"Where'd You Get That Can of Peas?" Questions I Have about Divergent

This is Chicago today. I imagine it with no cars, a lot of broken down buildings, and a whole bunch of bloody kids making out to picture Divergent Chicago.

Basic spoiler warning: I'm about to reference stuff from all over the first two Divergent books. Honestly, if you haven't read the books at all, not a whole lot will be ruined for you by reading this. The specific things that I mention probably won't make sense to you, and the broad things I discuss aren't really "spoilers" per se in that they don't give away anything really secret or surprising. That said, if you don't want to know much about what happens before you read, you should probably avoid this.

So, I'm rereading Insurgent, and about halfway through there's the scene when the Candor guy is meeting with Jeanine's "representative" and the representative tells the Candor leader "your faction is disposable" and I thought, "Wait, yeah! What the hell is the point of Candor anyway?!"

Which led me to wonder, "What, what is the deal with any of this?" And it took me until now to realize how badly I wanted more world building in the Divergent books.

Questions I asked the book, to no avail, while reading or rereading, after the jump:

Allegiant Is Out! I'm Not Reading it Yet

Veronica Roth's Allegiant came out two weeks ago and I still haven't started it.

I bought it, and I started reading it, but the first thought as I read the first paragraph was "Who's that?" That was also my second thought, and my third thought. I could not for the life of me remember who Edith or Christina or Will or even EVELYN was. I couldn't remember the character that shares my (until-recently-very-uncommon) name. So I went back to the beginning. I reread Divergent (which I had to do before I read Insurgent for the same reason) and now you can see I am about half way through Insurgent for a second time. I remember who most of those people are now.

I am trying to reread with a supportive mindset. I've come to appreciate the idea that there's really no reason to read a book looking for things you don't like about it, and it's a lot more interesting and enriching and helpful for everyone to read a book looking for the things to like about it. BUT! I keep having issues with these books! I really want Tris's shoulder to stop hurting, or at least for her to stop reminding us that it hurts. I also want her to stop making out with Four so much. Sorry, everybody. I'm cranky. And I really want everyone to stop shaking so much. By everyone I mostly mean Tris and Four, since those are the only people whose bodies get described in any detail. But geez, guys! Are you getting enough potassium? Do you have Parkinson's? What's with the CONSTANT SHAKING?!

I'm going to go pretend to be Tris and run a few miles and try not to shake or think about how much my shoulder hurts and then come back and finish this so I can finally start the book all of you finished weeks ago.

Obligatory "I've Boon Gone A While" Post

I am astonishingly bad at blogging. When will I learn to stop trying? Probably never.