Book Series Review: Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant

Divergent – This book is a 10/10.

It’s better written than the Hunger Games and far more interesting. (my Hunger Games review)

The characters are more interesting and the balance of character development, plot, and fun is perfect.

It reads like fan fiction of Hunger Games written by someone with a better understanding of the human mind and extreme emotions. It also doesn’t base the entire plot on kids killing kids so it isn’t nearly as grotesque and macabre as Hunger Games.

Veronica Roth is witty and wise. She understands teenage cliques and the dichotomous struggle to honor parents while striving for independence and freedom.

She understands the impossible topic of suicide:  

"He throws himself off a ledge and Eric's calling it brave?"
- "What do you want them to do? Condemn him? Al's already dead. He can't hear it and it's too late."
"It's not about Al." I snap. "It's about everyone watching! Everyone who now sees hurling themselves into the chasm as a viable option. I mean, why not do it if everyone calls you a hero afterwards? Why not do it if everyone remembers your name?"

Divergent is an excellent book and well worth reading.  It is a very fast read and though the basis of the book seems at first far-fetched, it makes a great landscape and background for a riveting story.

Insurgent – 6/10.  

     It’s still a very fast read and well-paced novel.  The problem is that the author kind of loses her way.  It’s a little like Hunger Games Book 3 – when an author changes the world in which their story is written, it’s very difficult to know which characters fit where and what they would do in different situations.  To me Ms. Roth knew her characters fairly well, but once the background changed they no longer felt fully authentic and the plot got muddled.  I still read it in less than 5 hours, and I wanted to read book 3, but the fun and the intrigue weren’t as strong.

Allegiant – 2/10.  Yeah, this book has 3 HUGE flaws.

1.      VIEWPOINT.  The first two books are written first person from the female protagonist’s viewpoint.  Veronica Roth writes perfectly from the mind of a teenage girl.  THEN - In the 3^rd book the author changes it up so every other chapter is written from the Male protagonists point of view… and it fails miserably.  At least 7 or 8 times while reading I was confused because the “male” chapter sounded the exact like the “female” chapters.  His voice and thoughts and perceptions were exactly the same as hers.  Roth may develop the skill of writing from a male viewpoint, but she isn’t there yet, and the book suffered terribly because of it.

2.       MORAL.  This book is “the moral of the trilogy.” But instead of letting it play out through the characters and natural plot – the author decides to tell you the moral of the story, over and over and over again.  She slams it down your throat like you’re so dense you didn’t get it the first few hundred times so she must explicitly state it again.  I got so sick of it that by the time she reached the emotional climax of the book and I was supposed to be crying like a baby – I was bored instead.

3.       PLOT.  This book falls victim to the same problem that plagued the 4^th Bourne movie and Hunger Games Book 3 and so many others.  The author had to expand the universe to keep the plot going.  She had to say “but wait, there’s more.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.”  Then she didn’t know what to do with the rest of the iceberg.  The plot pacing is off.  The characters get confusing as she tries to keep old characters, introduce new ones, change their alliances, and change their personalities and character.

She also refers to things characters said once, a thousand pages ago, and she expects the reader to remember what was said, who it was said to, and what emotions everyone was feeling at that time.

 

The series is not worth reading.  I was told that by multiple friends before I started, and they were right.  The first book is great and well worth it.  The second book is only valuable as a bridge to the third, and the third is a train wreck. 

The best thing I can compare this series to is the TV show Heroes. 

With Heroes – Stop after Season 1. 

With Divergent – Stop after Book 1.

World Cup Playoffs Explained for Football Fans

I hear so many confused questions from friends about the world cup:

“Wait the USA lost, yet they’re on to the next round?” or “There was a tie? How does that work?”

For all you football fans, let me explain.

The NFL has 32 teams divided into 8 Divisions

The World Cup has 32 teams divided into 8 Groups.

Every NFL team plays the other 3 teams in their division, and they are ranked in that division.

Every World Cup team plays the other 3 teams in their group, and they are ranked in that group.

The top 1 team from each NFL division advances to the playoffs. (plus Wildcard teams)

The top 2 teams from each World Cup group advance to the playoffs.

Then it’s a single elimination playoff till the championship.

I don’t get why there is so much confusion.  In the NFL, you can lose your last game of the season and still advance to the playoffs.  Kansas City lost their last 2 games of 2013 and still made it – because they did well enough in their division to advance.

The USA just lost their last game of the “group stage” to Germany – but they were still one of the top 2 teams in their group (better than Portugal and Ghana) so they advanced. 

But futbol's system is better than football's.  It doesn’t just matter that you win, it also matters how you win. 

If you and another team have an equal “win-loss” record, then it matters how many goals you won by.  If you got blown out – it’s gonna cost you.  If you won in a landslide, it’s gonna help.

Futbol is awesome because it starts out giving everyone 3 games.  Every team gets a few chances to show what they can do.  They can recover from a mistake; they can still make it to the playoffs. 

THEN it’s Playoff time.  Single Elimination.  No ties allowed.  If you can’t win it in overtime, then it comes down to penalty kicks – 5 per team.

Futbol is beautiful.  Futbol is international.  Futbol’s World Cup group / playoff system is perfect.

The Bias of Assuming Bias

I am white.
I am male. 
I am American.
I am short, bald, Christian, and married with kids.
I also fit under a thousand other labels, which can be interesting and informative, or stereotypical and speculative.

If I support a “women’s cause,” I am told I am open-minded.  If I do not support one I am told it is because I am male, and I am “biased.”
Why couldn’t I be open-minded in both instances?
On the flipside - who’s to say I wasn’t unfairly biased both times?  It’s just that women didn’t mind it the first time because my bias was in their favor.

Because I am white – does that mean I am biased against all other races?  Automatically?

Because I am short, am I biased against those who are tall?  Am I biased against those with hair on their heads? 

Who is more biased: a Christian, a Muslim, or an Atheist? 

The question is idiotic.  It depends on the individual.  I am a Christian, yet I know Muslims who are far better people than some of the Christians I know.
(And by my reading of the Bible, I know some Atheists more likely to go to heaven than some Christians)

Bias and prejudice and misunderstanding are all “no respecter of persons.” 

When we assume bias based on demographics – guess whose really being the biased one?

Women are just as biased as men.  Blacks just as biased as Whites.  Poor are just as biased as Rich.  Married just as biased as Single.

When you tell someone “you’re biased because you’re _____,”  guess whose bias is shining through?

There ARE people who gain more understanding, spend more time in introspection, and work harder to eliminate their biases.  Those people both Republicans and Democrats, both Men and Women.  They are in all groups, all religions, and they are part of every demographic.

We Must Be Willing To Feel Everything

I posted earlier this week about "hate."

No one likes the word "hate" - it has become "the unacceptable emotion."
It is like Voldemort - hate is "he who shall not be named."

Hate is associated with so many horrific things that we can hardly say the word anymore.
 
Yet as long as we fear any emotion or thought, we are prisoners; unable to grow.


In order to have anything in life, we have to be willing to have the opposite.

In order to get married, we must open ourselves to the possibility of divorce.
In order to have faith, we have to be willing to doubt, to question, to learn and grow.
In order to have courage, we must be willing to fear.
In order to love, we must be willing to hate. We have to be willing to care about someone that much. We have to be that invested, that deeply attached.
In order to trust we have to open ourselves up to the possibility of being betrayed, abandoned, let down.

When any emotion or feeling becomes unacceptable, then we lose the correlating emotion. When we are unwilling to to be betrayed, we lose the ability to trust.
If we are unwilling to lose, we are unable to win.
If we are are unwilling to be rejected, we are unable to be accepted.

We must be vulnerable. All emotions must be a possibility. All emotions must be acceptable.
When we accept the fact that we feel and think horrific things, AND we can still act according to our values - then we have happiness.  Then we have self mastery.
We can think and feel anything, be put through any horror or atrocity, and still be ourselves, living our life. When we can become like Viktor Frankl - be stripped of everything, have our jobs and homes and livelihoods taken, have our family killed, and be forced to work in a Nazi concentration camp - and still live our values, still have a life of meaning - then we have success.  Then we have happiness. Then we have a life worth living.
 

Teach Your Children That It's Okay To Hate

I mean that.  Teach them that it is perfectly acceptable and even healthy to feel hatred.

It is a GOOD thing to hate.

Just like it is a GOOD thing to feel sadness, fear, resentment, anger, loneliness, regret, guilt, hate, etc… 

When we teach our children to “hate” these feelings, to fear them and reject them and deny them and suppress them – we are teaching our children a lie.  We are teaching them that they should always be happy, always be pleasant, always like other people, always be pleased with life and its outcomes.

Really?  We should be happy with death, loss, hunger, abuse, disease, failure and rejection?

We shouldn’t hate anything?  Really?

Any Christians out there?

 - Proverbs 6:16 tells us that the Lord hates some things.

 - Revelations 2:6 tells us Jesus hated as well.

Hate and love are the strongest emotions possible.  They are not opposites.  The opposite of love is apathy.  The opposite of hate is also apathy.

Teaching kids to ignore their strongest “negative” emotions also inevitably limits their “positive” emotions.

If you get rid of the strongest hate, you also get rid of the strongest love.   

Why do Christians believe that Christ’s love is the ultimate love?  Why is it perfect?

Because he felt all our pain, all our sufferings, all of our shortcomings, all of our hatred.  He felt all those things - completely understands us, and he has the most perfect love and caring and concern for our eternal well-being.

Hate isn’t bad.  Doing hateful things is bad.  

You may be tempted to say - "but hate can only lead to bad things - love leads to all good things."

Really?  How many terrible things have been done in the name of "love" or in the pursuit of "happiness."

Telling kids not to hate is like telling Elsa in the movie Frozen to “conceal don’t feel.”

Thoughts and emotions are neither good nor bad – they just are.  Thoughts and emotions happen whether we want them to or not.  The question is what we DO with them.  They are all useful and appropriate at times.

Happiness/cheeriness can be a very bad thing.  At a funeral, in the Emergency room, when admitting your child to the psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt - being happy and cheery and full of bubbly hope and peter pan advice like “think a happy thought” - is not "good" in these situations.  It is not appropriate, it is not helpful, it is bad.

Why do you think the happiest people usually seem to be the people who have suffered the most?  Why do the most inspirational people, the ones who really touch us – usually have horrific life histories of pain and suffering and hate.  Those emotions taught them how to feel true love and appreciation and caring.  They learned how to accept the fact that they feel hatred and anger, and how to use that emotion to live a happy life, according to their beliefs and values.

If we teach our children to fear emotion, to fear anger and hatred and deny that those feelings ever existed - we are setting them up to explode.  The hate and anger are there.  Everyone feels them.  We can either admit it and accept it, or conceal it, fear it, and then await the explosion of the ticking time bomb.

Don't teach kids to fear hatred.  Teach them what to do when they feel it; what it means, and why it's good. 

Teach your kids that it's okay to hate - it's the only way they'll ever learn to love.