In May of 2011, I recommended Divergent to those enjoying The Hunger Games. After reading Roth's second book in this series, Insurgent, I am not convinced that it is as good as HG, but it is still a decent TeenLit selection that will keep me looking for future releases.
To learn more about the premise of the Divergent series, check out my review of the first book. As with any series in general, but with TeenLit in particular, it's pretty important that you read these things in order. In fact, if you haven't read Divergent and plan to check it out, I'd suggest that you stop reading here so as not to encounter any spoilers.
If you're still reading, that means you've already read the first book, don't plan to read either, or simply are one of those (weird) people who reads the last page of a book first. Either way, I'm letting you know that Tris joined the Dauntless faction--something I withheld in my review of Divergent. As a member of this group, she fought a battle with Erudite, the faction that led a war on the other factions by controlling the minds of people in the remaining four groups and forcing them to engage in violence against each other. Some of the Dauntless actually joined the Erudite in this endeavor, and in the second book they are referred to as the Dauntless traitors. By the time the second book opens, there is a calm in the fighting, as Tris and other Divergent Dauntless (including the beloved Four/Tobias) were not affected by the simulation and managed to interrupt the mind-control activity.
In Insurgent, Tris and her fellow Dauntless leave their headquarters and spend time with both the Candor and Abnegation--in addition to making contact with the factionless outsiders of society. Ultimately Tris must decide whether she will remain faithful to her chosen faction or seek the truth regardless of the consequences. You may have a decent guess, but you'll have to read the book to find out whether or not you are right.
(PS: As with my reflection on the Delirium/Pandemonium series in my previous posting, I am also pondering what the third title in this series may be: Divergent, Insurgent, Convergent?)
In recent posts I've complained about the fact that the romance aspect of some of the recent teen novels I'd read had become overplayed. This is particularly true in sequels, where each book seems to get more and more focused on the characters' relationships and less on the societal constructs established in the early books. I'm a long way from being the target audience of these books, but I can't help wondering why this happens. If the teen readers liked the early books enough to continue with the series, didn't this indicate that they, too, were fond of the actual premise of the book? Why sideline the exploration of dystopic societies and ethical problem solving in favor of rated-PG kissing?
I can't really complain about the trend with this sequel, as I was forewarned by the very subject matter of the first. In fact, while getting ready to write this review, I went back and read my discussion of Delirium, the book before Pandemonium, and had to laugh at this observation: "This
one leaned a bit too far toward the romance end of things for my taste; I
can tolerate the romance as long as the world developed behind it is
interesting and compelling. In this book, however, the romance is
center stage." Over the course of the review, though, I explored a few things I really liked about the book, and I suppose that's what I responded to when I saw it available at my local bookstore. Fortunately, in this book, Lena is on her own for the first half--which flashes back and forth between her life in the Wilds, beyond the fenced-off community of the standard society, and her reintegration into that society as a secret rebel. She may be pining for her lost love, but at least she is taking action and becoming a strong person as well. And, by the time the new boy comes into the picture, there's been time for Lena to explore the novelty of a society that allows self-expression and emotion and to see how the lack thereof is affecting the regime inside the walls.
I'm really hoping that Oliver's next book in the series (The ending of Pandemonium implies that there most certainly will be one.) continues in this direction. For now I'm trying to decide what the next book's title will be, seeing as it should really end with an -ium suffix.
I really enjoyed hearing James Patterson speak about kids and reading during a luncheon at the 2011 NCTE Convention, and I think his Read Kiddo Read website offers amazing resources for young readers and parents. These things have made me check out a couple of his book series for Tween and Teen youth, and the Maximum Ride series--about a flock of mutant bird kids who were experimented on in labs--is one of the more interesting. They have good story lines for both boys and girls, with both romance and fart jokes mixed in, as well as strong good-versus-evil plots and exposure to contemporary issues. In these two books in the series, for instance, global warming becomes the focus.
Considering the huge number of books Patterson is publishing annually, in both the adult and youth categories, he either gets no sleep or has a full cadre of ghost writers assisting him. In either case, his work is engaging if not brilliant, and these books are sure to be a hit with young readers.
Stieg Larsson's trilogy was all the rage several years ago--fueled by the release of movies in both Swedish and English--and somehow in all the media frenzy I became convinced that I had read them. While killing time in an airport bookstore this summer, however, I took the time to read the back cover of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and found that I hadn't, indeed, read it. I hopped on my iPad, downloaded the digital version, and soon became engrossed in the story and characters.
Prior to starting the novel, I mentioned it to my mother, a connoisseur of mystery novels, and she told me that she read Dragon Tattoo but didn't continue with the trilogy because it was too "dark." With my reading tastes, that was a bit of an endorsement. I also found that the pacing, storyline, and character development were engaging, and the cultural differences in the book made me less sure of what was going to happen next. Indeed, the relationships between characters, the description of political and social institutions, and the few bits of trivia I picked up about Larsson's Sweden were the things I most liked about the book.
In addition to exposing/discussing violence against women in an unsettling manner (the darkness my mother referred to), Larsson also does a very good job of making a societal misfit--the Girl of the titles--empathetic. The clash between the standard opinion of her and the view that a few others develop once they know her is startling, and it caused me to reflect on how this might be true in daily life. I did like the first book a bit more than the second, but that won't stop me from going on to read the third in the trilogy.
I've heard mention of a few other Swedish authors I should check out if I liked these books, but I don't recall their names. If anyone has recommendations, please comment below.
