CDBC Divergent book 2

TJ1979

I finished. Who's still in? Anyone still reading book 2?

freezorburn

I'm still in .... Not sure if we are waiting on anyone else.

TJ1979

Man, the 2nd book was really poorly written, right? If I had to read one more time about how the edge of Tris' vision went black, I was going to punch myself in the face!
Why is her relationship with Four SO volatile? I guess that's the whole teenage aspect to it, it's lovey dovey or it's turmoil.
I almost feel like this book is written purely to confuse you. Every single person, you have to consider where their loyalty actually lies. They all flip flopped their allegiances!

freezorburn

Yeah, I think between all the serums and not really having a chance to grieve for her parents, Tris isn't thinking very clearly in this book, and I think that's reflected in the sloppy narrative. Hm, maybe the author meant to do that? I kind of doubt it.

I'm running off to a seminar this morning on how to deal with an employment gap, so I'll re-skim the book when I'm in transit. Will write more later.

TJ1979

Good points MK! That might have been more exciting, if there were more drama.
Also, was Lynn coming out on her death bed?

Into+the+Kitty

Yes, she was @tj1979.

Also, for annoying, poorly written repeated phrases, check out how often when they're kissing that Tris touches all of his tattoos. There's a part in book three where my head almost exploded.

TJ1979

So I have to assume that is going to mean something in book 3? Bc it seemed superfluous at the time.
I can't wait for all the tattoo touching! Squee!

freezorburn

Well apparently being Divergent means Tris can kill people with her brain, so of course her hunches are always right. 8-|

There were a few moments when I felt bad for Four. He seemed to be more certain of their relationship and his feelings for Tris than she did. 

Somewhere in the middle of the book I started to feel like the conflict between the different factions was a reductive interpretation of American special interest politics, i.e., people with guns claiming a moral high ground, vs. people who say their scientific knowledge provides them with better judgment as to how society should be run. Of course in reality we are more complicated than this, but I felt like there were some parallels there. Oh, plus there's the whole thing with people in positions of authority using serums (drugs) to manipulate people. Oh the conspiracies! Can't trust anyone! 

I liked that we got to see what happened to Edward after he left Dauntless. And that some of the other secondary characters got fleshed out a bit. 

I don't know if I just got a bad e-book, but there was at least one place where, as I was reading along, I thought all of a sudden Tris is describing what another person in the room is doing, but grammatically the sentence felt like it was not the first mention of that person. I thought I had missed a sentence or a paragraph, but I went back and couldn't find a first mention of that person.

TJ1979

Which person @freezorburn‌?

Also, am I dumb? Is her mom's name Edith?

freezorburn

I think it was some random nameless person who was helping some injured person when Erudite attacked Candor HQ, I think. I will have to look for it.

freezorburn

No, Edith Prior is not her mother. They just share a last name.

TJ1979

freezorburn said:

No, Edith Prior is not her mother. They just share a last name.

Ok, I didn't think so. Hmmmm. Then who IS she? (Obv don't answer that if you've read ahead. Just thinking aloud.)

freezorburn

For starters, she's the lady who just told the entire city of Chicago that they are mere pawns in a giant social engineering experiment.

TJ1979

freezorburn said:

For starters, she's the lady who just told the entire city of Chicago that they are mere pawns in a giant social engineering experiment.

Yeah, I got that part.

freezorburn

So, what did you think about this latest twist? If you could call it that. Because you would think that a society in which people choose their direction in life at 16 would know they were being socially engineered. It's just BY WHOM now that is the big mystery.

Also, I'm still scratching my head over how clueless everyone in this society seems to be over how their social system came about. I mean, don't the Erudite have historians and sociologists? 

TJ1979

I considered that they made it up as well.

emmylou78

I took it that they have just made up their past. The author doesn't really give a good explanation on that.

I can't help but wonder why they would choose a life that, like PP said, is so volatile. Who really wants that? I read and all I can think is why didn't they just choose Amity and be happy. Or stay in Abnegation and at least be safe.

I know, then there wouldn't be much story

TJ1979

Bc some people aren't all happy go lucky, or selfless. Some people are just assholes. Or they just need that activity level. Tris said at one point they weren't even allowed to run.

Also they mention that dauntless wasn't always that way. Their by laws or whatever were different than what they had become.

freezorburn

... and it sounds like Four/Tobias would have stayed in Abnegation except that it was not a safe place for him.

Tris mentions at the beginning of the first book that she goes to a faction history class. They must have had more of a made-up narrative if they had a whole class about it.

TJ1979

Are we done discussing this? Can I start book 3 now?

freezorburn

I can't think of anything else to talk about in this book. Yes hurry up and finish book 3!

emmylou78

Is everyone already on book 3? I bought all 3 together, and while I'm on book 3, it seems like it must be a lot longer than the first 2. (When I open it up in the app, it reads as one long book almost instead of 3 diff books, if that makes sense. So it's hard to get a feel on how long they are comparatively).

TJ1979

Me too @Heather6789‌. But yes, I'm on book 3 now.

freezorburn

I bought all three together too. There's a lot of bonus material after book 3, so I don't think it's really much longer. I think there's acknowledgements, discussion questions, Q&A with the author, faction manifestos and some other stuff.

freezorburn

I thought book 2 had a few sections where it seemed to lose momentum.