I don't know whether to be furious or grateful to this one Amazon reviewer for totally spoiling the ending of Veronica Roth's Allegiant. But because I'm a nice person, I won't go into details about the spoiler that smacked me upside the head.
Have you ever stumbled on a review that completely ruins your desire to read a book? I mean, I haven't even had a chance to read Insurgent yet because of school, and now I don't really want to touch it with a ten-foot pole. I've got it checked out from the library on my Kindle and it expires in a few days, and I'm just going to let it expire. I know myself, and I know that I'll likely never finish this series.
The ending might fit in with the character development . . . or it might not. I'll never know. All I know is that Veronica Roth might have made a monumental mistake. No matter how much a person might dislike The Hunger Games trilogy, at least the ending is satisfying. A lot of readers aren't happy with Roth's ending, and I suspect that will affect how well her movies do at the box office. I don't want to see Divergent in theaters now. I really don't, and all because I found about the ending. Of course, even if I hadn't stumbled over that stupid spoiler, even if I had read all the way to the end of the series, I suspect that I would still hate the outcome and never want to see the movies. It's hard to believe how excited I was about the story when I first read Divergent several months ago. The book was so fascinating and I just couldn't put it down. Sad to see what's happened between then and now.
There's a few reasons why I don't read very many Nicholas Sparks books. First, the man never permits happy endings. And second, he never permits happy endings! Maybe he's written one book, one solitary book, that doesn't end with me blubbering into the pages. So I decided to stop reading because he's gotten formulaic. Back when he wrote The Notebook his style was still fresh. People didn't know what to expect from the story, but now, well he's given himself away as an enemy of the happily-ever-after scenario. Sorry, Nic, but I'm not putting myself through your emotional rigamarole anymore!
Translation: Veronica Roth, I'm not tolerating your heartstring manipulation either! I can almost forgive J. K. Rowling for hers, even though she still made some critical errors when it came to the fate of certain characters. But this is J. K. Rowling, and despite Veronica Roth's apparent Christian faith, she supposes she can do it better than Rowling. I may not live in a Rowling saturated world, but I appreciate her knack for storytelling, and at least she got the ending right.
Who knows, maybe this post will inspire me to finish Roth's Divergent series. Then again, maybe not.
SPOILERS
ReplyDeleteI heard about the ending too -- on the Divergent IMDB board, in which someone said they found out about the ending and that killed their desire to watch the movies. I'll probably still read the last book -- I can see why she would choose that ending, since it's been a pattern from the start how "selfish" the heroine finds herself to be. Her parents give up their lives for her, it's natural that the end of her journey would be to do the same.
Alas, I've never liked her, so it probably won't rip my heart out. :P
I've never cared all that much for Tris. Well, okay, that's not entirely true. I liked her at the beginning of Divergent, but towards the midway point she started annoying me. Probably because the book was starting to drag. After all, she spends the entire book adjusting to her new faction and that gets boring after a point.
DeleteBut I still had wanted to finish the series. It's so sad that any enthusiasm I might have built up for completing it is now totally crushed. Let me know what you think of Allegiant when you get a chance to read it.
WHAT IS IT with all these futuristic book heroines that I can't identify with, much less like? I had the same problem with Katniss -- a total failure to like her as a person. In Katinss' case, I couldn't identify with her coldness (repressed Fi, I now realize) and with Tris... well, she's kind of selfish. But in general, I have a hard time reading books with senseless brutality in them. Forcing kids to beat the crap out of each other makes me want to take a machine gun to all the adults involved. :P
Delete*sigh*
With Nicholas Sparks newer books the endings seem to now be bitter sweet. They still make you cry but more of the characters get a happier ending. Some of the characters now get a happy ending.
ReplyDeleteI am so very happy to hear that Nicholas Sparks is moving away from tragedy! I think it was Nights in Rodanthe that did me in. I loved that book, up until the ending, and then I cried myself to sleep that night. Good for him at giving some of his characters a better ending!
DeleteI haven't read any of the Divergent series, but my interest for it was growing very, very rapidly... and then came to a screeching halt when the exact thing happened to me! It was probably even the same review. So I understand your pain. I sometimes don't mind unhappy endings, as long as they're still tasteful and well-done, but I'm doubting that's the case here... but a part of me still wants to read them and risk the disappointment!
ReplyDeleteOh, Sarah, I'm sorry! At least I had the enjoyment of reading the first book without knowing what would happen. Man, sometimes reviewers really need to be careful. When I review I try so hard not to give anything crucial away, unless it's negative content related.
DeleteThe people I know who've read Allegiant are torn about the ending. Some of them find it appropriate while others hate it. I don't know what to think because I don't know the context of the ending and how it happens. Man, I really don't want to finish the series but maybe I will before the 1st movie hits theaters. I've got a couple of months to reflect and consider if I want to spend at least 20 hours of my life on this series.
Thanks. :) Yeah, but then again, it could be serendipitous -- if I read them now I may be able to enjoy them without getting too attached and getting mad at the end. Who knows? I guess that's why I'm still pretty interested. But I'll probably think on it for a while too. :)
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