elzbethmrgn's Reviews (667)

This book is a Venn Diagram of People Who Like Jo Walton's Novels, People Who Like Historical Fantasy Fiction, People Who Like Medieval Theology, and People Who Like Humanism, and I am firmly at the centre.

Disappointing, but only because I like precisely none of the characters.

Woah, this one branched out from requisite dead body (check) and mystery murderer (check) and happily-ever-after (check) into medieval theology! I'm here for it.

I put this on my TBR purely because I enjoyed the whimsy of the title. A perfectly serviceable read that built slowly-but-steadily but I feel like the author made me promises she didn't deliver on, details of which I have handily listed in point form in the following spoiler tags.

What was the point of Grace?
As a foil for Thaniel to question his loyalty? He never doubted Mori for very long, no matter who questioned him.
Why did she have to infodump about how ether worked if it didn't relate to any other part of the story in any way?
Why did Matsumoto hate Mori? It was nice of Pulley to give Grace a friend/love interest but since she served so little purpose, he served even less.

This book was disappointing to begin with. The world outside the fence (and the events that led to the dystopia) didn't hold my interest, and the problems I expected to see develop between Tris and Four didn't really happen. Four was too much the 'perfect boyfriend' and not enough a multi-dimensional character. I wanted to see some more feels from him, not just towards/against Tris but the other characters in the book that have a major impact on his life.

And then I kept reading and discovered why Roth didn't do the typical and expected relationship drama, and then it was pretty much just all the fucking feels. The end totally redeemed the whole thing, and as much as it ripped my heart out it was exactly the right call to make.

Not my favourite of the trilogy but incredibly more satisfying than [b:Mockingjay|7260188|Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)|Suzanne Collins|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1358275419s/7260188.jpg|8812783] for the last installment of a YA dystopia.

To be honest I don't remember the intricacies of Divergent, but you don't really need to here. This has some Four backstory (which I enjoyed as much as I did the trilogy), but basically if you want the YA Feels from the Divergent trilogy from Four's POV, this book is for you.