Allegiant, by Veronica Roth (Divergent #3)

Synopsis:

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories. 

But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

I'm gonna write my general opinion, spoiler-free, and all that now, and then write my real reaction to the book, full of spoilers... I never do that, but I need to this time. I really, really need to. This initial rant is written assuming that all of you have read the first two books, and I'm aware that I may be one of the last people who haven't read Allegiant, but that's just a matter of where we leave, so... 

So I'm just going to say something about the book that you'll know if you just open the page. The book isn't from Tris's perspective like the other two are. I mean, it is, but it's also told from Tobias's perspective, depending on the chapter. I'll leave you to think about that... 

I loved the book. It was great. It's been a while since I read the previous two, so I don't remember them all that well, but it was enough. The plot in this book is really different from the other two, changing escenarios and introducing many new characters in the story. It first looked like Veronica Roth had to end the series someway and didn't know how, so she came up with a new plot for this one, kind of. But now I'm starting to think that this may have been thought in advance, maybe at the beginning of Insurgent, clearly not while writing the first book. 

I want to say that I loved Tobias in this final book. Maybe it is because of being able to see the world from his perspective, but I just grew more and more fond of him, fell in love with him all over again. It looks like he's grown as a character in this book, now that he and Tris really know each other and all that, but maybe it's my point of view because I don't remember the last two books that well, I don't know. 

I don't like the new characters in this book. They aren't well-developped and they aren't that deep. And I love deep characters... I just think they could've been better. 

There was a lot of happiness in this book, but also a lot of sadness. I think it was a great ending chapter to  an awesome trilogy. 

*spoilers start here*

Wow. I don't want to ruin anyone's excitement to read Allegiant if they haven't read it, so don't read this if you don't want to be spoiled, but that book ruined me. I'm permanently marked by it. Just like it happened with Clockwork Princess, I'm not going to recover. Clockwork Princess ripped my heart out leaving a permanent wound, and Allegiant just made it worse, making me feel the pain all over again... Books are ruining me. 

But let's talk about the ending book of the trilogy by Veronica Roth. I just think she went kind of crazy while writing this book and came out with all these GPs and GDs and all these genetical things that came out of nowhere. I don't really know how she invented those, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't her plan when she wrote Divergent. Not only she made the world inside the book worse, but she also decided to torture poor Tobias by making him a false divergent, making him genetically damaged. That's such a horrible word... I didn't like that in the book, the fact that the genes became such an important part of the plot... 

Let's see if I can write about the important thing in the book now. The heartbreaking event that changed me and that I haven't been able to say it out loud or written it yet, and I finished the book a couple of days ago. Tris dies. Omg I wrote it. Haven't said it. Will never be able to... It's such a huge thing that the main character dies!!! How can that even cross a young adult novels writer's mind? I mean, I think it is magnificent. It is so awesome that Veronica dared to do that! I hate her and admire her for that. It made me think of what would have happened if Katniss died in The Hunger Games. Can you imagine that?

Caleb is the character that I hated the most. He's not a good brother. No matter how much Tris loves him in her inside, Caleb is not a good person and I don't think he deserves what Tris did for him. Not only did he fail her in multiple ways, but he only intended to sacrifice because that was what everyone expected from him. I don't hate him completely, but I don't particularly like him. I like Peter better :)

As I said before, I loved Tobias in this book. Watching him find out he was genetically damaged and then reading and getting to know the way he sees Tris, the way he sees his parents and the rest of people... that was perfect. The way he suffers, the way he loves, the way he hates, the way he forgives... I love him for every single detail. And Tris was just as amazing as always, being the epic heroine she is and filling the book with her shining light.  

No matter how devastated am I after reading the book, Allegiant was an epic finale for the awesome trilogy. 

*spoilers end here*

Books that made my 2013

I've been wanting to do this since New Year's, so I'm finally doing it now. I just wanted to mention some books which made my 2013 special, but they don't have to be books that came out in 2013, and there are many that did come out that I haven't read yet (they haven't been out in my country, for example), like Allegiant. So this is my list. 

1. Clockwork Princess, by Cassandra Clare (The Infernal Devices #3). That book marked my life. There's a before and an after in my life concerning that book. Reading it was painful, but I enjoyed every second of it, and I want to do it again. Even if crying for over 30 pages is not good for my health...

Read my review in: Clockwork Princess

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. Read it quite early in the year, and I think I've read it more than three times since then. It's become one of my favourite books, and I love it for that. 

Read my review in: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

3. The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green. Read it not many months ago, that book was epic. And there's a movie coming up this year! Not the typical cancer book, I enjoyed reading it as much as I cried because of it. Absolutely magnificent. 

Read my review in: The Fault In Our Stars

4. Divergent, by Veronica Roth (Divergent #1). I thought it was going to be just another Hunger Games. And it is, more or less, even though the author's perspective and idea is unique. I loved it, and ran to buy Insurgent and to do the countdown for Allegiant. Now that I'm reading the third one and waiting for the movie on March, I'm happy to have listened to the critics and read another dystopia. 

Read my review in: Divergent

5. Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin (A Song of Fire and Ice #1). I have this friend who insisted on me reading George RR Martin's masterpiece, and reading the first book made me want more, so I think I'll be fine for a while :)

Read my review in: Game of Thrones

6. Splendor, by Anna Godbersen (The Luxe #4). I had been waiting for over four years for that book, and when I found it, my world was completed. But the ending... it broke me down. After years of waiting excitedly for it, I think it disappointed me so much and it made me so sad that I won't be able to recover. 

Read my review in: Splendor

7. Legend, by Marie Lu (Legend #1). A new discovery I made in 2013! Read it and its sequel, Prodigy, as fast as I could, and now waiting for Champion to get to my country so I can finish this awesome dystopian trilogy. 

Read my review in: Legend

So what books made your 2013 special? 

Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion

Synopsis:

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.

This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight...

It took me months to read this book. I had been really looking forward to reading it because I had read so many good things about it, so many blogs said it was one of the best books of the year and all that... So I bought it in April and started it. I abandoned in May, a couple of weeks later, with almost half the book read. That wasn't something I wanted to waste my time on reading. And moved by the feeling of not being able to have a book without finishing it, I read it in November, after months of having it on my bedside table and ignoring it with a second glance. It didn't get much better. 

Don't get me wrong, I do not hate the book. I just think there are many other things which are a lot more interesting than it. I thought it was going to be a real Romeo and Juliet story but with zombies. But that zombie thing made it bad. It was the first thing I've ever read about zombies, and I did not like it. Not much. I haven't seen the movie yet. I'm just not ready to live that again, not yet. The idea Isaac Marion had was great, really different. I love how he makes his characters unique, I really like R. But his relationship with Julie... That's quite weak. The characters are great by themselves, but the relations between them are weak, not good. I particularly enjoyed reading about R being in Perry's memories, even if that made the book quite confusing sometimes. 

Overall, it's not a bad book, it's just something I didn't particularly enjoy. But there are multiple opinions about one topic, maybe you'll love it. Never say no to reading. 

The Fault In Our Stars movie trailer!

So the TFIOS trailer came out this week!! Have you all seen it? I personally think it's great and that I cannot wait to see the movie! What do you think?
Hazel Grace Lancaster. Shailene Woodley. I must say Shailene's great, and that we're going to be seeing a lot of her in the next years. We will see her as Tris in Divergent in March, and then in TFIOS. Perfect. We're also seeing Ansel Elgort, our Augustus, in both Divergent (he's Caleb) and TFIOS. So they're both excelent choices. I can't really judge a movie by its trailer, but I definitely think this one is going to be great. I'm really looking forward to June 6th so it comes out. Other actors in the movie are Nat Wolff (Isaac), Willem Dafoe (Peter Van Houten), Lotte Verbeek (Lidewij) and Sam Trammell and Laura Dern as Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster, Hazel's parents. 

The trailer looks great, similar to the book (which is what I always want), and interesting enough so that I would be looking forward to seeing it even if I hadn't read the book. I would probably want to read it after seeing the trailer. Because it's a nice trailer, and an awesome book. 

So my advice is: everyone go read the book so we can all watch the movie this summer and see if it's as wonderful as I expect it to be. I'm quite sure it will. Okay? Okay. 

You can find the trailer in: The Fault In Our Stars trailer

VA movie is out!!

Just coming to say that the Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters movie came out on Friday in some countries (not in mine, btw), and that I've heard plenty of things about it. This is only raising my expectations even more... I need to see it soon, please... 

It's had good critics from most people, but what I really wanted to know is what fans of the books thought about it. The general opinion is that it was a great movie and that there were only a few differences with the book. I read this article a few months ago that the director wrote mentioning the main differences between the book and the movie so we fans were ready for it, so I know what to expect. Or at least I think I know. 

People who haven't read the books are a bit confused about it. Just like in TMI, the movie doesn't explain everything in detail like the books do, so some things may be confusing if you haven't read it. But most people are happy with it and waiting for a sequel already. One of the things I've heard is that Zoey Deutch's performance as Rose was perfect, and that it surprised many people. I guess I'll have to wait and decide for myself. 

So I haven't watched it yet, and probably won't for some time, because it will be out in my country on May 9th, which is incredibly far away from now... I hope I can see it somewhere sooner than that, mainly because I've read the books in English and there is no way I wanna go see Rose and Dimitri fall in love in Spanish... I want to hear their original voices and Danila Kolovsky's amazing Russian accent! 

If you haven't seen it yet, go read the book, and then go watch it.