HarperCollins Archives - Night Owl Reads

Pandemonium (Delirium #2) by Lauren Oliver

SPOILER: If you haven’t read Delirium yet, you might read some spoilers in this review. Pandemonium picks up after Lena’s escape. The story was told in chapters with the heading ‘then’ and ‘now’. ‘Then’ told the story of Lena’s life after she crossed the wall/barrier and saw Alex shot by regulators. Thinking that he was dead, she had a hard time recovering physically, as well as adjusting to her new life in the woods without Alex. With the help of Raven and other people in the homestead, Lena struggled with her new life. The ‘now’ part tells the story after that struggle. She is now part of the resistance, lives a new life in a new city, using a different name, and telling a different story about her past. Being in this new life is tough as she still thinks of Alex and her life in Portland. She also thinks about her mom, now that she knows the truth about her death. When I read this book, I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t sure what to expect especially when Delirium ended with the assumption that Alex is dead. Like Lena, I don’t want him to be dead, but we rely on what she sees/experience and she saw blood on Alex after she crossed the border, when they were being chased by regulators. A part of me believed he’s still alive, another part is okay with his death so Lena can move on and fall in love again and it won’t be complicated IF Alex is alive somewhere. But of course, the whole series revolves around love, apart from the war. I wished he was still alive. I like how it was cleverly written. I would cringe every time something horrible would happen to Lena. I felt her pain, her longing, her confusion. I also couldn’t stand not knowing if Alex is still alive so before I continued reading, I read spoilers because I just had to know before I can continue. The book neared its end in what seemed to be a happy ending, until the last page where something was revealed and I was left hanging. Well, that leaves something to look forward to in the last book of the series, Requiem

Free Four: Tobias Tells the Divergent Knife-Throwing Scene

Free Four: Tobias Tells The Story (Divergent #1.5) by Veronica Roth

I was so excited when I found out that there’s a short story on Divergent with Four’s perspective. I thought it was going to be hard to find an ebook of it but I was wrong. I found it as soon as I searched. This short story is Four’s point of view in one of the scenes that happened in Divergent. I read the reviews of other fans and they were happy with which scene Roth chose to write Four’s story on. There were a lot of scenes I would have loved to get inside his head with, but the knife scene was a great choice. It’s where he admitted to himself that he likes Tris and wanted to protect her, and it’s what stopped him from walking out on Dauntless and become factionless. I really liked hearing his reasons, his motivation for doing that to Tris. He told her that in Divergent when she got mad at him for taunting her, but it wasn’t clear to me back then. After reading this, it became clear that what he did was out of love. The downside is that this story was too short. I would love to read more about Four’s thoughts, his choices, his feelings for Tris. I’m still intrigued why he likes Tris so much, I could just assume it was love at first sight but still, I want to know.

Hana (Delirium #1.5) by Lauren Oliver

Hana is a short story from Lauren Oliver’s Delirium Trilogy. The novella is written in the POV of Lena’s best friend Hana, where we see the story of the last summer before her procedure. We find out what her deal was and what she was going through with all that was happening in her life. In Delirium, I was intrigued with Hana because of how Lena described her. There was a clear change in her personality, but I think because of the circumstances, she wasn’t sure if she could trust Lena with her new found secret. But eventually she did and I could assume that a part of her, like Lena, was wondering if she did the right choice of trusting the other with her secrets. It was her last summer before her procedure before she gets cured, it’s her last chance at freedom and she wanted to make use of it as best as she could. I liked this short story because it gave us fans an access to Hana, the best friend. I feel bad for her because all she wanted was to be loved and cared for, and it seems that she found it with the wrong person. At some point, I think she was jealous of Lena and Alex because what they had was real. But her actions in the end, in my opinion, was made out of her concern for Lena, rather than jealousy. This was a good addition to the story so that we would understand her position and not hate her

Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth

Insurgent is the sequel to the action-packed, dystopian Divergent. War is upon them and there’s a conflict between factions. Four and Tris seek refuge in other factions in hopes of gaining allies to defeat the Dauntless. As they run for their lives, they uncover secrets and piece together information about their community’s origin. WARNING: Possible Spoilers Ahead. Right after reading Divergent, I opened Insurgent to continue from where the story left off. I was so excited to find out what happens now after the incident between the Dauntless and Abnegation. Tris starts calling/referring to Four as Tobias and I don’t know how I feel about it. I have loved him as Four and being referred to as Tobias feels weird. I liked how Roth explored all the emotions Tris was having all throughout their journey. She has lost so much but still had the will to fight back and save the people she cared for and loved. She is such a strong female character, but some of the decisions she makes are either very brave or very stupid. Regardless of how irritated I am with her “selflessness”, I still understand why she keeps making such decisions. The problem with Tris and Four’s relationship is they lack communication. Both originally from Abnegation, they are always trying to save the other and would often end up fighting because one made a decision for the other and vice versa, causing their individual plans to fail. I kept thinking if they just told or consulted each other about their plans, they could have avoided fighting. What I do love about them is even though they fight, their love just keeps on growing. I’m not sure if it’s just me or it’s really the case, but Four seems to go out of character from time to time. I can’t help but feel like he’s sometimes a lot different from the Four I got to know from the first books. Maybe because he’s Tobias now. There was a pattern in the story which I realized after reading. After escaping from one faction HQ, they would seek refuge in another. It’s one of the things that had me at the edge of my seat. The suspense of the chase and what would happen to them kept me intrigued. In the end, the factionless played an important role. They held a secret I did not expect and it caught me by surprise. While some of my questions were answered, a lot more popped up. Despite the inconsistencies, I couldn’t put this book down. I wanted to know what’s next, how it will end. I loved the suspense, the love story or lack thereof, and everything else about this series. It could have used more Four though.

Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth

In a futuristic world where society is divided into 5 virtue-based factions — Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent), Beatrice Prior must choose between her family and embracing who she is. During the competitive initiation, she has a hard time determining who her real friends are and also finds herself developing a love interest. She also discovers a secret about herself, and as the seemingly perfect society unravels, she realizes that her secret may save her loved ones and everyone else. I came across the book Divergent when I was browsing a book blog and saw its image on the sidebar. I checked it out in Goodreads and found out what it was about. Some friends have read it and gave different ratings. I was intrigued and curious that I got myself an ebook and decided to read it right after I finished reading Delirium. I was excited to find out what the fuss was about. A lot of people seemed to love this book and I wondered if I would like it too. At first I thought it was a bit lame, factions were made based on one’s character, and surely, we don’t have just one. But I shrugged it off and decided to get it over with. There was something off with the construction of this fictional world and I can’t put my finger on it. After choosing a faction, whether they choose to stay or to transfer, they would undergo initiation to show/prove they made the right decision and truly belong in their chosen faction. But if they fail or decide to quit, they would end up factionless which according to the story, is worse than death. The idea of being factionless or how one would end up factionless seems stupid. Death is also taken lightly and a murder wasn’t investigated. The lack of accountability over a life is unsettling. Another thing I noticed is some descriptions were not delivered well, I sometimes find it hard to picture a particular place or incident in my head. I don’t know if I just didn’t understand it in the first place or it was really poorly described. Maybe if I read it again I would understand it better. Four’s true identity was revealed when he showed Tris his fears. Not only do we find out who he is, but we also learn how he got his nickname. I thought it was lame at the time I was reading that part, but now that I’m writing about it, I don’t remember why I had such thought back then. What I don’t know is who the woman on his 3rd fear was, it seems random, like a filler. ** April 19, 2014 update ** In the movie, Four explained that it is his fear of hurting or killing an innocent. That’s why it seemed random. As I kept reading, the more I got invested in the story. I didn’t mind its flaws or Read more

Delirium (Delirium #1) by Lauren Oliver

The story takes place in a world where love is viewed as a disease that has to be eradicated. A cure was developed and the government demanded all citizens get inoculate once they turn eighteen. It’s a scheduled procedure and Lena Holoway has looked forward to it all her life. But days before she got the cure, she falls in love. Why I chose Delirium to read next, I do not know. Maybe the idea that love is a disease that needs to be cured caught my interest. I knew this was a love story, but the world where it was set is interesting too. A world without love, where everything is simple and easy, no one would feel the emotional pain of love lost, but it’s not as easy as it seems The love story was okay, like love-at-first-sight, at least for Alex. There’s no third party which made it a little less complicated considering the situation. The story focuses on Lena’s life, her friendship with Hana, her thoughts about the disease amor deliria nervosa and the ‘cure’, thoughts about her mother’s death, and her relationship with Alex. It was like reading someone’s personal diary although I didn’t feel like I was invading. I felt like I was invited to see Lena’s life and what she was going through. It was very descriptive. I could imagine myself in Lena’s shoes, walking around their town, spending time with her best friend Hana, meeting Alex. I felt what she felt, her pain, her happiness, and falling in love. I got hooked on the story, mostly because I’m a hopeless romantic and that was the focus of the story, but just like every dystopian novel, there is more to it than romance. The bigger picture. The political angle and the mystery behind Lena’s mother’s death.It doesn’t have the action-packed storyline of Divergent, but the end of this book had me in tears and left me devastated for days. I couldn’t stop thinking about Alex, like I was Lena in real life, worrying about him, wondering if he was okay. I would say it was a good thing because I would be coming back for more. Have you read this book/series? What do you think if this were real? Tell me what you think about it in the comments below. I would love to exchange views about this.

The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1) by Lemony Snicket

I finished this (e)book a month ago and i forgot to write something about it. The Baudelaire children are truly unfortunate and it was painful to read their story because everything was not going well for them. Just as you think things would be better, it would go the other way. It was an easy read, with much less pages than the other books i read, i finished in just days. I couldn’t help but compare it with the movie, and i now understand why the movie had scenes that would happen in later books. It has a short plot but very well described. Another thing i like with Lemony Snicket is that he explains the meaning of words that might be hard for little children to understand. I’m not sure when i’ll be able to read the rest of the series but i surely want to finish them all and find out what fortune awaits the Baudelaire children.

Publisher: HarperCollins