Vampires meet dystopian universe.

Caution- SPOILER ALERT!

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

I guess I would really give this book slightly closer to 4 stars, it just wasn't quite all the way there for me. I FINALLY, after what feels like forever, FINISHED this extremely long book. This is one of the craziest books I have read in a while. It jumps around a lot and for the longest time I really wasn't even sure what was going on, and although it took me a little while to really get into, once I did I couldn't stop reading and just had to know what in the world would happen to Amy and the others. In the end I was so glad that Theo and Maus were together (in Provo, Utah come to find out!), I was so happy for Sara and her finding love in Hollis, I was amazingly sad and disappointed in Alicia and her choice to join up with the army all so quickly and suddenly, yet glad when she comes back to Peter in the end (although now even though they are together I am not really sure I feel like Alicia is worthy of Peter's love anymore that's how much Alicia's choice affected my feelings for her), and I just want so badly for sweet Amy to find peace and happiness. Sooo much happens in this book I feel like I could easily forget important things before the next book comes out (which I find myself hoping it isn't quite as long?). The only bothersome thing for me about this book was the foul language which in some parts of the book was extremely excessive and in other parts non-existent, which is what made it possible for me to push through (for some strange reason I'm just not a huge fan of having to ignore the "f" word too many times in one book). There were many times while reading this book that I found myself just wanting it to be over already, but finally when nearing the last couple hundred pages I was finally to a point where I knew I was enjoying the book enough that I would be at least slightly sad when it came to an end, knowing I would want more.

Recommended to me.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. (Maybe closer to 2.5 stars or so...)

I didn't hate this book, by any means, but I also didn't love it. The story line is different and intriguing, and the characters are likable enough. Alex's story is a unique one and therefore intriguing. Furnace Penitentiary is a beyond awful place and I can't imagine being Alex. I liked this book because I wanted to find out what Alex would do- would he try to escape? how? and would he get caught?- and, I also wanted to find out more about this prison for children and just how the people running it could possibly be getting away with all the awful things they are doing to these poor boys, some of which, like Alex, are innocent and have only been framed by the "black suits." But, there are a couple of elements in this book, that for me, knock stars off my rating quite quickly. First of all, the foul language. I find it completely unnecessary and utterly annoying as a reader to read/"listen to" teenagers taking the Lord's name in vain so frequently. Now, most of the time I can read past foul language and not let it bother me too much, but in a young adult read it is especially irritating for me. This book is a near perfect read for teenage boys, except for the fact that I would never let my teenager read this book because of all the foul language. The second aspect of this book that lowers my rating comes with the repetition of thoughts and phrases by the main character, Alex. I understand some repetition is necessary and even good for the overall feel of the book, but Alex repeats himself much too often for my liking and throughout certain parts of this book I felt like I was just reading the same thing over and over. (I just started reading the second book in the series, Solitary, and this repetition is especially annoying at the beginning of it...) I'm not sure if I will make it all the way through this series. I have a problem with not finishing series that I start reading, but I also have so many books on my "to read" list that this series might get the boot. We shall see.

So, although this book was recommended to me, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to you.

My road trip read.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 


If you are a lover of dystopian books than you will like this series by Veronica Roth. The first book in the series is called Divergent and I read it about a year ago. Insurgent just came out about 2 months ago and I finally got my turn to read it from the library a couple of weeks ago.

Although it has been a while since I read it I don't remember liking Divergent half as much as I liked Insurgent. This book had me captivated and wanting to keep reading from page 1. I feel like this book in the series was much more engaging than Divergent. This book left me wanting more, while after reading Divergent I remember thinking, "Maybe I won't read the next one in the series?"

Tris's "divergency" and the divergency of others is interesting to read/learn about as Tris and her boyfriend Tobias, and their other friends try to figure out just what is going on as they watch their society break down. And, although I don't love this series as much as I loved The Hunger Games or The Maze Runner series, I still enjoyed Insurgent quite a bit and I am excited to find out what will happen next.