Tag: Divergent

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#BookReview: The Genesi Code by Tristen Willis

Solid Book Within Genre. This is one of those dystopian YA tales that shows clear influences from and, at least to my mind, similarities to some of the biggest YA dystopian franchises of the last 15 ish yrs or so – Hunger Games, Divergent, and Maze Runner in particular. Indeed, in many ways it is actually an improvement on many of them as we get a better explosive prologue and initial “normal life” / “world establishing” view up front – what many other reviewers decry as too slowly paced, but I found pretty spot on. When the action and intrigue picks up a bit, so does the pacing, and yet the more rapid pace works well even here, as by this point we’re halfway ish into the book and making good steam towards the end game here.

Filled with more political intrigue and over the horizon menace than actual action, this is going to be right up many fans’ expectations – ala Hunger Games in particular – but may leave those seeking more balls to the wall action of a Maze Runner or a Unity by Jeremy Robinson a bit wanting.

Still, for what it is and the genre it is in, this really is a solid book of its type, and fans of that particular genre or those open to it will find this book quite enjoyable indeed.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Genesi Code by Tristen Willis was originally written on December 31, 2024.

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#BookReview: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

First off, let’s just say that I wanted to read this book for two reasons: I THOROUGHLY enjoyed DIVERGENT and INSURGENT, and where INSURGENT leaves off, I HAD to know what happened next. 2nd: I saw all the one star reviews, many of which contain MAJOR spoilers, and I HAD to see why people hated it so much.

This trilogy has the action and intrigue you would expect from the best of Matthew Reilly or Jeremy Robinson – and the last 10% of ALLEGIANT had me crying more than even the best Nich Sparks books – and I’m a 31yo tough Southern Man.

The ending played out almost exactly the way it had to. I’m not going to give anything away, unlike those “most helpful” reviews, but there really were no surprises in the endgame. The mystery of what had happened outside the fence contained quite a bit of commentary on human nature itself, which as someone with “genetic deficiencies”, including Autism Spectrum Condition, it was incredibly interesting to me. I HOPE they can convey all of this in the movie, though I doubt they will be able to.

I LOVED this book, but let’s face it – 1) don’t read the last book in a trilogy without reading books 1 and 2 first and 2) if you’ve read the first two books in a trilogy, you’re going to finish it out, regardless of what all those “most helpful” 1 star reviews say…

This review of Allegiant by Veronica Roth was originally published on March 9, 2014.