Initial thoughts: Reading Four was a fun alternative view to Divergent. In a way, I kinda wish the book had been developed with Four as the main character. The setting explained so much more about the changes going on within Dauntless and answered a fair bit of questions that came up for me when reading Divergent. At the same time, Divergent would've been a little pre-mature with Four as the main character, so I guess it does make sense.
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When I found out that Veronica Roth was writing short stories from Four/Tobias' point of view, I knew I had to read those. At first, they were supposed to be released as separate ebooks, but after a while it was announced that they were going to be published together as an actual book. I pre-ordered my copy as soon as I could and a couple of days after the release date, I started reading it.
The book has four (hehe) stories told from Four's point of view, called 'The Transfer', 'The Initiate', 'The Son', and 'The Traitor'. I had read the Transfer already before I found out that it was going to become one book, and I had liked it. Though I still thought he sounded a lot like Tris. Of course, I understand that it might be hard to write a story from multiple POV's, and trying to not make them sound the same, but I don't think Veronica Roth did a very good job with it. Still, I loved reading about Four's transfer, and his initiation process.
The Traitor was basically a brief summary of Divergent, but then through Four's eyes. A bit like Hana was Delirium through Hana's eyes. I liked it, I liked reading several scenes from Divergent but through Four's eyes, I liked how he was trying to find out what was going on between Max and Jeanine and yeah, I just liked it very much! We didn't get a lot of new conversations or scenes, mostly the conversations between Tris and Four were the same ones we'd read about in Divergent, but I can't say that I was disappointed by it. I had expected it, and though I would have loved a complete new scene between the two, one that we hadn't read about in any of the books, I am happy with what we got!
As usual, the writing was very good, I just really like Roth's writing a lot! I got through the stories very easily, and eventually halfway through the book I just put it down so I wouldn't finish it in one day, because I wanted to savour it. Divergent is one of my favourite book series of all time, and this is the last book in that series, so I wanted to save the last pages. Still, I got through it very fast, and I enjoyed every minute of it. And the cover, oh wow I am in love with the covers of the Divergent series; but this one is just amazing. The ferris wheel! (Okay tiny bit disappointed that we didn't get that scene from his POV, shh).
The only thing I didn't like, was that I had thought the Free Four story would be in here as well, but it wasn't. I had read it already of course, but I was under the impression that it would be in the book as well, so I could reread it again. But alas, it was not.
Still, no harm done, and I enjoyed Four, a DIvergent Collection a lot. Now I am going to lie down in a ball and try to not think about the fact that this series is now over.
In het boek zijn allemaal korte stukken over het leven van Tobias / Four, sommige delen voordat de Divergent serie plaatsvond, sommige stukken wat tijdens de Divergent serie plaatsvinden. Tobias en Tris hadden sowieso al een plekje gestolen in mijn hart, dus dit boek vond ik echt geweldig als extra informatie over Tobias! Nu moet je ook geen levensverhaal gaan verwachten, maar dat deed ik ook niet. Ik hield van de informatie die je kreeg, ondanks dat het niet al te veel was.
Ik vond vooral de verhalen leuk wat plaatsvonden voor Divergent, omdat dat echt over dingen ging die je of niet wist, maar ook omdat die verhalen meer af voelden. The Traitor, het verhaal wat tijdens Divergent plaatsvindt, vond ik zelf wat minder. Er waren erg veel stukken weggelaten, alles werd snel beschreven en ik leek gewoon dingen te missen. Het leek alsof het verhaal niet af was. Ik vond dat wel een nadeel, anders had ik het boek zeker vijf sterren gegeven.
Allegiant left a sour taste in my mouth and I wasn’t in much of a hurry to get back into the world, to be honest. I didn’t have a problem with the way it ended…it’s just that series was a steady decline and I am ready to be done with it. However seeing as I bought this and I did start it, I might as well finish it. However, Four was actually fun to read and a great way to make me loose some of the resentment.
If you haven’t finished the series, it’s in your best interest to stop reading this review. It deals with things that allude to Insurgent and Allegiant (to some extent).
Four has four stories, and most have little to do with Tris and more with his background. The Transfer deals with his transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless. I really liked seeing why and how he chose to leave Abnegation. The Initiate gives some insight as to how he coped with transferring and how different Dauntless was when he was an Initiate We even get to meet Eric…spoiler alert he’s still a dick. The Son deals with his father and his mother, and just how he came into contact with her and The Traitor deals with him finding out about the plan to kill the Abnegation. I also have a version with some extra stories in the back that are direct re-writes of scenes from Divergent in Four’s point of view. Of all of the content in the book these felt the most unnecessary and I read them as quickly as I could.
All in all this is a pretty good closer for the series, especially if you’re still a bit irritated at it. It has that same feel as Divergent and none of the slower moments of the latter two. We get to find out more about Four and some more depth added to Divergent. I liked seeing the rivalry between Eric and Four expanded upon, and just why those feelings of hatred go so deeply. I also like seeing the tense relationship between his mother and him, and also how much his father let’s his personal feelings get in the way.
I am glad I read this, but I am also glad that the series is well and truly over. So long Four may you rest peacefully on my shelves until…well probably forever. I don’t lend out books…so you might be there by yourself for a while. Tootles.
I really liked reading things from Tobias point of veiw. This book give us the two years of Tobias live before Tris becomes dauntless. It really makes me want to read divergent all from Tobias perspective. I do wish I had read this before alligent as now all the Tris-Tobais love is bitter sweet. I wish it didn't have to end.
I always enjoy getting a behind the scenes look at my favorite characters - in this case Four from the Divergent series. I don't know if it was the copy I was reading but in the stories whenever time jumped ahead there was no break to denote that. This caused a bit of confusion and forced me to go back to see if I missed anything. Good read through!
It was nice to read everything from fours perspective and added a new angle to the previous books that wasn't there. Shame they weren't longer or more!