if you're around, I keep thinking you would love this book. It has a timeless quality that reminds me of you.
Okay, I don't recommend The Silent Wife at all. There are comparisons to Gone Baby Gone, but aside for there being a husband and wife perspective, the comparisons are not particularly apt. The plot is not the same, the characters aren't really the same. The book isn't even one that compelled me to read it until the end in a weekend.
The ending of the book (which is foreshadowed very early in the book) came WAY too late and seemed rushed. Despite a lot of text (pages and pages) of the characters inner thoughts, there does not seem to be satisfying explanations for why characters did some of the key things they did.
My feeling about Allegiant is that Roth envisioned a story about people raised to suppress all but one aspect of personality and what happens when someone moves from one faction to another. When she tried to come up with how that society was created, she started digging herself into a hole and then forgot the first rule of holes.
The problem with the dual narration is that the voices sound exactly the same. Absent phrases like "I watched Tris leave," I challenge anyone to tell the difference.
More spoilery: The genetic purity folks are supposedly trying to increase the number of genetically pure people, as well as finding a social structure that the genetically damaged can live in without destroying themselves. It makes absolutely no sense to leave the Divergent in the experiment, where they may well get killed and never pass on their precious genes. Also, they're not going to get Divergents from the gene fairy. The only way they could show up in a population is if the original pure genes were recessive.
Also, after a devastating war, they manage to put a chain-link fence around a big chunk of Chicago and the people stay inside just because they're told it's dangerous out there? The Dauntless would be vaulting that fence every day and twice on Sunday.
Then there's the ham-handed storyline about the genetically damaged being second-class citizens.
In short, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union."
There are comparisons to Gone Baby Gone, but aside for there being a husband and wife perspective, the comparisons are not particularly apt.
I haven't read The Silent Wife, but do you mean Gone Girl?
Oh Jesse,
of course I mean Gone Girl.
Ginger,
I echo your frustrations. In addition to what you typed, I think there is a very interesting story about how power corrupts and the role of nature vs nurture. I was pretty struck when it was revealed in the 2nd (?) book that Amity was drugging its citizens regularly to maintain order. While the threat of living outside the margins of society was imposed to keep all factions in line. The dominance, control, oppression themes had interesting possibilities that fell by the wayside in the 3rd book .
le nubian, I totally agree with you on Amity in the second book. I think I actually re-read that part, because my brain went, "What, WHAT do they do???"
Random interruption to post this link to a group of prints re-imagining Game of Thrones as Japanese Woodblock prints.
Those are wonderful!
Three sent to your profile addy. You just click on the attachments and save them and they'll play on anything that runs an MP3.
Meant to reply sooner, but I'm behind on my profile address. I got two emails (they ended up in my junk folder & it took me a while to parse the sender name). Does on of them have two recordings? Haven't had a chance to listen yet, but thanks a lot!