Divergent

The book is called Divergent, but I finish reading the book not quite sure what Divergent really means. All I know is that it is really really bad to be one, but I am not given much more description on it. It felt that way about a lot of things in this book. Like the factionless, it is very poorly described except it is a bad bad thing to be. But, there is really no reason why it is so bad to be factionless. Over and over it says factionless is so bad, and it is "living in complete isolation" and "worse than death" but it seems like there are a bunch of factionless since half the transfers from dauntless go there. And it seems like the Agnegation people take care of them by feeding them, and it sounds like they even have jobs too. So there is a bit of confusion there for me.

But, let me back up a bit. Divergent is based in a dystopian Chicago and split into five factions: Agnegation the selfless, Dauntless the brave, Candor the honest, Amity the kind and Erudite the smart. If you are in the Agnegation faction you can only be selfless, you can't be brave or honest or kind or smart, and if you have more than one trait than you are supposed to be Divergent, at least that is what I got from it. At sixteen you have the option of staying in your faction or transferring to another. So, if you transfer, won't you have two traits? The one you are leaving behind and the one you are transferring to? So why are not all transfers Divergent? But that isn't how it is. Although, that is how it is for Tris the main character.

Tris grew up being a Agneagtion, but after her aptitude test and finding out she is Divergent (which is really bad and she should tell no one), she decides to transfer and be Dauntless. Which means, she will leave her family and won't get to see them very much after that. Then she has to train to be brave and not a coward by jumping on and off trains, fighting and taking fear tests.

The book is a bit gruesome. Lots of Fight club fights, shootings, and killings. This dystopian is pretty grisly. But it is very action pack and had me on the edge of my seat at the end of it. Even though the world building is a little lack luster I guess I can overlook it for this being the first book in the series. I hope more is answered in the next book and there is more world building.

The Rising

After the first two book in this series, this one fell short. It was anti-climatic, there were so many ways this book could have went, but the ending was just okay. It doesn't even feel like the last book in the series. There is so much I would like answered. It really feels like we were teased with their abilities but never were given a real good description of anything. What is exactly Corey's ability? Why does he get headaches? Will they be able to help him? What exactly does a Xana do? And Daniels ability. Everything is just briefly touched upon but doesn't give you anything at all. All we mostly were given was what we already saw in the first two books: running, captured, escaped, running, running, running. Nothing really new or exciting in this book.

The book starts off where the last one left off. Maya, Daniel and Corey are still on the run trying to find out away to rescue there friend that have been captured and how to get in contact with their parents. There is a new character introduced in this one, Maya's brother. And also this book ties into with the other series from Kelly Armstrong, The Darkest Powers. So, if you haven't read that series yet you might want to, to better understand the last half of this book.

Overall, a bit repetitive, boring and anti-climatic :(

The Elite by Kiera Cass

Not sure what to say! First of all, I am not much of a fan of love triangles. This one was like a tennis match and America being the tennis ball. I felt like she kept going back and forth between Aspen and Maxon. Back and forth and back and forth. The only thing that kept me reading was I desperately wanted to know who she would pick at the end. You never get a grasp of who she is going to pick. And she is constantly getting angry at Maxon spending time with other girls while she is sneaking off to be with Aspen. She felt twofaced to me a bit and I started not like the main character, America, and actually started rooting for another of the Elite to win Maxon's heart.

I did like some of the plot points and didn't see a couple thing come. I enjoy being surprised in a book and this one did that. I never knew what direction this book was heading. Just when I thought it would go one way something else would happen. But the same storyline is getting dragged out into the third book and I have a feeling it is going to be yet another tennis match but hopefully this one will end it and answer the question of who she chooses!

The world building his the book does seem a bit flimsy to me but maybe because it isn't all fleshed out yet with one more book on the way. There is one point where America has to do a presentation and there is a big following up to it and then it didn't feel as big as the author was trying to make it out to be. And the angry and emotion didn't seemed to go another with exactly what happened.

Overall I will probably read the next book because I do ultimately want to know who ends up with who. But if it more of the back and forth love triangle thing the whole entire book I might have to skip the inbetween.

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

I think out of the three this was my least favorite of the infernal devices series. I like action more than romance books and this one had a lot of Tessa swooning over both Jem and Will, Harry and Charlotte, Sophie and Gideon, Cecily and Gabriel. Very mushy gushy romantic, so if you like that kind of thing you will like this book a lot I think.

What I really like is how the two series (Internal Devices and Mortal Instruments) Interweave with each other. Things that you have read in the present with mortal instruments are more chiseled out and understood more in Internal Devices. Like how Church came to be in the New York institute. And, how the Herondales got the star like birthmark on their shoulders. It is like you are reading about the great great grandparents of the kids of the Mortal Instrument series looking into the past of the families and finding out more about stuff that you were familiar with in the present.

Clockwork Princess starts out with Tessa getting ready to get married to Jem. Getting her dress fitted, but then things start to come apart when Gideon and Gabriels father is found to be a worm. And one thing leads to another with there search to find The Magister. The book is sad, people die but then people also fall in love in this book as well. This book does have it all, romance (alot), action(a little), death, destruction, plots revealed and everything ties up nicely at the end.

But all in all it felt the same as the two books before. I guess I am not a love triangle type of gal.

School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins

This is a spinoff of the Hex Hall series. The Brannick family is really shown in the last book of the Hex Hall Series when Sophie and her mom find themselves at the Brannick place. School Spirit follows around Izzie Brannick who has recently lost her sister. Trying for something new, her and her mom move to a little town called Ideal Mississippi where Izzie is tasked with the chore of ridding the school of a ghost.

This is almost a flip from the Hex Hall series. In the Hex Hall series Sophie was used to living in the regular world with high school and what not and didn't know anything about the paranormal world when she was shipped off to Hex Hall. In School Spirits, Izzie has lived her entire life in the paranormal world and never has participated in the High School life which is all new to her. So to learn about the life of a Highschooler her mother buys her a whole bunch of Highschool tv shows which are ironical far from real high school life as well.

The watching a tv show to get an understanding of real life, feels a bit like the series Paranormalcy where the main character got all her information about real life from her favorite tv show. And then this one also has a misspelled Dairy Queen where the character go to meet, like the book Beautiful Creatures, which I have never seen Diary Queen spelled incorrectly in my entire life but just finished reading two books back to back that had misspelling of Dairy Queen.

But, all in all I like the book. I kept trying to guess who summoned the ghost and never had the right guess until it was shown. It has a great plot and it flowed well. I can't wait for the next one in the series to find out what Izzie and Dex will do next. There isn't a cliff hanger but there is a couple things left hanging for the next book to pick up on.

Beautiful Redemption

Beautiful Redemption, the last book in the series, is different than the rest. There are no shadowing songs, but crossword puzzles instead. Chapters are not marked by a date but are split into 3 books. The first book Ethan is in 1st person in the Gatlin otherworld trying to find his way back home to the living. The 2nd book Lena is in 1st person and the 3rd book goes back to Ethan's perspective. It is hard to get use to Lena telling the story in part of the book because I am so use to Ethan talking. I constantly have to keep telling myself it isn't Ethan, it is Lena.

This book is very repetitive in parts, and boring and slow. Really no action, even the fighting scene is boring and quick. The deaths in the book have no feeling to it and it feels real disconnected. There are a lot of Harry Potter like scenes in this one too at the end of the book. So, it isn't very original on top of the slow and boring.

There are questions that are finally answered that were asked in the very first book and left you hanging until this last book. Like what did Link do in the basement when he was 9 years old. And what is Lena's real name. They are just added quickly at the end of the novel just to quickly tie up loose ends.

The writing is beautifully written and there are some really good parts. But, all in all it wasn't my favorite book in the series. I think my favorite one was the third on in the series.

Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia

Good thing I am reading these after all of the books have been published, because I don't think I could of waited a whole year for this cliffhanger. So far, this one is my favorite book of the series. It is darker and sadder but I liked the flow of it. The first one was alright, the second one dragged a bit for me and I didn't really like it and actually stopped reading the books because of that one until all of them came out. But, I am glad I gave this one a shot because I really enjoyed it.

Lena has made her decision and she went both light and dark. But her decision messed up the order of things. Now, Gatlin is in a heat wave and it looks to be the end of the world. Like the other two books, Ethan is having nightmares, Ethan is hearing a shadowing song which is Eighteen moons this time, And Ethan is seeing visions when he touches a specific thing with Lena. You learn more about Sarafine and John Breed and also a bit more about Liv. Also, a bit more about Linkubus but I wish there was more about Link because he is hilarious.

Although I liked it, the main thing happening in the book with Ethan skipped an entire book. Something that happened to Ethan in the first book, but he didn't start having the symptoms of it until the third book, why? Because it was the main focal point of that book? They should have hinted to it a bit in the second one. And also, you can see things happening from a mile away. There are no twists in these books and I love twists. As soon has something happens to start setting up a plot you know what is going to be the end result.