Yesterday afternoon I finished reading Allegiant. It was the fifth book I read this year. That's not bad considering that I only read about four books last year. I've already eclipsed my total from 2013. That being said let's review Allegiant.
Allegiant starts out with Tris and her friends fleeing the city. After the events of Insurgent, Tris and her friends decide to leave the city and see what's beyond the fence. They find this compound where Tris' mother worked before she came to the city. They find out where she came from, and what kind of work she did before the events of Divergent. However Tris and Tobias soon learn that there's not a lot of good people who work at this compound. It's smart not to trust anyone who is in a high position in this compound because they only care about keeping their experiments going. They don't care what the cost is.
Before I read this book, I had heard some pretty mediocre reviews. So I was interested to see what that was all about. One thing that's different is that this book is split so that Tris has point of view chapters, and so does Tobias. I thought that was interesting and it was cool to see things through his eyes. I have to say about 440 pages in, I had a bad feeling about how it was going to end. I thought to myself, "The axe is going to drop and I don't know how." I was enjoying the book until I got to the very end. The end completely ruined the book for me. I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not read it, but I almost didn't want to finish it. I wanted to stop reading right then and there and start reading something else. I'm sure people who have read the book know what I'm referring to. That's how distraught I was. You know when these movies come out there going to split Allegiant into 2 movies because they always do. I'm not going to see it whenever it comes out.
Overall Allegiant was good until the final ten chapters or so, but those last chapters where brutal. I'm going to rate Allegiant 2.8 out of 5 stars. The series as a whole is worth reading I'll rate the series as a whole 3.8 out of 5 stars. I'll be reading the first Sherlock Holmes novel "A Study in Scarlet" over the next few weeks. I'll probably be posting a review for that whenever I finish it.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Insurgent Book Reivew
This weekend I finished reading Insurgent. This was the second book in Veronica Roth's dystopian Divergent series. For those of you who have not read the first book yet, I will try not to give too much away.
After the events of the first book, Beatrice and her friends are on the run from the Erudite. They go to other factions who were neutral in the conflict seeking refuge. Beatrice also deals with lots of guilt and depression. People have lost their lives because of her, people have died that she cares about so needless to say she is having a difficult time.
If I have any complaints about Insurgent, it is the same complaint I had about Divergent. It's that it takes awhile for the book to get really exciting. I think back to the Hunger Games series where it was exciting from the first chapter and it held that for the most part until the series was over. In my opinion, these books don't get really exciting until the second half. I was hoping that Insurgent would be a little darker than Divergent, kind of like how Catching Fire was darker than the Hunger Games, but I would say Divergent and Insurgent are equally dark. There is one scene in the book I don't want to give it away, but it was really dark and when it happened I thought to myself, "I don't see this ending well." I read that part last week and it was at that point when I couldn't put the book down. I read almost 100 pages in one night. For me that's a lot.
Overall, I thought this was a very good entry in the Divergent series. I can't decide which one I like more, they're very close. so I'm going to rate Insurgent 4.5 out of 5 stars. Despite what some critics said about Allegiant, I'm still looking forward to reading it. After I finish that I will be reading more Sherlock Holmes novels, and I will finally read the Harry Potter series.
After the events of the first book, Beatrice and her friends are on the run from the Erudite. They go to other factions who were neutral in the conflict seeking refuge. Beatrice also deals with lots of guilt and depression. People have lost their lives because of her, people have died that she cares about so needless to say she is having a difficult time.
If I have any complaints about Insurgent, it is the same complaint I had about Divergent. It's that it takes awhile for the book to get really exciting. I think back to the Hunger Games series where it was exciting from the first chapter and it held that for the most part until the series was over. In my opinion, these books don't get really exciting until the second half. I was hoping that Insurgent would be a little darker than Divergent, kind of like how Catching Fire was darker than the Hunger Games, but I would say Divergent and Insurgent are equally dark. There is one scene in the book I don't want to give it away, but it was really dark and when it happened I thought to myself, "I don't see this ending well." I read that part last week and it was at that point when I couldn't put the book down. I read almost 100 pages in one night. For me that's a lot.
Overall, I thought this was a very good entry in the Divergent series. I can't decide which one I like more, they're very close. so I'm going to rate Insurgent 4.5 out of 5 stars. Despite what some critics said about Allegiant, I'm still looking forward to reading it. After I finish that I will be reading more Sherlock Holmes novels, and I will finally read the Harry Potter series.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Sherlock Series Two Review
Last night I finished watching series two of the BBC series Sherlock. As you may know I really enjoyed series one of the show. I will say right now series two takes it to a whole new level. I will take each episode and break it down starting with the first one. Don't worry I won't spoil anything in this review.
The first episode is the Scandal in Belgravia. The Irene Adler episode. There's a really great scene when Sherlock looks at her and he can't size her up. He looks over at Watson and starts sizing him up. You can see cliff notes appear on the screen and he looks back at Irene Adler and you just see question marks appear. At that moment I knew it was going to be a great episode, I knew she would be great competition for Sherlock. There's also a very funny scene in this episode with Mycroft, who is Sherlock's older brother.
The second episode was The Hounds of Baskerville episode. In this episode Sherlock's and Watson's client is a man who claims his father was murdered my a giant hound. At first Sherlock thinks his client is crazy, but as he digs deeper in the case he realizes that he is not. There's a pretty interesting twist in this case I don't want to give it away. Even though it was a very good episode, I think it was the weak link of the three. It's not necessarily a gripe with the episode I just feel like the other two episodes where so much better.
That brings me to the final episode of series two, The Reichenbach Fall. This is the Jim Moriarty episode. This episode was intense to say the least! I knew going into this episode that Moriarty was crazy. But by the end of the episode I thought to myself, "This guy is so insane!" He's not just trying to kill Sherlock Holmes, he's going after his legacy and reputation. He's trying to take everything Sherlock has. Moriarty reminded me a lot of the Joker from the Dark Knight. Which is fitting because Sherlock Holmes and Jim Moriarty are the original Batman and Joker. Moriarty keeps telling Sherlock "You're just like me." It reminded me of when The Joker told Batman "To them you're just a freak like me."
Overall I loved series two of Sherlock even more than series one, and I loved series one. If you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes I highly recommend this show. I'm going to give Sherlock series two 4.7 out of 5 stars. I can't wait to see series three. I believe it comes out on blu-ray on Tuesday. I will also be posting my review of Insurgent within the next couple days. So be on the lookout for that. Thanks for reading everybody
The first episode is the Scandal in Belgravia. The Irene Adler episode. There's a really great scene when Sherlock looks at her and he can't size her up. He looks over at Watson and starts sizing him up. You can see cliff notes appear on the screen and he looks back at Irene Adler and you just see question marks appear. At that moment I knew it was going to be a great episode, I knew she would be great competition for Sherlock. There's also a very funny scene in this episode with Mycroft, who is Sherlock's older brother.
The second episode was The Hounds of Baskerville episode. In this episode Sherlock's and Watson's client is a man who claims his father was murdered my a giant hound. At first Sherlock thinks his client is crazy, but as he digs deeper in the case he realizes that he is not. There's a pretty interesting twist in this case I don't want to give it away. Even though it was a very good episode, I think it was the weak link of the three. It's not necessarily a gripe with the episode I just feel like the other two episodes where so much better.
That brings me to the final episode of series two, The Reichenbach Fall. This is the Jim Moriarty episode. This episode was intense to say the least! I knew going into this episode that Moriarty was crazy. But by the end of the episode I thought to myself, "This guy is so insane!" He's not just trying to kill Sherlock Holmes, he's going after his legacy and reputation. He's trying to take everything Sherlock has. Moriarty reminded me a lot of the Joker from the Dark Knight. Which is fitting because Sherlock Holmes and Jim Moriarty are the original Batman and Joker. Moriarty keeps telling Sherlock "You're just like me." It reminded me of when The Joker told Batman "To them you're just a freak like me."
Overall I loved series two of Sherlock even more than series one, and I loved series one. If you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes I highly recommend this show. I'm going to give Sherlock series two 4.7 out of 5 stars. I can't wait to see series three. I believe it comes out on blu-ray on Tuesday. I will also be posting my review of Insurgent within the next couple days. So be on the lookout for that. Thanks for reading everybody
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