Insurgent (Divergent, #2) by Veronica Roth

Synopsis:

 

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

 

Part of what made Divergent so enjoyable was its fast pace. Despite being over 400 pages long, Tris's journey to become Dauntless is so engaging it flies by. In Insurgent, pretty much everything I loved about Divergent goes away: the fast pace, the captivating competition, the slow burn romance, and Tris's rise from the underdog. I get why Insurgent plays out the way it does, but that doesn't make it enjoyable.

Insurgent's biggest flaw is that it tries to base its plot on the mysteries of its world, but it's world-building is a mess. You can't have the crux of a story rest on a world that doesn't make sense. Unlike The Hunger Games trilogy, which has a believable and well-developed dystopian world, the Divergent trilogy is more aesthetically dystopian than actually dystopian in setting. So when you try to turn your aesthetic into a 500+ page rebellion plot, it just doesn't work.

Now, there is some good stuff in there. Tris's survivor's guilt is totally warranted after what she went through in the events of Divergent, but ultimately fails to be believable because the pacing of Insurgent is so poor. Months are supposed to be passing in this book, but if I wasn't reading closely and you asked me, I would've said two weeks. Because of that, Tris's 180 in character and conflict with Tobias as a result feels jarring. Simply put, Tris didn't at all feel like the sixteen-year-old brutal badass I fell in love with in the first book. And Tobias, who I was swooning over in Divergent? Literally could not care less about him or his relationship with Tris in this book.

Also, nothing really happens in Insurgent? Despite months passing? In a 500+ page book? Tris goes to some places, bullets are fired, she cries and fights with Tobias, and then the book ends with you more confused than ever about what the heck this world-building is supposed to be because this ain't it chief.

Similar to my star rating for Divergent, objectively I would say this is a 2 star read. But I did legitimately enjoy it - both in terms of nostalgia and because I expected it to be waaaay worse - so I'm giving it a 3 stars.

Divergent (Divergent, #1) by Veronica Roth

Synopsis:

 

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Objectively, this is a 3 star book. But this was my favorite book when I was 14 and remained so for much of high school, and so my nostalgic ass is giving this 5 stars.

With how much dislike Divergent has gained over the years, I expected the worst. Insta-love, terrible writing, bland "badass" heroine, the works. But Divergent isn't actually that bad. Is it the best example of YA literature? No, not at all. But I've endured a lot of bad YA, and to lump Divergent in with those works is an insult to what is an engaging read with a frankly brutal heroine.

Tris really surprised me. I expected her to have no personality and y'all, I couldn't have been more wrong. In an age of bland YA fantasy heroines, Tris is harsh, unlikable, and willing to fight literally everyone for the people she loves. So naturally, I loved her. I love anti-heroines and honestly, Tris was an anti-heroine before Jude Duarte or Mia Corvere were even a glimmer in their authors' minds. Tris is silenced, beaten, and sexually assaulted over the course of this novel, and turns herself into a weapon as a result of her trauma. She can be terribly selfish and dumb at times, but these flaws and mistakes make her feel real and, best of all, human. I'm so sad that Tris became so hated over the years when she's actually a well-developed character.

FYI, there's no insta-love in this. I sincerely loved Tris's relationship. Nowadays, most relationships in YA novels feel like a necessary evil to me, so it was really refreshing to read about a slow-building relationship based on mutual trust, rather than the immediate lust that drives a lot of YA today.

Training montages and competitions are two of my favorite tropes in books, so Divergent was especially thrilling and engaging to me. Tris's Dauntless training was actually a lot darker than I remember it being, which I appreciated as an adult reader. There isn't really much plot besides Dauntless training for the majority of the book, but I was totally okay with that due to my tastes.

Now let's get into the bad stuff. Eight years later, the world-building still doesn't make any sense. It's fine if you catch a glimpse at it from your periphery, but as soon as you look at it head-on, it just collapses. You've really got to suspend your disbelief with this world. The world, more than anything, is an aesthetic choice.

Overall, I'm really glad I reread this. Divergent doesn't measure up to the same quality we get from a lot of YA today, but we sell it too short nowadays for what it is: a gripping page-turner with a brutal heroine against a dystopian aesthetic backdrop. I unapologetically love Divergent.

One Word Kill (Impossible Times, #1) by Mark Lawrence

Synopsis:

 

In January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.

Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.

He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.

Challenge accepted.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 

 

PSA: One of the main characters is a bisexual girl and another is a gay boy of color. Don't sleep on this one y'all!!!

I truly believe that Mark Lawrence can't write a book that is anything short of excellent. That being said, however, I'm not always the right audience for every single one of Mark Lawrence's books. I think One Word Kill is going to be the book for a lot of people, but it wasn't for me. So while objectively I can say this is a really fantastic novel, personally I enjoyed it but didn't love it.

Despite the Stranger Things vibes of this, One Word Kill is undoubtedly original and unique. A lot of times, whenever a book is similar to something else, it usually means it's a less good version of the original thing. But this novel stands firmly on its own feet. Besides the 80s setting and cast of young teens, One Word Kill is nothing like Stranger Things in terms of characters and content. So if you like Stranger Things, there's no doubt in my mind that you'll adore this.

Probably my favorite thing about this novel was how Lawrence challenged the views Nick had been socialized to hold by his predominantly white and straight all boys school. Nick reads exactly like how you'd expect a teenage boy to sound, including all the problematic views surrounding women, race, and LGBT+ people. But whenever Nick expressed one of these views, he was shut down by either his friends or himself and then educated or reflected on why his thoughts or behaviors were hurtful. To me, this was some of the most important character growth I've ever seen a teen boy protagonist undergo. Mind you, all of these moments were little moments and didn't hinder or affect the plot at all, but it means a lot to me that Lawrence felt they were important enough to include not just once, but several times.

While overall I think the story of this novel is strong, I have very mixed feelings about the villain. The main cast of boys and Mia are so wonderfully distinct and fleshed out, whereas the villain was just evil and didn't have much of a personality beyond that. It also makes me uncomfortable that the villain seemed to be characterized as evil because of his "craziness," without any explanation as to what that means. Is mental illness affecting his actions? Is he just selfish and mean? I wish the villain had had a clearer motivation for his actions because otherwise, it forces the reader to believe the main characters calling him "crazy" or "psycho" and paints a really stigmatizing and problematic view of mental illness, if the villain is mentally ill at all. However, Mark Lawrence is very obviously trying to write diversely and comment on issues surrounding marginalized identities, so I trust that he'll listen to feedback and improve in his future works.

Overall, this was a great book with lovable characters and a cool plot. I didn't love it, but I will definitely be reading the sequel!

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Synopsis:

 

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 

 

3.5 stars. I really enjoyed this, but I'm not obsessed with it like I expected it to be.

The biggest draw of The Priory of the Orange Tree for me was it's world-building. It's stunning. It took me the longest to get through the first 200 pages of the book, just trying to get situated in the world. This world is so dense and organic, with so many different cultures and places to explore. Unlike other fantasy novels, which corral the reader in a tiny corner of a massive world, Samantha Shannon takes the reader all over the place. You get a glimpse of just about every place on the map included in the novel. While some places are better fleshed out than others - I personally thought Shannon was more thorough with her Western-inspired settings than Asian- and Middle Eastern-inspired - all of the cultures in this novel are rich with detail.

You follow four POV characters in this book: Ead, a handmaiden to Queen Sabran; Loth, a courtier and best friend of Sabran; Tané, a young woman who has trained to be a dragon rider since she was young; and Niclays, an alchemist living out his exile in the East. Two out of the four POV characters are canonically LGBT+, and three are people of color (though I also suspected that Loth was asexual).

Because of the absolutely wonderful diversity, I expected to adore every single one of these characters. But by the book's close, I didn't really love any of them. Ead and Niclays were my favorite of the POV characters, but even so, I only just liked them more than anything. Don't get me wrong, all of these characters are very well-written and complex, but I never felt especially attached to them. I tend to prefer plot-driven books over character-driven books, but it was still really disappointing to feel lukewarm at best toward all the characters in this novel. It definitely dampened my enjoyment of the f/f relationship, which I was really looking forward to, as a bisexual woman myself. I'll still recommend the hell out of this book to basically everyone because of the f/f romance and diversity, but I was really looking forward to this becoming my new obsession.

Massive shout out to Kalyba, though. I LOVED HER. She was such a interesting, subversive take on the witch stereotype in English literature. She was undoubtedly my favorite character in the novel, and I wish she had gotten way more screen time on the page.

As much as I loved the beginning and the middle of the novel, at around the 600 page mark, everything started to go downhill for me. I still wasn't in love with any of the characters, the plot was veering into generic, and I just enjoyed it less and less as it kept going. The novel had built me up for this masssive, epic ending, but it felt like everything fell into place really easily and quickly at the end. The final battle ended pretty fast, which didn't give it enough weight for the conclusion to feel satisfying. The majority of the novel is relatively slow-paced, so such a quick ending made all the build-up feel unnecessary. I felt very "so what?" after the final battle and so by the time I turned the final page, all I felt was disappointment.

Between the f/f relationship, female author, and diverse cast of characters, I expected The Priory of the Orange Tree to be a new all-time favorite of mine. But while I found it a very enjoyable read for the majority of the novel, I didn't love it. I still HIGHLY recommend checking it out, however, due to its overall subversive nature of the fantasy genre.

Holy Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #3) by Mark Lawrence

Synopsis:

 

They came against her as a child. Now they face the woman.

The ice is advancing, the Corridor narrowing, and the empire is under siege from the Scithrowl in the east and the Durns in the west. Everywhere, the emperor’s armies are in retreat.

Nona faces the final challenges that must be overcome if she is to become a full sister in the order of her choice. But it seems unlikely that Nona and her friends will have time to earn a nun’s habit before war is on their doorstep.

Even a warrior like Nona cannot hope to turn the tide of war.

The shiphearts offer strength that she might use to protect those she loves, but it’s a power that corrupts. A final battle is coming in which she will be torn between friends, unable to save them all. A battle in which her own demons will try to unmake her.

A battle in which hearts will be broken, lovers lost, thrones burned.
 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

ARC provided by Berkley Publishing Group via Netgalley in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.

This defied every single expectation I had. I'm honestly in awe of how incredible this was. But before you pick up Holy Sister, I HIGHLY recommend you pick up Bound, a short story that takes place between the events of Grey Sister and Holy Sister. Not only is it a hell of a fun time, but it has some details that make the events of Holy Sister feel more well-rounded.

After absolutely LOVING Red Sister and liking Grey Sister, Holy Sister is the best of both worlds. A large chunk of the book follows two timelines: one immediately following the events of Grey Sister and another that takes place three years later, in the present moment. I really enjoyed this method of story-telling in Mark Lawrence's The Broken Empire trilogy, and it's just as effective in this novel. The two timelines complement each other really well, each slowly revealing information that complicates your understanding of the events of the other timeline. But if juggling two timelines isn't your cup of tea, rest assured that everything settles into the present moment about halfway through the novel. From there, you just gotta buckle your seat belt and nestle in for the ride because WOW is it a journey.

Holy Sister went in a direction I really didn't expect, and for that I love it all the more. Mark Lawrence sets up a lot of threads in the previous two novels, but never so obviously that he reveals his hand. I honestly had no idea what Holy Sister would look like, and its lack of predictability for me, someone who's usually pretty good at guessing what'll happen next, just made the whole story entirely more entertaining.

The world-building really shines in this novel. If in previous novels the world has been a backdrop to Nona's adventures, in Holy Sister the history of Abeth and the magic that governs it actively shape her story. I really don't want to say too much and spoil the direction the story takes, but if you've been dying for more detail about the mysteries of this world, Holy Sister has some answers. I'm always really impressed and amazed by the intricacies of Lawrence's world-building, and this novel was no exception.

Okay, can we just talk about the fact that Nona is a bisexual icon?? From book one, I felt the bi vibes resonate in my bones, and so reading "Bound" just about made my life (which is why you should go read it!!!). Even though the romantic elements in this novel are significantly toned down from "Bound," seeing Nona exist on the page as an explicitly and canonically bisexual character meant so much to me. As a bi woman, Nona Grey makes me feel seen.

Also, shout out to that reference to the Broken Empire trilogy. I don't know if it's just a reference, or a subtle connection, or something even deeper than that, but I'm definitely bumping my reread of the Broken Empire trilogy up because I'm dying to know what it means.

I think what best sums up my feelings for this book is this: Holy Sister had me on the verge of tears multiple times throughout reading, and I cried after I finished it. My love for these characters reached maximum height during this novel and seeing their fates, happy and not, was like taking a punch directly to the heart. I don't think my words are adequate enough to express how much I loved this conclusion to such a stunning trilogy.