I read the first 20 chapters and honestly, I don't get the hype. This series is has nice art going on at best and has generic plot and juvenile humor I read the first 20 chapters and honestly, I don't get the hype. This series is has nice art going on at best and has generic plot and juvenile humor at worst. It's filled with shonen tropes and presents nothing new or interesting in terms of storytelling, characters, monsters etc. You can still write an interesting story using tropes of a particular genre; for example, Jujutsu Kaisen is a trope-y manga that I enjoyed a lot because the tropes are executed well and has some interesting stuff going on with the characters, plot, action scenes etc., I can't say the same about Chainsaw Man. The constant use of juvenile humor and reducing female characters to fanservice are just off-putting.
Merged review:
I read the first 20 chapters and honestly, I don't get the hype. This series is has nice art going on at best and has generic plot and juvenile humor at worst. It's filled with shonen tropes and presents nothing new or interesting in terms of storytelling, characters, monsters etc. You can still write an interesting story using tropes of a particular genre; for example, Jujutsu Kaisen is a trope-y manga that I enjoyed a lot because the tropes are executed well and has some interesting stuff going on with the characters, plot, action scenes etc., I can't say the same about Chainsaw Man. The constant use of juvenile humor and reducing female characters to fanservice are just off-putting....more
I wanted to write a review on Eleanor and Park for a very long time. Not only because I disliked this book but because I have so much to say about it.I wanted to write a review on Eleanor and Park for a very long time. Not only because I disliked this book but because I have so much to say about it. Firstly, I don’t buy into contemporary romance novels, especially when it’s YA. It’s simply because most romance novels are so fake and commercialised. People write romance novels just to get money while feeding the readers� minds with fantasies and false notion about relationships. Often these books contain creepy stalk-ish behaviour, damsel-in-distress female character, unhealthy obsession over one another, abusive or unrealistic relationships, so much of unnecessary drama, cheesy dialogues and what not that infuriates me. Writing romance novels has become a very easy way to fill pockets with more $$$$ because 1.) It’s easy to write a cheesy romance novel 2.) Women love anything that has a hot guy and swoon-worthy story. Contemporary romance novels in general are poorly written; they don’t live up to the quality of books with interesting plot and good characters.
The only YA romance that I like is Anna and the French Kiss. Yes, I do understand that at times it is really cheesy but the author has realistic approach towards the plot and the characters and romance was not the only part of the plot, there was lot more going on to keep me invested in the story.
Now, going on to Eleanor and Park. I picked up this book out of sheer curiosity. I changed my rating from 2 stars to 1 star later when I realised that I had nothing positive to say about this book.
Let’s start with the male-love interest. Park is a judgemental jerk. When he first meets Eleanor he judges her for the clothes she wears. Park’s mother is Korean and he is ashamed of his mother’s accent, he is also jealous of his younger brother’s “American looks�. He dislikes the way Eleanor dresses and keeps on questioning her style even when it was so obvious that Eleanor was not as rich as him and simply couldn’t afford to buy new clothes.
What surprises me is that being half-Korean living in a white neighbourhood and going to a white school in the 80’s, Park and his brother hardly face racism. Park’s mother being Korean too never faces racism and is very popular among the neighbourhood girls because she’s a makeup artist. I find it hard to believe that Park’s mother easily forgets Korean culture, her family, her country everything for a rich white man and never cares to talk about her childhood or her siblings with her children.
This book is full of one-dimensional characters I never cared about. Eleanor is just another stupid damsel-in-distress female character who was crawling slowly throughout the book. The author tries too hard to make readers sympathise with Eleanor’s character by giving her an abusive step father, 5 siblings and a poor household which seemed too forced in my opinion. Both Eleanor and Park are some of the most boring characters I’ve read about.
The romance between the characters was so rushed and cheesy that I was rolling my eyes the entire time while reading this book. Park hates Eleanor at the first sight and cusses at her then within a span of few pages, he’s all warm and fuzzy towards her saying things like “omgggg her handz r so soft!1!11!!�. Adding to that, these characters smell like desserts and most of the time they want to eat each other because they smell so yummy.
“…But I think it’s got as much to do with your hair being red and your hands being soft � and the fact that you smell like homemade birthday cake�
“Maybe Park had paralyzed her with his ninja magic, his Vulcan handhold, and now he was going to eat her. That would be awesome.�
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“Don't bite his face, Eleanor told herself.�
Seriously, is Park strawberry cheesecake that you have the urge to bite every time you see him?
The writing was so cheesy that it made me puke.
�...and his eyes were so green they could turn carbon dioxide into oxygen.�
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By the end of this book there are so many loose ends left to resolve, it seems like the author just chose the easy way out to complete the book and send it off to the publisher.
Eleanor and Park is nothing but another cheesy, unrealistic romance novel in the plethora of cheesy, generic romance novels that you should pick up only if you want to waste your time or want to know what a poorly written book is like.
When I heard Seventeen call If I Stay "new TFIOS" I should have turMore reviews @
Initial reaction upon finishing-
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When I heard Seventeen call If I Stay "new TFIOS" I should have turned tail and run in the opposite direction as fast as I could.
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But like always my curiosity won.
If I Stay is a boring story that can be told in few sentences but has been dragged into a 200 page book. If this book were any longer, I would have marked it DNF right after reading the first few chapters. This book is about a girl named Mia who experiences a car accident which kills her parents and presumably her brother. Mia gets stuck in a limbo-like state soon after the accident takes place. Later, she realises that it’s up to her to choose if she wants to live or join her parents while she recounts moments with her family, friends and boyfriend from the past.
Here are the problems with the book.
The author fails to make this story interesting. I felt detached from the story and constant shifting of Mia’s memories and her present limbo-like state in the hospital. This book offers nothing new; it is filled with clichés and has a very predictable plot right from the beginning to the end. Mia’s flashbacks of her past just show me that she’s one of the greatest Mary-Sues I’ve read about.
Mia is a Mary-Sue. She has no flaws and depth whatsoever. She’s an obedient and perfect child to her parents, she has a too-perfect-to-be-real boyfriend (who too is another cardboard cut-out crawling through the novel), she has a very happy and problem-free life, she is excellent at academics, she is excellent as a cellist and she has an awesome best-friend (who’s a real meanie to her parents and screams at her mother when the latter started crying upon hearing of Mia’s condition…Ugh! What’s wrong in expressing your sadness over someone’s accident? Are adults not allowed to show emotions?).
Not to mention that Mia’s parents were shown to be extremely perfect and cool people whom all teens would love to have as their own parents. They love rock music, they give their children everything they want, they allow them to hang out with their friends and go to parties, they allow Mia to date Adam and barely bat their eyelashes when Mia brings Adam to their house for the first time and takes him to her room alone. I felt that the author deliberately made Mia’s parents all nice and awesome so that readers would feel very sad when they die.
And what on earth even happened to Mia’s brother? The author tells us nothing about him other than Mia’s assumption that he must've died too. As if he was just there in the story to let Mia play her very-kind-and-loving BIG SISTER role.
This book is full of cheesy scenes like the one where Mia brings the bow of her cello and “plays it� on Adam's body like an instrument.
It also had one of the most unbelievable and emotionally manipulative ending ever.
(view spoiler)[ Mia is lying in the hospital and her boyfriend comes to meet her. He tells her to come back *sob**sob**sob**sob**sob* and he promises to let her go awaaaaaayyyyyy *sob**sob**sob**sob* AND MIA COMES BACK TO HER BODY!1!11!!! *sob**sob**sob**sob* THE END!!!!
After The Fault in Our Stars, I don't think I'd want to burn my brain cells by reading another book written by John Green.After The Fault in Our Stars, I don't think I'd want to burn my brain cells by reading another book written by John Green....more
Many friends of mine suggested this book calling it a genius, fast-paced dystopian read. Well, I had expectations which are nowWARNING- SPOILERS AHEAD
Many friends of mine suggested this book calling it a genius, fast-paced dystopian read. Well, I had expectations which are now…�.shattered. I hated this book in fact it frustrated me like hell. There were several moments while reading this when I felt to hurl the book against the wall. The plot and characters were utterly ridiculous and there were plot holes like crates on moon which debilitated the story.
Implausibilities-
Lack of backstory � Isn't Legend tagged under dystopian fiction on ŷ? �.Then WHERE THE HELL was the backstory??? A backstory is not only an essential but also an interesting element of dystopian fiction; no dystopia is complete without a back-story. It does not only provide the readers information and history of the government but also what the current government is fighting against. In this book we're hardly told anything about the Republic and its enemies- the Patriots and the Colonies and whatever is even told about them is so unclear and incomplete. Even if a back-story is to be revealed in the sequel, the first book was supposed to have at least some information on the history of the government.
Writing combined with character development - Someone told me that this book was simply genius BUT after reading it I felt that the writer wrote about illogical events in such a way which made them sound impressive and genius…believe me I wasn't impressed or even amazed, the whole book was full of nonsense. For example let’s have a look at our amazing protagonists Day and June-
Day is an awesome criminal. He is 15 and is very cunning and agile. He'd failed his Trial at the age of 10 even when he was sure that he'd answered well. Not to mention the things he can do- he can scale 5 stories in less than 8 seconds, he once broke into a bank heavily guarded by soldiers and bordered by lasers, he'd also vandalised the Defence Department destroying engines of war-front airships, he’d also set fire to 10 fighter jets and a police-station and his achievements and feats go on. He does all these stunts despite having a bad knee!! LOL!
June is 15 too. She'd passed her Trial at the age of 10 scoring a grand total of 1500 (no one in the republic had ever got that high score). She is cunning and agile too. She studies in the best university of the Republic and scores perfect grades. She can remember the number of tiles of any room she has ever been to. She can climb 14 floors within 6 minutes. She is also the youngest member of her military squad and her achievements and feats go on…�.
Gosh the things these normal 15 years-old do……but they're obviously not normal, the writer makes them sound like some kind of super-humans. I know that dystopian fiction has some elements of science fiction but I also know the difference between humans, mutations, robots and aliens. I'm convinced that both June and Day are some kind of perfectly-infallible-robots stuck in human bodies.
Now the writing, oh no it was predictable�...too predictable. I didn't even enjoy the book; the book is narrated alternatively between our human prodigies and both of them sound so identical in fact they talk the same way (except that Day uses few slang words sometimes), think the same way and even do things the same way. It was just like reading more than half of the book from the same person’s POV. Overall this book was boring and as soon as I completed 30% of it, I was looking forward to a predictable end. ...more
I've lost all my neurons after reading this book. Excuse me while I recover so that I can write a proper review.
My review
Ugh! WhaAfter reading
I've lost all my neurons after reading this book. Excuse me while I recover so that I can write a proper review.
My review
Ugh! What kind of book was this?! When I picked it up, I was expecting it to be plain boring but I'm surprised at how annoying and ridiculous I found this book to be!
Plot- Let me give a short summary, The Host is a story about aliens called "Souls" who invade our earth slowly by taking control of the human bodies on the notion of saving the humans from destroying their own planet by their own savage and cruel behaviour. Almost all the human bodies have been taken over by these Souls but there are rare cases where a body resists the control of the alien inside it.
Wanderer, a Soul put in the body of a woman named Melanie experiences this resistance from the latter's body and mind. Melanie's thoughts and feelings leads Wanderer to search for Mel's brother and boyfriend who are in hiding.
Yes my fellow readers, SHE'S A CENTIPEDE!!!! *rolls eyes* She even says the following to Ian "You couldn't care about me. If you could hold me in your hand, me, you would be disgusted. You would throw me to the ground and grind me under your foot."
Wanda was so boring that she managed to put me to sleep THRICE! UGH, she was so damn kind and sacrificing throughout the story that she even wanted to save the life of her Seeker who had the potential to endanger the lives of her human friends.
Wanda- "OMG I want to save that person. OMG I don't want to hurt anyone. OMG I don't want to trouble them. OMG I want to be nice, nice and nice" *rolls eyes"
Wanda was so so stupid that SHE LIED FOR HER POTENTIAL MURDERER!!! (this was mentioned by one of my friends in the comments somewhere on my status of this book). One of the humans in hiding named Kyle tries to kill Wanda by drowning her in the hot spring even when it was clearly warned that no one would hurt Wanda. In doing so Kyle ends up endangering his own life. Wanda somehow saves his life, lies for him and he later gets away from being punished just because Wanda was so intent on covering up for him even when it was clear to most of the humans that Kyle had tried to kill her. Saving his life was more than enough BUT LYING FOR HIM WAS SO STUPID! WHAT IF HE DID THE SAME WITH SOMEONE ELSE IN FUTURE? HE DESERVED PUNISHMENT! What kind of woman are you, Wanda? A man tries to kill you and you let him go without any punishment?!
Jared....oh man, I HATE HIM! JARED IS AN IMPATIENT AND IMMATURE JERK! He goes around punching, slapping and hitting anyone who manages to annoy and anger him.
When he meets Melanie for the first time, he thinks she's a Soul and he tries killing her, after realising later that Melanie's a human HE FORCIBLY KISSES THE FRIGHTENED GIRL! Ugh!
In the beginning HE PHYSICALLY ABUSES WANDA! He slaps her when he sees the silver gleam in her eyes indicating the presence of a soul, he slams her against the rocks when she tries to protect Jamie (Melanie's brother) from a physical fight, he punches her twice....I can understand where all his anger came from, I could even understand his distaste for the Souls but WHY COULDN'T HE ATLEAST RESPECT MELANIE'S- A WOMAN'S BODY? WHAT PLEASURE IT GAVE HIM TO TORTURE THE POOR GIRL?
Even after experiencing all the torture, Melanie still loves Jared and lives happily ever after with him! *rolls eyes*
Ian- Ugh, this guy isn't less pleasant either. He punches Wanda in the beginning and all of a sudden his feelings for her take a 180 degrees turn and he becomes a very protective-love-sick-puppy! The romance between Wanda and Ian is so ridiculous. He kisses her even when he knows that Melanie was getting disgusted by him touching her body WHAT THE HELL?! HE FORCES HIS WILL ON THE HELPLESS GIRL! *rolls eyes*
Jared and Ian can join my list of Greatest fictional jerks ever along with Jace Wayland, Daemon Black and Patch Cipriano
Writing OMG WHERE CAN I START? English is my second language but that didn't stop me from pointing out and laughing at the silly metaphors. I practically started folding the corners of the pages where I felt that something was odd in a sentence. Read for yourself-
-It feels like a flat sun trapped between us-pressed like a flower between the pages of a thick book, burning the paper.
-Bonds that were forged in this desperate place must have been very strong. Thicker than blood. *rolls eyes*
-The ships they made for us danced nimbly and undetectably through the stars (never heard of ships that could dance before)
-The floor still moaned under us.
-(Wanda, while describing humans) Could I blame them that their genetic programming restricted their problem-solving abilities in this way?
-If I moved, I would fall into microscopic pieces.
-The Seeker needed a nice long lifetime eating sunshine.
Stephenie Meyer gives her aliens and planets weird names that thinking about them gives me spasms of laughter every now and then.
Some random names of aliens- Dry Water, Fingers in the sky, Falling upward, Sunlight passing through the ice. Glitter weaver....
Some random planets- See Weeds, Singing World, Mists planet, Dragon planet.... *rolls eyes*
Excuse me, I've rolled my eyes so much that at this point my eyeballs have fallen off their sockets. Please wait while I reattach them back. . . . . . . . Wanda's description of planets and aliens were like bedtime stories for 5-year-olds. She talks about "dolphins with wings", "large spiders with 3 brains", "bears with 4 hearts" YWWWWWNN! So boring.
CONGRATULATIONS STEPHANIE MEYER! YOU HAVE BEATEN BY CHEMISTRY TEACHER IN BORING ME TO DEATH!!!
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The ending
For a sci-fi book I was expecting some awesome breath-taking action scenes unfortunately there was NOTHING INTERESTING EVEN IN THE CLIMAX. (view spoiler)[The humans put Wanda in the body of some other girl AND THEY'RE HAPPY TO HAVE HER BACK! THAT'S.THE.END! Yaawwwnnn so boring! (hide spoiler)]
My feelings about the book The Host was the third book I've read on aliens. the second being Obsidian. In my review of Obsidian I've complained that the plot of the book was boring but after reading Host, I've realised that Obsidian was a true-page turner. I've given Obsidian 2.5 stars because it was interesting at some parts, the main character wasn't a Mary Sue like Wanda and the descriptions of aliens were properly defined. I absolutely hated The Host and I'm giving it 1 star.
Stephenie Meyer, if you want to do humanity any good, please don't write any more novels....more
Before picking Under the Never Sky I saw many reviewers comparing it to Blood Red Road and saying that fans ofBIG THUMBS DOWN FOR UNDER THE NEVER SKY!
Before picking Under the Never Sky I saw many reviewers comparing it to Blood Red Road and saying that fans of BRR would enjoy it. I absolutely loved BRR and it easily hit 5 stars for me but I disliked this book.
Under the Never Sky has 2 things that make me want to burn it down- -A whiny, good-for-nothing Mary-Sue. -A so-called badass and hawt guy who in fact is a Great creep and a jerk.
Under the never sky is basically set in the future where people live in pod's; an enclosed environment protecting people from storms called Aether. People living in the pods use a gadget called smart-eyes that can take them to any 4D fictional places called Realms so they can kill boredom. The outside of the pod is called The Death Shop which is supposedly believed to have pernicious climate and environment. Aria is thrown out of her pod and sets on a journey with Perry to find her mother in a different pod.
I don't see what's so appealing about this book. Aria is the most boring, whiny, annoying, idiotic and lame Mary Sue I've come across in a dystopian book after Julitte from Shatter Me. Perry is a major creep; one minute he is threatening and spiteful towards Aria and the other minute he's all warm and lovable towards her. He reminded me so much of Patch Cipriano and Jace Wayland whom I hate with burning passion. Well, he can join my list of "Greatest fictional jerks ever". He has speshul abilities to smell scents strongly like a wolf and see clearly in the dark annnnd he thinks that Aria's period smells like violets!
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Ugh, seriously? How lame could this book be?
See, I've read YA books where the boy hates/seems to hate the girl and then loves her before and many of them have convincing and developed relationship (Divergent, Nevermore and The Knife of Never Letting Go) but the relationship between Perry and Aria just came out of nowhere. I absolutely hated the creep Perry. This book was a fast-read and the plot wasn’t even compelling. I would recommend Blood Red Road or The Knife of Never Letting Go instead. ...more
Update (25/06/2014)- Since I've been receiving a lot of cyber bullies and hate messages, I’m going to clarify few things.
-Firstly, this is a negatiUpdate (25/06/2014)- Since I've been receiving a lot of cyber bullies and hate messages, I’m going to clarify few things.
-Firstly, this is a negative review of the book and it has got a lot of potential to infuriate the fans. If you think that your opinion is the only opinion that exists on earth and that no one should dislike your favourite book, then I would suggest you to avoid this review.
-Stop harassing me. Why can't you get it through your thick skulls that everyone has different opinions, they’re going to interpret books differently from you and stop being selfish to think that just because you loved a book that means the whole world should love it. This world is full of people with differing opinions, differing thoughts and differing likes and differing dislikes, learn to respect them even if you don’t agree with what they have to say about your favourite books. Just because you love a particular book that I hate doesn't make you a good person and me a bad person, It simply shows that people like different things.
Every reader has the freedom to dissect and critically analyse any book and write their thoughts on it in their own review space without the fear of anyone (or fans bossing them into writing what the fandom wants). Critically analysing books and criticising problematic aspects of any reading material prevents people from being passive readers.Shakespeare and J.K Rowling too have their own share of critics then what makes Green’s book flawless that it’s not allowed to be criticised?
-Stop cyber bullying and trolling me. Your hate messages and death threats will show much more of your personality than your love for this book. Remember, every time you comment any bullshit here, you’re giving your own fandom a bad name and my review more popularity. Also, your hate messages aren't going to put me down. I’m a strong girl and I’m always going to stand up for what I believe in come hell or high water. I don't fear anyone and no one can ever force me to follow their orders like a puppet especially not a fandom where most of the fans are immature cyber bullies who can’t respect other’s opinions. Also, I've caught fans making fake accounts to troll my review, this shows me that they are big cowards who hide their faces and send me spiteful comments.
-Lastly, I’m NOT shaming anyone for loving this book. You can love whatever you want to and believe in whomever you want to. I have no problem with people who genuinely love this book; I have problems with those who think readers should not have the rights to express their dislike for any book, I have problems with those who approve of and participate in cyber bullying reviewers who write negative reviews on their favourite books, I have problems with those who refuse to acknowledge the fact that their favourite books can have flaws and not everyone’s going to love them, I have problems with those who come here to shove their opinions down my throat. Do you find anyone who hated this book shoving their opinions in comments of positive reviews? Then what makes you think that you have the rights to troll negative reviews?
Alright, now let's begin with the review. **WARNING- MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**
EXPECTATION-
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So I happily bought the hardcover of The Fault in our stars back in December 2012 after seeing the high average GR ratings and raving reviews saying how beautiful, life-changing, thought-provoking and blah blah it is. Surprisingly, this book was so special that it became the first book that I slammed on the wall twice after reading it. It didn’t only disappoint me but also angered me. I'm surprised to find that harsh critics are swallowing up this trash and calling it a masterpiece. Ugh!
I’m going to make a list of everything I hate about this book that earned it the topmost place on my list of Worst books ever.
The characters- Hazel and Augustus are the flattest cardboard cut-outs I have ever seen in any book. Both of them were like 60-years-old stuck in some teenager's bodies making them very boring and unlikable. Hazel was such an annoying, stupid and pretentious Mary Sue that I wanted to punch her right in the face. One great example of her stupidity-
”Why are breakfast foods breakfast foods...Like, why don’t we have curry for breakfast?�
"A nonhot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy . . . well."
Augustus and Hazel have the same boring, pretentious, know-it-all and indistinguishable personality. Hazel is the female version of Augustus (no, I’m not going to call him affectionately with Gus) and he is the male version of Hazel. These two characters meld together and have no depth at all. I couldn’t connect with them, I felt no pain and sympathy for them and they annoyed me so much that I wanted to stab them.
Romance- It fell from the sky. Seriously, I don’t get what’s so “beautiful� about the relationship between them. They both fall in love within seconds just after laying eyes on each other ~love at first sight~. The romance is undeveloped and it comes from nowhere. I was baffled when Hazel accepted to go to Augustus's house just minutes after meeting him. WHAT THE HELL? How stupid can you be? You fall for a guy's words whom you met just few minutes ago and agree to go to his house! What if he were a murderer or rapist?
Not to mention that the kissing scene in Anne Frank's house was so effing disgusting. Anne Frank's house is considered to be a place of remembrance, a place where 2 families hid during the dark days of Holocaust. If anyone makes out at such a revered site, they would be kicked out regardless of who or what they are. People present around will be disgusted, they won't stand and watch much less clap for the "lovely" couple.
Writing- Cheesy. Emotionless. Terrible. Want to hear some favourite quotes of mine?
“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.�...Why compare your thoughts to stars and constellations? *sighs*
"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities."
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"That's the thing about pain. It demands to be felt."...Yeah, that’s the thing about chocolate, it demands to be eaten.
”I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.�
“There will come a time when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever.�
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There were senseless dialogues, brain-cell burning metaphors and words thrown around in the book from the dictionary. I’ll stop here because just thinking about them gives me an awful migraine.
And you know what? Teenagers living in the 21st century DON'T speak like that. No teen can spontaneously come up with long monologues within seconds. Also, genuinely sick teenagers don’t have the luxury to be so witty and clever every single time. One thing I don't buy is that teens with cancer suddenly become magically wise. They become terrified, confused, depressed and angry. They DON’T magically gain great insight in life and go around puking long monologues about the meaning of life. This book made me roll my eyes in disgust.
(UPDATE- In response to gazillion questions and arguments I've been getting on the paragraphs above, I have written a detailed explanation below)***
Plot- Predictable. Boring. Uninspiring. Put me to sleep. I had to plough through the whole book. Cancer is hard, it's painful but this book didn’t show me that. I couldn’t feel Hazel and Augustus� struggle against it. I couldn’t feel their pain. TFioS is nothing but a cheesy romance novel.
Me throughout the book-
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"He died eight days after his prefuneral" WHAT THE HELL?? Green tried to make his death sound LIKE HE WENT TO A PARTY LAST WEEK!!!
Ok, so this book made you cry, right? If a book makes you cry it doesn’t mean that it’s a masterpiece. I can understand that you must’ve felt sad and sympathetic for the characters and must’ve cried but considering that this novel is sad and it made you cry doesn’t make it an awesome, life-changing and beautiful story. I cried after reading Allegiant for days but I hated that book with burning passion, it was one of the worst books I ever read.
Before you start calling me a cold-hearted bitch for hating and criticising this book, let me tell you that if you think you have every right to go around fangirling how wonderful this book was then I believe that I have every right to express my hatred for it whether you like it or not.
*** I never mentioned or implied that teenagers are illiterate or can't have a large vocabulary, don't accuse me of something I haven't said. I just find it hard to believe that any teen can come up with nonsensical monologues like the ones below or think it's appropriate to use them in their conversations-
"I’m awash in the metaphorical resonance of the empty playground in the hospital courtyard� “That kid never took a piss without pondering the abundant metaphysical resonances of human waste production�. (wtf?!)
It's hard to believe that anyone would talk like that in a normal conversation every single time. I am a teen and I go to high school, I know many other teens of my age who have developed a large vocabulary and have brilliant writing skills. That is simply because they love reading and have developed the habit of learning new words from the dictionary from a very young age. They write amazing poems and honestly, it takes them a lot of time to ponder over and make their metaphors or poems perfect. They obviously cannot open their mouth and spontaneously say "My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations".
Btw, none of the teenage characters from this book show any interest in reading high literature and poetry (the only book Hazel claims to read is An Imperial Affliction) then what's the reason behind their ability to spew pretentious monologues? They aren't geniuses, they aren't teens who read avidly or analyse high literature and show interest in oratory, existentialist philosophy and poetry. Therefore, it's not plausible for them to speak with profound words. I would believe their monologues had they shown interest in Kant, Sartre, Nietzsche and Heidegger.
Now going over the cigarette metaphor, Augustus buys a pack of cigarettes regularly just so he could put one in his mouth and not light it thus, giving us another stupid dialogue "It's a metaphor. You keep the killing thing between your teeth but don't give it the power to kill you". Funny that he won't kill himself by lighting up the cigarette but will regularly give money to an industry that is the largest cause of cancer thus, promoting the cigarette industry and indirectly killing others. (What a genius!) Not to mention that he mocks Hazel's cancer right on her face and guess her reaction? She's impressed and readily approves of and participants in his metaphor.
There's a lot of difference between being wise and being pretentious and Hazel and Augustus are the latter. I don't buy their dialogues because they are extremely ridiculous and cheesy and no argument by fans and authors can change my opinion because Green makes no effort in making the dialogues IN THE BOOK seem plausible. There's no reason for their large vocabulary and ability to spew long monologues IN THE BOOK. I've read Green's post on Augustus' character being pretentious and imo, he misses the point that his characters are not only pretentious; they are extremely unrealistic as well. Augustus' pretension is not "an intentional flaw", it's simply poor characterisation.
I'm not saying that kids with cancer cannot be intelligent. A lot of fans say that the characters in the book are special and wise because they have cancer and this book tries hard to show that too. I merely said that having cancer does not mean that you can automatically become wise and gain a lot of knowledge.
I couldn't sympathise with the characters and feel their pain. That doesn't mean that I'm cold hearted. It's not my fault that I couldn't get emotionally connected to the characters, it's the authors fault for not writing characters I could sympathise with. It's the author's fault for making shallow, judgemental and annoying characters. It's the his fault for making characters with personality that mocks cancer patients and who show disrespect to millions of people who died in the Holocaust. It's the author's fault for romanticising cancer and using it as a ploy to sell his book. I'm NOT hating people who have cancer, I'm NOT hating the characters because they have cancer. I'm hating them for who they are. I'm hating the book because it's poorly written.
I don't need to have cancer to analyse this book. Having cancer does not mean that you get the rights to say whatever you want to about this book. Every reader whether sick or not has equal rights to analyse and voice their opinions freely on any book.
Coincidentally, all 3 are dystopian. So far the only dystopian series I’ve read where the last book is the strongest and wraps the whole series well is The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness. Let me start by saying that I really loved Divergent and Insurgent and Allegiant was my most anticipated book of the year. If you can just have a look at my pre-review you’ll see that I was very very excited for this book but this was a major let-down. I’ll be honest here, I am fully aware of the fact that the world-building of Divergent was flimsy but I ignored it because I absolutely loved the plot and the characters of the story. I enjoyed the idea of society being divided into factions even though it was unconvincing. I loved the way there were few people within the society who thought differently than the others, who broke the norms of society and who eagerly fought for the right. I was happy to see that Roth had allowed us to explore the world-building in Insurgent and the way she’d ended the second book suggested that there’s more to the world-building of this series than to what was introduced to us in book 1. I was even in the minority who thought that Insurgent was better than Divergent. I was really hoping that Roth would finally go deeper into the backstory of the factions and finally make the world-building seem less ridiculous. But in Allegiant, Roth not only convolutes the whole world-building which was already weak but she even dismantles the whole purpose and build-up of the first two books leaving us with more questions than answers. Most of the fans felt that the ending ruined the whole series for them (I’ll come to that in detail later) but for me the whole series is ruined because of both the ending and the nonsensical backstory.
I’ll start with the backstory. The cliffhanger in Insurgent suggested that Allegiant would answer our questions about the backstory and the world building. Fans were eager to know about the big reveal. What is outside the fence surrounding Chicago? How were the factions formed? And after a long time of waiting we got this�.
A few centuries ago, the government of USA wanted to “edit humanity� by curing people of undesirable qualities such as selfishness, cowardice, dishonesty and low intelligence. Some asinine scientists� believed that genes were the cause of these undesirable qualities in humans and found a way to remove the specific genes causing them so that they could perfect humans. But the whole genetic manipulation backfired making the people even more aggressive and idiotic than they were and instigating a destructive war between the “genetically damaged� (people with altered genes) and “genetically pure� called the Purity war. The war caused a huge mess, destruction, turned USA upside down blah blah blah�.Then our awesome asinine scientists� came up with an intelligent plan to correct their mistake. They collected the genetically damaged people, put some corrected genes in them and locked them in a city, installed cameras everywhere in the city and decided to observe their behavior and wait for them to reproduce enough miraculously “genetically healed� offspring aka Divergent over CENTURIES so that the damaged genes would be completely removed. Thus, the experiment in Chicago was born.
�.±ᴡ?!!
Most.illogial.backstory.ever.
Genes don’t work that way. They don’t have any control over a person’s personality traits. When genes are manipulated that manipulation cannot be revered by reproduction. We also see in the book that genetically pure people like Natalie and Marcus still produce genetically damaged offspring. Who wants recessive and dominant genes when there are healing genes in existence? *rolls eyes* Furthermore, if these intelligent scientists� had the technology to remove the specific undesirable genes in the first place then they could’ve simply used the same technology to correct the genes of the damaged instead of waiting for centuries for them to heal. It’s hard to believe that never in these 200+ years with so much money being spent on the experiment these scientists ever thought of using the technology they already had. Can anyone tell me why there is no development in technology here after 200+ years? The science in this book is poorly researched and explained. If Roth would’ve spent at least 30 minutes of her time in reading and realized that her idea was abysmal, I’m sure that we would’ve got a very different book. Authors shouldn’t insult their readers by underestimating their intelligence and presenting them with a book full of flawed scientific concepts and plot-holes. This book would’ve been amazing if Roth would’ve stuck to the original idea of Divergent and their allies fighting against the outside world or if she would’ve written about a war between Allegiant (a group motivated to discover what’s outside the fence) and Evelyn’s team.
The dual POV does not even serve any proper purpose up until the end. We don’t come to know anything new about Tobias, we don’t get to see the story in a different perspective by the dual POV and whatever information is told to Tris will be known to Four and wise versa making it repetitious.
Tobias is a completely different person in Allegiant. Forget about the badass, bold and confident Tobias you saw in Divergent and Insurgent because in Allegiant you’re not going to find him. He is stripped of all his charisma that made me fall for him in the first place. I can understand that Tobias is not perfect, he has flaws but while journeying through Divergent, Insurgent and reading Free Four and The Initiate I always saw Tobias as a person who’d left his past behind and strengthened himself- someone who was resilient and admirable. But this Tobias was different, lost, insecure and irrational and it pains me to say that because I absolutely adored that guy to pieces before reading Allegiant. I was astonished when Tobias- the person who is always deeply suspicious about others- accepts to work with Nita and her GD rebels just because they shared the status of being genetically damaged. He becomes instable after hearing that he was GD and had specific genes that were resistant to simulations. Even when Tris assures him that he is still the same person, he feels insecure and diffident about himself. I could understand when Tobias fell for Evelyn’s lies in Insurgent. She was his mother and he must’ve felt the need of having a parent on his side but in Allegiant, his trust on Nita was just…foolish. I got pissed off when Roth killed Uriah- a character with so much potential- just by proving him to be brain-dead. Uriah's death makes Finnick's death from Mockingjay look powerful.
The ending was poorly executed. Tris’s death did not make sense. She sacrifices her life on the notion to save her backstabbing brother’s life and to honour her parent’s sacrifice. See, I don’t find anything beautiful/symbolic/awesome here in fact I find the message given by Roth here to be very very disturbing. If your loved ones sacrifice their lives for you the best way to return them their sacrifice and be grateful to them is by living your own life happily. I would sacrifice my life to see you sacrifice your own in the future to “honour� me�said no parent ever. If Caleb had a chance to redeem himself why the hell did she take that opportunity from him only for him to live forever with the guilt of letting his sister sacrifice her life for him? Her death was contrived. David killing her was so unbelievable because I found it hard to believe that he would kill the daughter of a lady he loved, he was not shown to be all bad and evil, and he was only motivated to continue the experiment. Tris was trained properly during Dauntless initiation but then why couldn't she even think or try to disarm David who was on a wheel chair? Why in the first place does she even forget her own gun? How the hell did she survive the death serum which was believed to be fatal even to the GP? If Cara, Caleb, Tobias etc. could retrieve guns and protective suit for the suicide mission why didn't they ever think of getting a bullet-proof vest too? Tris wore one while she went on a mission to The Fringe and maybe with the help of Amar they could've got it. I don't understand how Cara, Caleb and Matthew survived the memory serum when everyone else in the Bureau became a victim of it when Tris released it. This is such a large plot hole that I can drive a car through it. Alas, we get no proper explanation and the whole ending collapses like a house of cards. Roth has done great injustice to a beautiful character like Tris. I won't forgive her for killing of my favourite character.
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The way the whole conflict was resolved between Evelyn and Allegiant just by Tobias giving some beautiful powerful speech on love was unconvincing. The whole resolution was devoid of suspense and thrill. And why couldn't Tobias make her believe in Loooove before? It could've saved us so much time and maybe we wouldn’t have got this trash. The resolution went this way-
Tobias- Mommy, mommy, can you stop being so atrocious please?
Evelyn- *looks at him and smiles* OK, my dear son! *gives a tight hug*
Was this the power-hungry Evelyn I read about in Insurgent? Was this the Evelyn who left Tobias alone only to be tortured by his abusive father? Was this the Evelyn who left Tobias just to fulfill her selfish needs? Was this the Evelyn who fed him lies and manipulated him in Insurgent just so she could complete her plan? Was this the Evelyn who loathed Tris and wanted her son to be away from the only person he loved so much?
EDIT (30/12/13)
I forgot to mention one thing before; retroactive continuity. So you can completely forget that you read Divergent and Insurgent because the blatant retconning in Allegiant shows why this book felt like it belonged to a completely different series and why readers felt that they've been manipulated and cheated.
-Genes deciding whether a person is Divergent or not. Retcon -Tobias not being Divergent. -Edith Prior's video being partially true. -Natalie Prior working as a spy for the Bureau and was initially put into Dauntless. -The Bureau supplying Jeanine with the simulation serum to instigate an attack on Abnegation (the only faction with high population of Divergent). If Divergent are so precious to the Bureau then why attack them even though indirectly? ONE BIG EFFING PLOT HOLE AND RETCON.
Allegiant on the whole was a disaster, everything came crashing down. All the struggles my favourite characters went through in book 1 and 2 were proved to be futile in Allegiant. Please, I don’t want to hear the excuse that Roth has written whatever she wanted too and the ending was realistic and that I must get over it and blah blah. As a published author, Roth had some responsibilities towards her fans. Those who loved Allegiant will call her brave but I refuse to call her that. She was selfish to write a conclusion that “she� wanted to write. If she were a good writer, she would’ve taken the expectations of her fans into account and would’ve delivered a satisfying conclusion. I simply call it bad business to sell a product that majority of the consumers would dislike. She has written an awful book, ruined what could become an amazing series and is now sitting with millions of dollars in her pocket. Also, if I wanted to read something realistic I would’ve read newspaper or stuck to non-fiction instead of picking a sci-fi/dystopian book. This is not history, its fiction and it’s not bound to realism.
I just felt that Roth wanted to deliberately push her plot forward throughout the book. I felt her frustration throughout the book, I'm pretty sure that she got bored while writing. She must've thrown her typewriter/pencil/pen and screamed "AARRG! I'm running out of ideas!!!" as the result we got this craptastic finale to the first 2 amazing books. Everything was thrown into a hopeless mess. I'm ready to believe that the editor was drunk while he read the manuscript of this book.
I don’t mind any kind of ending until unless it satisfies and brings justice to the story. I’m a fan The book thief and it had a sad ending, I loved Monsters of Men and it had a partially unresolved ending, I also loved Between shades of grey which had a bittersweet ending. If the ending alone has ruined the series for you, so be it. The ending can make or break. I fully understand that many readers have seen a lot of despair and failure in real life and they read fiction and relate to the characters. They root for their favourite characters to triumph so in a way they may find hope to fight their own battles. And of course, it pains to see everything crashing down with their heroes still struggling in the end.
The only reason why I'm giving it 2 stars is because I felt that Tobias’s grief in the end was portrayed powerfully. The scene where he sees Tris's body hit me right in the gut. Anyways, I’m not going to read anything written by Roth again. I’m not excited for the movie either. She has broken my heart. 16 months of anticipation and excitement is not worth this trash. I used to go around recommending this series to every reader I knew; now I won't do so considering how awful the conclusion was.
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P.S - Since I have lots to say about Allegiant, I may add more to this review.
R.I.P MY EXCITEMENT AND ANTICIPATION FOR THIS CRAPTASTIC BOOK!
(view spoiler)[Before reading Update 12/09/2013- Second sneak-peek of Allegiant!
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Update 08/09/2013- First sneak-peek of Allegiant!!!
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I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS EPIC CONCLUSION TO MY MOST FAVOURITE DYSTOPIAN SERIES EVER!!!!
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ROTH HAS ANNOUNCED THAT ALLEGIANT WILL BE TOLD FROM FOUR AND TRIS'S POV OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!
I don't have any intention of reading another book written by Meyer after reading The Host.I don't have any intention of reading another book written by Meyer after reading The Host....more
My advice- DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME READING THIS, GO PICK SOMETHING ELSE.......My advice- DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME READING THIS, GO PICK SOMETHING ELSE..........more
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