October 22nd has been marked in my calendar for a long, long time now. I’ve been counting the days till the release of Allegiant, the 3rd and last installment in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. When over a month ago, the book was , I refused to even glimpse online for a copy or spoilers. Out of respect for the author and out of respect for my own bookworm / fangirl feels. Waiting for something and then finally getting your greedy hands on it feels amazing!
I’m from a generation that waited outside record stores for the release of a new CD, I buy my movie tickets in advance for big blockbusters, I craved the arrival of December 3 years in a row to finally watch each of the new Lord of the Rings movies. I had to wait for the release of almost every Harry Potter book, wait for the release of the final Twilight chapter, and don’t even get me started with Outlander! I didn’t get to experience that with The Hunger Games, I just read all 3 books back to back. It was a different experience, great really. But the wait… the anticipation… that’s the secret ingredient in a perfect recipe.
Specially now, with Social Media. The years in between are a whole book on their own. You share theories with your fellow fans, you have time to edit fan videos for fake trailers, be amazed by incredible fan art, read good (and bad) Fan Fic, ship your hearts out with your favorite couple and re-read over and over your favorite passages. Like Schrodinger’s cat, in those in-between years, everything is possible. You can come up with a story of your own and believe whatever you want! And then, the publication date arrives and it’s a party.
October 22nd, Allegiant’s publication date, was yesterday. And I already have my copy of the book.
Yeap. That was me yesterday. After months and months of waiting, I finally had my copy in my hands and could curl up in a sofa, with a cup of coffee and read to my heart’s content (ok, actually. I just managed to squeeze in a couple of chapters, while hanging for dear life in the subway while commuting to work. But, anyways…).
And now, I have feelings.
Let’s see: do you do spoilers or don’t? I’m kinda weird in this regard. I don’t read spoilers of things I don’t know. Like, whenever Diana Gabaldon releases a quote of the day for her unpublished book, I close my eyes and skip to the next Tweet. I sort of didn’t read the quotes released in anticipation of Allegiant. I read the whole last book from the Harry Potter series in one sitting so no one could spoil me the ending. I did a whole Internet lock-down when the series finale for Lost was approaching. I like to be oblivious about the things I don’t know from fandoms I’m really into. But, on the other hand, if I know about something, I’m like a junkie looking for her next fix. I’m a sponge. I need to know everything. case in point: the shooting of the Outlander TV series. While I don’t want to know anything about up-coming books (and I would gladly kill whoever spoiled me even a tiny detail), I’m a lunatic while searching for on set photos, concept art, casting news, etc. Well, you’ve seen the Blog lately. You know what I mean. Same thing happens with Game of Thrones. I still haven’t finished reading all the published books (come on, they are mammoth and I have plenty of other books to read in between!), but I’m ahead of the TV series. So, I have the same non-spoiler rule for the books, but I love seeing pics from set and learning little things from the upcoming seasons.
Do I make any sense or are you considering admitting me into the nearest Psych ward?
My point is that with Allegiant, I have no clue what’s to come. So I opened the book with a bit of trepidation. I was nervous. I, I have to admit, both excited and sad at the same time.
Excited because I will finally get to know what the heck is going on and what the bloody hell is outside that fence! Is it like the movie “The Village”? Is it an experiment? Is the city a colony of refugees from an alien invasion? Are they like monkeys in a zoo? Is it a dream? Are they in limbo a la Lost? WTF???!!! So at times, I can’t read fast enough to know what’s going on. And, to see if Veronica Roth finally gives us not-so-young adults a #FourandTrisHookUpScene.
But then, when I see that the pages are going fast through I stop and realize that when I finish reading this book, it will be over (ok, we do have a few more Four e-books, but really…). So I stop and start reading at a more leisurely pace. Actually enjoying and getting immersed in this dystopian world. And I don’t know what to do!!! Should I speed through the book to see how it ends before some idiot with a GIF spoils it for me? Or show a enjoy the experience of being in Divergent Chicago for the last time? See my point? I have too many feels!!!
And I worry for my mental health. If I’m like this for Allegiant, can you imagine my state when the last Outlander book is out there?! I’ll literally die. Or I’ll stare at my copy of the book for weeks deciding whether to read the thing or not. I’ll need counselling, therapy, medication. It won’t be pretty. If what I cried during book 7 was any indication, I’ll be a wreck when Outlander finishes. You just wait and see.
So, are you reading Allegiant? Do you have feels? Have you finished the book on it’s release day or are you reading slowly for it to last? If you have read it, do Four and Tris finally do it? No! Wait! Don’t tell me!
The best thing is to read in groups, so you can scream to somebody ‘NOOOO!!!!! WHYYYY?????!!!!’ And yo recieve the aupport you need in awful times. Sometimes, a simple ‘I KNOW!!!’ is anything you need.
I still haven’t read these books, they are on queue. I wanted to read all together, and now I’ve discovered that there are short stories? Split it up, tellme their titles, please
Here you go Cele: https://fandomobsessed.com/the-teasers-just-keep-on-coming-first-allegiant-quote/
There you will find the titles, release dates and reading order for the Short Stories.
And yes, having someone to go all “OMG!” with while reading the book, is the best part of the reading experience.
I am reading it now, about 60% of the way through and it is so good. SLIGHT SPOILER WARNING!!! She is very unsparing of her characters. Definitely have the feels with this one. I’m actually really liking the dual POV’s, what about you? I really want to read voraciously tonight once the kiddies are asleep to finish but I also don’t want to because this is the last one and then it’s done…. I know that a number of people are not happy with the book and have left some pretty scathing reviews on Amazon and other such sites but it’s really good IMHO and without at the midway point, I would give this about a 4.5 stars out of 5. We’ll see if my rating changes when I get to the end. What about you? How are you liking so far? P.S. DO NOT go on Goodreads or Amazon etc. and read reviews as they are completely spoilery (is that a word?!)
So far, I’m liking the book. I’m almost 50% of the way through (trying to go slowly to actually enjoy it) and I’m keeping away from all Divergent and books sites so as not to read spoilers.
I find the different POV confusing. I love reading from Four’s perspective cuz he has a completely different mind set, but I have to constantly remind myself who’s talking…
I just finished it 2 nights ago. I don’t want to spoil it for you so I will refrain from telling you what I thought except to say that I really liked it. Not sure I loved the book like I did Divergent. I think I need to properly process what I’ve read and maybe re-read it again at a later point. Would love to hear what you thought of it once you’re done.
I’ll finnish it in the weekend and I’ll let you know what I think.