PRODIGY – Marie Lu

Divergent by Veronica Roth book review

Divergent. What an amazing read. Filled with limitless intrigue and sparkling suspense. The doors to the world of five factions open slowly, and you are eased into a place dominated by one emotion-one that you choose- one that you follow- but in this particular story, you also LIVE. And if you fail to do so,you suffer a fate comparable to death. To live without faction, apart from your family who will be humiliated. Because of you.

Beatrice. A perfectly normal girl in an abnegation home. On the day that she chooses which faction she will choose [one of the five: Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent)], everyone expects her to follow her family, and chose abnegation. Instead of abnegation though, she makes a last, split-second decision and spills her blood on the flaming coals of dauntless. I followed Beatrice as she walked- no ran! for the first time, and jumped from high heights. I flinched and paled when she almost got kicked out of her faction and set my heart as she got her tattoos symbolizing love for family and faction. My eyes burned and my throat ached as she saw her mother and was warned- for the second time about how she was- don’t say it- Insurgent, I gazed ahead, wondering about strange tides coming… What was erudite planning? And what role did each faction have in their plan? And of course. Four. Or, perhaps to her, Tobias. My lips twitched up in a smile as Tris slowly fell in love with Tobias. I sighed as their hands touched, and gasped when they fought. Slowly the plot thickened as things got increasingly odd. Eventually, just as Tris reaches a breakthrough, the plan is revealed. The cold-hearted erudite have concocted an injection that will make any injected be under their control. And who better to inject than the soldiers of the country? Tris watches as her mother is killed by people she knew. Finally as the book reaches is crescendo,  she carries out a plan to try to break the spell- excuse me, science, that has made everyone a zombie. She faces some of her worst fears, and then there’s four. brainwashed like the rest, told to kill her. And he does. At least, he does kill.  The leader of the erudite. And so,they ride off into a metaphorical sunrise. The sunrise happens to be blood red and is the symbol of the end of a people dominated by “faction before blood.” As Tobias once said ” I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest.” Maybe life isn’t about surviving for just one ideal, but  living for them all.

RASH by Pete Hautman

Legend- Shea Perera

Legend is about two main character named June and Day. Day is the most wanted criminal, but his family thinks he’s dead except John.  Day has committed a lot of crimes but he has never killed anyone. Eden is Day’s younger brother who has caught the plague. Day tries to get into the hospital to get the plague cure, but there are no plague cures. Along the way he grabs plague suppressants. Trying to get out of the hospital, Day throws a knife at Metias which hits him in the solider. Day is accused of killing Metias but in reality, he didn’t kill Metias. In a Skid Fight, Day saves June. Day does not realize that the girl is June. One night, June sees Day sneak into a house. June realizes that is it the family of Day and orders for them to be questioned and no one to be dead. Day is confused and tries to save his own family, but one of the soldiers shoot Day’s mom. Day is injured in all the confusion, and he is to have an execution. At first, June does not believe that Day is telling the truth that he didn’t kill her brother. When she realizes the truth she tries to help Day sneak away and his family. His younger brother, Eden, has the plague which is a mutated virus secretly given through water supplies, etc. to the poor sectors. The execution of Day, comes 24 hours sooner and June has set up a secret plan with Kaede to sneak Day and his family out. Kaede and June set up the plot to try to help them escape, but running out of time John goes into the firing squad as Day. Day is transported someone else but John died.

I advise this book to many people. It is a very thrilling and action packed booked. The only thing I didn’t like was that it left of in a major cliffhanger. Other than that Legend was a very good and I truly enjoyed it.

– Shea Perera