Book review: Allegiant

The book I am blogging about is Allegiant by Veronica Roth. This book is the third book in the series, with Divergent and Insurgent as its processors. Allegiant is about a group of experiments, Tris, Tobias, and some others escaping their fake lives to enter the real world, which they hardly known about. The city of Chicago seemed to be all that existed for them until they passed the gates. They realized they weren't the only ones. Tris, the main character, and the others were rescued by the Bureau of Genetic Welfares. They were the ones conducting the experiments on the different cities, like Chicago. The officials took them in and made them feel at home, but are they really there friends, or using them against their loved ones? Read on to find out more. 

This book is for someone who has patience for mysteries and drags. The book does drag a little in the middle and gets really annoying. Also, you must have the tolerance to keep up with the constant switch in narrators. The book keeps changing from the view of Tris, to the view of Tobias and it really gets annoying for me because the first two books were both in the view of Tris, but now we have the view of Tobias added in, and let me tell you, he has more drama that Tris does.

 I give this book a 4 star rating because it is good, but some of the small things like switch in narrators, dragging in the middle, and not much action decrease the rating. For me, I like the little action that was in the book, but now it’s filled with emotion and decisions to make and other garbage. I'm not the chick flick girl, but people who like the emotion might enjoy this book.

 The author, Veronica Roth, writes in a very normal, yet grasping way. Her diction is very casual, unless you’re talking to and Erudite. I think it's very casual because the people of the experiment aren't very educated to have the elevated diction. Also, she added a new experiment to the switching in narrators, which is really really really annoying to me, but others may like it. Her sentences aren't exactly in many different styles, there mostly balanced but not "fancy". Once in a while you'll find a repetion, rhetorical question, or anaphora. Also, the sentence lengths aren't too short or too long. There is a good variety of fragment lengths, but most of them are medium length. There is a lot of similes and metaphors, good use of figurative language. She also gives a lot of imagery. Roth gives good description of the setting and the characters. I was able to picture most of the book in my head, like a little movie. I think that was my favorite part, being able to visualize the whole thing in my head.

Over all, it’s a good book and I think everyone should give it a gander.

Allegiant 3

* Write a post about vocabulary you observe in the context of your book.
The vocabulary in Allegiant is mostly casual diction with some abstract/concrete diction. There is a lot of casual diction with most of the characters because they aren't from Erudite, the intelligent faction. The Erudite however use mostly elevated diction and scientific jargon. With Tris and Tobias, there is abstract diction because they are dating. The two are in love with each other and love comes with a lot of abstract diction like love, and trust. In the book, it says "This program helps us to interpret the data in an understandable way. What you see here is a simplified depiction of a particular DNA sequence in Tris's genetic material." (557, Roth). This shows the scientific jargon of the scientists at the Bureau. In the book, it also states "I fell in love with him. But I don't just stay with him by default as if there's no one else available for me. I stay with him because i choose to, every day that i wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me." (647,Roth). This part shows the abstract diction between Tobias and Tris. The vocab really depends on who is talking and to who. 

Allegiant 2

The WORST part of the book!

The worst part of Allegiant to me is constant switch in narrators. I know it says at the beginning of each chapter whose perspective the story is being told, but it gets really annoying constantly changing the perspective because of many reasons! First of all, the first two books, Divergent and Insurgent, were both in Tris' perspective, so we know how its going to be written and how the point of view is going to be. How she will act and say. But in Allegiant, its switching between Tobias and Tris. Tris thinks both practically and emotionally, whereas Tobias is just messed up and thinking about himself and how it will impact him and so many emotions in such a small thing! It just gets annoying constantly switching from rock hard, to a big baby. I just wish we could keep the last book in Tris' perspective like its predecessors and the leave the mini divergent series on Tobias' perspective for him, not include his perspective in the main novels. Some people may like the change because it's cool looking at things from other perspectives, but not when its the last book and there is already a steady pace. This is just my perspective so I hope no one gets offended ☺!

Allegiant

I've just started the book Allegiant by Veronica Roth and it's not as good as the first two books, especially because it constantly changes the perspective of the story, from Tris to Tobias. But we're here to talk about the setting of the book. Where I am in the book, it took place from the city of Chicago, within the fences, to the outside, beyond the fences. The inner part of chicago has become rubble. Since the attack of Erudite on Abnegation and the Factionless rising to power, the city is practicly falling upon itself. The building look as if a bomb had droped on the city, the people all look like hobo's, and the streets are on the outskurts of a world war III. The roads are cracked up like eggshells and the beautiful faction headquarters are now vicitms of a robbery. The inside of Chicago has become a large ghetto.

The outside of the city is something new, something we didn't have any knowledge about. Here's a quote from the book, "the world beyond urs is full of roads and dark buildings and collapsing power lines. There is no life in it, as far a sI can see; no movement, no sound but the wind and my own footsteps." (pg. 701 elctronic version). The Chicago as we see it today is totally different from the Chicago in the book. The walls are covered with old pictures, which are melting upon themselves. The train tracks are rusty and crocked. It's as if its a desert with abandoned buildings. The outer Chicago is much better than the inner Chicago. Some of the buildings are still in tact, like the Airport hosting the Bureau of Genetic Wellfare. Also, there are cars rolling down the streets.

Inner Chicago

Krista Ramsey Columns

Response:

The column I read was called "Locking into the magic of Legos" by Krista Ramsey. My favorite line in this column was "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Jungle Duel can, with a little imagination, turn into sword-training for a ninja or a backyard sleepout with giant ants." I like this line because it can be related to easily and give us a great visual image. Also, it shows us the wildness of the children's imagination. The column is written for the adult point of view. This line impacts that view because it shows the parents how some small polymer bricks can transform into an amazing object of the child's fantasy. The child may appear to be playing with colored cubes, but there is much more processing and thinking involved. Also, the way she says "giant ants" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was so the reader can relate to it. They can see how something everyone knows of, Indiana Jones, can be turned into an ironic situation, giant ants.

Questions:

• When you have writers block, what do you do to get out of it?
• How do you make your writing seem different every time, no repetition?
• How are you able to talk about something so frequently without running out of ideas?

Link to Column

Insurgent: Characters & Symbols

• Beatris Prior (Tris)- I think a gun would be a symbol for her becasue like a gun, Tris is fearless and can be very protective. But after the gun does the damage, after its shot, it has a backfire. the gun backfires at the person. That is how Tris is. She can take a life easily, like pressing a trigger, but after she has lots of guilt and sorrow, like the backfire of the gun.

• Tobias Eaton (Four)- I think an elephant would describe Tobias because an elephant is magestic, itelligent, calm, and powerful. When it's left alone, it can be beautiful and loving, but when someone/something tampers its family or itself, the elephant can turn into a ferocious beast that will do anything to protect its loved ones. Just like Tobias. He is very quite and conservative and doesn't really have much interest for whats happening. But when someone were to put Tris on the line, he would turn into a outrageous monster that will go to any heights to stop the evil.

• Caleb Prior- I think Caled is like a lost puppy. He would do anythingh to fit into the crowd. A lost puppy would be look and trust anyone to get its way back home. He becomes very dependent. Like Caleb. Caleb was born into Abnegation, but he went along and acted like he was ment to be in Abnegation, only to switch to Erudite. When he joined Erudite, Caleb would do and think just like them. He would do anything he can to help his faction, puts all his faith into the slogan "Faction over Blood".  

• Marcus Eaton- I think Marcus is like a breif case. On the outside, it looks like a harmless piece of luggage with no danger attached to it. But on the inside, you don't kow what you'll find. It could be anything. This is how Marcus is. He looks like a simple, harmless Abnegation leader who only wants good. But you later find out he is Tobias' father. The same man who would beat Tobias for being different, and would go after very dangerous information on the world outside the fence. He isn't as innocent as he seems.

Divergent: Veronica Roth

I have started reading the book Divergent and so far it's great. Because I can't write much about the book currently, I'll start with the author. The author of Divergent is Veronica Roth. She is 25 years old and graduated from Northwestern University with her bachelors. Veronica loves to cook, write poetry, and learn about psychology, biology, and theology. Veronica would choose Abnegation as her faction in the Divergent society. She's very simple and has anxiety, so she keeps her comments off.


Veronica Roth's interview of Divergent