Final reflections/review

     So, as anyone who read my blog knows, I wasn't the biggest fan of this book. Since I won't be changing anyone's opinion anyway, I'd like to give an explanation of mine. Let's begin;

Reason 1: The main protagonist

     Let me just start by stating my hypothesis: I don't think the author knew exactly where she was going with Tris when writing this book. She wanted the character to be selfless, that's obvious, but she also wanted an edgy character. I'm not saying that those two traits can't mix, because they do all the time, It's how poorly the author mixed them that bugged me. You see, the author wanted Tris to be selfless, but she unknowingly wrote the most selfish hero I've ever read. What ended up happening was that Tris acted extremely selfish, and then the other characters would always comment on how selfless she was. It's as if the author was trying to remind us, "Hey, Tris is selfless. okay?" the whole time. The result was a lot of eye rolls on my part, usually on big decisive actions that Tris makes, Which is really unfortunate.

Reason 2: The setting

     Let me start by saying that this setting had lots and lots of potential, but was killed by plot-holes. The biggest being the fact that all of the other factions were just cool with Abnegation being in charge. That is the equivalent of the Republican party being all like, "Nah, we're good. You Democrats can just run the government. We don't care." Here is the definition of faction: A small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, esp. in politics. This one huge plot hole could have been avoided by the author not calling the factions factions. Maybe call them lifestyles? Heck, career paths? While it sounds lame, it would kind of feel a bit more right. There are a lot of other ones (Erudite just happened to have that water tank laying around to kill Tris.) but that one had the most negative effect on the plot. 

Reason 3: The author wasn't too great at a dystopian setting

     While this might have fit in with setting, I feel it should be all on it's own, because this was a major gripe of mine. A Dystopian setting is one with a totalitarian government in control, usually with a strong military to enforce it's laws and policies. Well let's see, the government was basically comprised of charity workers, not iron fisted dictators. That strong military? A bunch of crazy adrenaline junkie goths. The setting was just too comfy! It felt like, especially during the Tris/Tobias romance scenes, the author wanted to write a book about societal outcasts. She actually would be pretty good at that, but when put in a world where there is supposed to be a rich, structured history, she falls a bit flat. In fact, when there were bad guys, there was strong evidence that they were fighting for a representative government, which made the whole power struggle a bit backwards.



     So while I had my gripes (the list could go on, but that would make this post way too long), there was some stuff I liked. The action was good, if a bit action movie-ish. Four was pretty cool, until he became Tobias (so to speak), and the idea of factions would have been cool, if the author hadn't quite messed it up with the different roles they have in society. At it's best, the book has loads of potential to be really great. At it's worst, it was filled with plot holes and had an annoying main character. If I had to give this book a rating, I'd say 2/5. It impressed me at times, just not nearly as much or as often as it should have. Well, it's been a blast, guys. Thanks for reading, and have a great day.