Category Archives: Reviews
Insurgent – Book Review (May Contain Spoilers)
The day has finally arrived – 1st May 2012 – publication day for Veronica Roth’s sequel to Divergent. Insurgent is the second book of a planned trilogy and just as enticing as the first. The Tagline for Insurgent is:
I have done bad things. I can’t take them back, and they are part of who I am.
As part of Team Abnegation UK (a book blogger challenge), I was treated to an Advanced Review Copy (ARC) of Insurgent – thanks HarperCollins. I only received my copy on Wednesday but being selfless (as the abnegation are) I still made it a priority to read the book so that I could review it for you today. In the process I managed to cross another thing off my Bucket List.
The first thing I would say is that you really need to read Divergent if you haven’t already – you can find my review of it here. And you can buy it on the sponsored link below:
But, if you have already read Divergent and haven’t got time to read it again before Insurgent (I didn’t but wish I had) – the lovely lady herself has been kind enough to provide a summary of what happened in the first book here.
I’m afraid I’m going to find it really hard to review without some spoilers for Divergent if not Insurgent. I’ll try really hard not to give away everything but if you prefer not to read the review it is contained within the stars below.
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Insurgent picks up exactly where Divergent left off with Tris and Four/Tobias and ‘whoever else was with them’ on a train on their way to the Amity compound and the action is pretty much non stop from then though there is food and sleep mentioned ;o).
In Divergent we only really got to meet three of the five factions – Abnegation (the selfless) where Tris was raised, Dauntless (the brave) where she transfers to and Erudite (the intelligent) where her brother Caleb transfers to. They are also the faction responsible for the devastation at the end of Divergent.
In Insurgent we get to visit the headquarters of all factions and find out more about Amity (the peaceful) and Candor (the honest) in the process. We also find out that the factionless are more organised than they have clearly been given credit for.
Tris is dealing with the repercussions of what she did during the Erudite controlled Dauntless simulations as well as what happened to her parents and old and current faction members. I think it is more evident to us in this book than the last that she is only 16. She is impatient and impulsive but also inquisitive and she shows her Abnegation roots by her numerous acts of selflessness. It’s unfortunate that these acts usually see others placed in danger too. Tris and Four do not have a love triangle to contend with but they also do not have a smooth ride as a couple and both keep secrets that threaten their relationship.
Divergence is seen as a massive threat by the Erudite and, not content with trying to wipe out Abnegation, they try to determine a way to control or eliminate the Divergent. We find out that Divergence is more rife than we first thought and that means something for the future of society as Tris knows it. She knows her parents wanted to let everyone know the truth and Tris doesn’t want their deaths to have been in vain. Now I had kind of guessed what the truth might be but that didn’t spoil the big reveal for me (and I got a little confused at one thing – hence the recommendation to re-read Divergent if you can or have a better memory than me).
I’m really looking forward to seeing that truth open up a whole new avenue for exploration in the as yet unnamed trilogy concluder.
As with Divergent I have selected a few of my favourite quotes to illustrate some of the themes/images that stood out for me with a little explanation why.
His breaths, my breaths, his body, my body, we are so close there is no difference.
As I mentioned in my X post there are some slightly raunchy scenes in Insurgent where Tris and Four get a little bit steamy. For Tris these moments with Tobias are her escape from the collapse of society around her and this line represents that perfectly. She never lets herself escape completely though and Tobias remains the perfect gentleman.
…even more difficult to justify my feelings with no evidence except my intuition.
So I agree. But I do not change my mind.
Often quotes jump out at me because they may resonate with my life outside the book. To me this demonstrates the difficulties many of us face with a lack of acceptance of certain forms of knowledge. That thoughts and feelings and intuition are still not as accepted as what we can see or add up. Tris has no idea what the ‘truth’ may be but she ‘knows’ that it needs to be set free.
Don’t tell me you’re going to eat a mashed-potato sandwich
This made me giggle – Tris asks this almost indignantly of another character but it just made me crave a mash potato sandwich. I’ve not had one for a good few years now.
Blood is a strange color. It’s darker than you expect it to be.
Obviously this comes at a point when Tris has already seen more than her fill of blood but to me it acknowledges her humanity. Death doesn’t become easier for her to accept just more of a reality.
I don’t stare back – I refuse to stare back.
I stare back.
Just love the contradiction in this. When we really try to stop ourselves we just can’t help giving in to what we are resisting.
I think we cry to release the animal parts of us without losing our humanity.
I’ve been someone who has battled crying all my life, crying when I am sad, angry or sometimes with relief (A-Level results) or in pure fear (The Woman in Black). I am coming to terms with the fact that this is necessary for me, even though it sometimes makes others uncomfortable. I even have times when I haven’t cried for a when I feel an overwhelming need for a good blub. I love how Veronica through Tris justifies the necessity of this act for me.
I think they’re going to force us to eat lots of cake and then take an unreasonably long nap.
In the face of fear what is the best course of action – laugh. Tris lies to a Candor born Dauntless and comes out with my idea of heaven.
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Over the week the rest of my team will be reviewing the book on their respective blogs – you can find a list of them on this post here.
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You can buy Insurgent on the sponsored link below (I’m still going to be buying the Kindle version despite my ARC):
Or just admire my copy of the book from the day it arrived. I strongly suggest reading it though.
Finally in honour of today my 366 Photo (incidentally 1/3 of the way through the challenge) represents the grey stones of Abnegation.
I’d really love to hear what you thought of Insurgent in the comments – as a consequence readers please be aware the comments may contain spoilers.
In honour of Abnegation I’d also like you you tell me what selfless acts you’ve performed recently. Mine usually revolve around letting people out in front of me in the car or helping people with their IT related difficulties.
Happy Reading!
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Harry Potter Silliness
Harry Potter Silliness
Hi all, this is my fourth of a series of posts on my visit to ‘The Making of Harry Potter – Warner Brothers Studio Tour’ on 9th April 2012.
Just a short silly one today but I promise that tomorrow will be a proper tour review.
In the car on the way there my sister gave me ‘The Talk’. She said:
‘No embarrassment, when it is closing time we have to leave. You can’t live there.’
I was a grown up though and didn’t throw a tantrum – I think she was a little disappointed I behaved myself tbh.
As we neared the attraction and starting seeing the brown signs I said something along the lines of
When you need to go to the toilet at the Warner Brothers studio tour – you…
Image Expelliarmus Cutie by Whisperwings on devaint art.
(Yeah, yeah I know Expelliarmus is the disarming charm but it sounds like it fits, doesn’t it?)
Finally, I have a cuddly toy called Sultan that I’ve had since I was 1. He’s a ‘bit’ threadbare and a while back I made him a purple outfit to protect him a little. My friends initially joked that he had a smoking jacket but later that switched to Wizard robes. At one point I made him a Wizard hat but I couldn’t find it for the day of the visit. Knowing that him being there would make an entertaining picture I packed Sultan along with my wand. He had to come out for a sneaky photo op on the ministry set. I’m not embarrassed in this pic at all!!! But I know my friends will find it entertaining.
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L is for… (#AtoZChallenge 2012)
L is for Literature & Latte
(Post 12 on my WIP)
When I ‘won’ National Novel Writing Month in 2010 (for meeting my 50,000 word target) part of my prize was half price off Scrivener software. I decided to buy my MacBook Pro precisely so I could make use of this (please note they now have a Windows version released too so you don’t need to switch to Apple – I’m so glad I did though).
Scrivener is described as a content-generation tool for writers of many kinds; novelists, academics and students, screenwriters and many others. This wonderful software has been developed by Literature & Latte, a small company from Truro, Cornwall in the UK. Wanting a way to manage his own long text writing, Keith developed a tool that collates your writing, notes and research in one place. An online Binder (a term used in the software) which is much easier to sort through than lots of sheets of paper.
Here is how I have used Scrivener so far but I appreciate that I still have a lot to learn. There is a tutorial project within Scrivener that would be beneficial to work through as well as a guide to Scrivener. There are a number of videos on You Tube and within the forums on the Literature & Latte website on how to use the different features too. I also recommend the Kindle book ‘Writing a Novel with Scrivener’ by David Hewson – for writers it helps you identify the features that will be the most useful to you.
For My Novel
The Novel template comes in the following sections.
A guide to the template and how to use it (handy as a reminder).
The manuscript section which you split into chapter folders and have each scene as a page that you can drag and drop to rearrange the order as you’d like (this is very helpful when you don’t write in order).
The Character section where you can use a pre-made character sketch template (I hope to develop this further and create full background and personality sketches for my main characters)
The Places section where you can use a pre-made Setting sketch template (Helpful for consistency so you don’t suddenly have the kitchen coming straight off the hall if it didn’t three chapters ago).
The Front Matter section for different formatting (manuscript, e-book etc) including front covers and dedication pages.
The Research section for adding in links to websites, random notes and scribblings and any other random research (I love that you can import PDFs – will be very useful for my PhD – I’ve also set up a section to collate feedback from my Beta-Readers that I’ll be able to use when re-drafting).
Template sheets (which I copied up into Characters and Places but I assume you can make your own and add here too – I need to look into this).
The Trash section where you can send anything you don’t want active in your project but it remains ready to restore if you change your mind (unless you empty the Trash and then it goes forever).
For Poetry
You can use the Poetry template to gather your poems – moving them round by theme etc ready to make into a collection for printing.
For Sriptwriting
Again a number of templates are provided from film script, to comic to radio play. This is the function I have the most to learn about because you can use it to automatically function different aspects of your script (dialogue, scene headers etc) using drop down lists but I haven’t fully got my head round it yet.
For My Research (PhD) and Academic Writing
There are a number of different non-fiction templates from essay writing to research proposal and I am using them to gather my research and writing together for my PhD as well as to start planning any papers I want to write.
For My Teaching
I used the basic template to develop a handbook for my unit which I was able to provide in PDF and Kindle formats from within Scrivener.
For Blogging
I just used the basic template and set up folders and pages as needed for different memes (such as the A-Z Challenge, my Harry Potter tour series). etc.
Key Features you may like (I do)
Corkboard
Each section or folder can be viewed as a corkboard with either record cards or images which makes it easy to get an overview of that particular selection and move things around (see image above).
Name Generator
Found under Edit – Writing Tools – if you are having a name blank Scrivener will conjure up a list of names to inspire you. I’ve not used it yet but can imagine it will be helpful for tertiary characters.
Search
If you want to find every scene with a particular character mentioned you can and that search is saved above the Binder.
Scrivenings
This means that you are able to view all of your separate documents (temporarily) as one continuous piece of text. They still remain where you put them originally.
Split screen
Want to be able to write a scene whilst referring to research you have gathered – no problem – just use the split screen mode which opens your research in either the top or bottom half of the screen, fully scrollable.
Split
Decided the scene you are writing is too long – don’t worry about cutting and pasting you can split the document in two at a point decided by you. Only discovered this today.
Full screen
If you are anything like me you are easily distracted, but Scrivener has a full screen mode so you can just concentrate on what you are writing and fade everything else to black. You can still access formatting tools by clicking and selecting from the list that appears.
Snapshots
Want to make a huge edit of a scene but don’t want to have to copy or lose the original version (just in case) – use Snapshots which save the original version which allows you to compare and contrast and see which you prefer.
Labels
Writing a novel with shifting points of view? You can label each scene based on whose POV it is meant to be written in. You can also assign different colour labels to remind yourself if this is a scene/character etc etc – set up as many as you want (I think you might only be able to add one per scene though but I’m not sure).
Notes and Comments
You can add in footnotes, comments, overall project notes – in fact you can pretty much scribble what ever you like to help you keep track of what you need to do, change etc. Use the little record cards to write summaries/POV etc too.
Integration with Dropbox
I used Preferences to set all my Scrivener projects to save to Dropbox. An extra back up in the cloud and this means that with some mobile apps (I’ve not explored any yet) you can access the raw files and edit on the move. Now I’m looking forward to the development of their native iOS app (which is in progress) so I can work with a familiar set up on my iPad.
Compile
Project finished and ready to go? Scrivener allows you to Compile the document (selecting only the pages you want) to a number of different formats, such as Kindle, PDF, Word etc.
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I’m not sure I’ve really done this excellent tool justice because there is so much that it can do and I just haven’t learnt it all yet. The price is so reasonable (much less than Office) and you can have a free trial so why not go for it and have a play.
I just found this case study on the website that might come in handy for me as I’m hoping this will be book one of a series.
Using Scrivener to Manage Serial Novels With Monica McCarty.
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So who else out there uses Scrivener? If not, what do you use instead?
Any more Scrivener hints and tips that you’d like to share?
kirstyes 