Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Published: 2012, Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins

Series: Divergent, #2

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Fantasy
Source: Library book

Contains spoilers for Divergent

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We both have war inside of us. Sometimes it keeps us alive. Sometimes it threatens to destroy us.

 

Insurgent picks up right where Divergent let off, delving deeper into Tris' journey in her dystopian Chicago world. The second book is just as adrenaline-packed as its predecessor. I do not think that the book suffers from second-book syndrome, but strangely I found myself not as initially enthralled as I was by the first book. I really can't explain why that is, but once I allowed myself to fully reenter Tris' world once more, I was enjoying this story as much as before.

After stopping a disastrous simulation that could have ended one faction's existence, Tris, Tobias, Caleb, Marcus, and Peter are on their way to Amity headquarters for protection. The recent simulation battle is fresh in their minds, as is the knowledge that one faction will continue to fight for a more "democratic" government. Everyone's core values are tested as they prepare for future invasions and as the safety of the Divergent is called into question. And apparently they're a lot more prevalent than everyone was led to believe. As Tris and her friends travel between Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, Erudite, and the factionless compounds, however, they learn that the fragile peace of their world is shattered, and that nowhere (and no one) is truly safe.

This is a war story, plain and simple (even though certain factions and characters may choose to ignore that fact). It's grittier than Divergent by far. In it Roth explores the core values of her characters as they're placed in one unclear situation after another. This reminded me quite a bit of Mockingjay in its evolution, actually. The first time I read Mockingjay, I did not enjoy it. I thought it was too different from The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I was unwilling to really interpret the messages that Collins had about war, sacrifice, and justice. After reading some articles on the story and then rereading it, I found my opinion to be vastly different and I think that it was an appropriate ending to the trilogy. Obviously Insurgent is only the middle book in this series, but here we experience conflict escalating into a full-out war nonetheless. I think the writing style and Tris' narration perfectly mirrored how we as readers were supposed to feel. And, yes, Roth definitely addresses those issues of war, sacrifice, and justice.

I really loved Tris' character development in this book. She's just so damaged. She's not entirely likable and makes many stupid decisions, but the beauty of having the book narrated in first person is that I was actually privy to Tris' thoughts. So I could completely sympathize with all of her struggles and personal demons. I've made it clear that I found the ending of Divergent to be a little ridiculous. People were dying left and right. I understand that it's a battle. I get that. But since the ending of Divergent felt extremely unrealistic to me, I was so grateful to realize that Roth wasn't simply going to pass over all of the greater implications in Insurgent. Tris watched people she loved commit horrible acts of violence and die, and she even killed one of her own friends. Tris is appropriately dealing with all the emotional trauma for the majority of the second book. Maybe this makes Tris a weaker character than the girl we initially came to love in the first book, but her emotional struggles are essential in terms of developing Tris into a believable character.

Tris and Tobias' relationship accordingly takes some hits. While I would argue that their relationship was never quite insta-love, the events of the first book allowed them to be in such close and constant contact that their relationship did develop rather quickly. In the midst of war and so many outer conflicts, Tris and Tobias have individual struggles with their beliefs, which, consequently, cause them to reevaluate their relationship many times. With everything else in turmoil, I would have been extremely disappointed with Roth if Tris and Tobias managed to maintain a solid relationship and have each other's backs throughout the story.

In my review of Divergent, I noted how while I found the factions to be really interesting, I hoped that Roth would really examine the implications and effects of such a system. I needn't have worried about that at all, for Insurgent really does take an in-depth examination about the consequences of people rallying around one particular characteristic. The Divergent, while still regarded by some as a fluke and others as a danger, represent the truest form of humanity. Human emotions and values are far too complex to easily categorize by one core trait, as Tris learns throughout the first and second books. She not only realizes that the Dauntless have helped teach her the meaning of self-sacrifice, while the Abnegation have taught her to be brave, but she appreciates that fact. 

I think perhaps part of my initial feeling of unease about Insurgent came from the knowledge that this really isn't a sequel, any more than the Divergent books are really a trilogy. They tell one storyline, focusing on a brief moment of time in our protagonist Tris' life. Insurgent definitely could not be a standalone novel. I'm completely fine with that (after all, I absolutely adore The Lord of the Rings), but I think it's worth mentioning. By their nature, trilogies should focus on some overarching conflicts and themes, but after reading the first two installments, I don't think individually the novels have quite enough separate conflicts. It's not a bad or good thing – just one way that some people choose to write series.

I recommend Insurgent. It is a worthy continuation of Divergent and I loved how it portrayed emotional trauma and consequences in the aftermath of conflicts, as well as how it explored the limits of personal and societal codes of morality. Before reading this, however, definitely give yourself a refresher on Divergent.

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Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Published: 2011, Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins

Series: Divergent, #1

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Fantasy
Source: Library book

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I feel like someone breathed new air into my lungs. I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless.

I am Divergent. And I can’t be controlled. 

Just when I'm starting to wonder if YA dystopian novels are becoming a bit overdone, I read something like Divergent. Veronica Roth's first novel is creative, fast-paced, and fun and features a strong female heroine and heady romance. I powered through this book in a few days and found myself bemoaning the need to stop in order to fulfill other obligations like work.

Divergent is the story of a dystopian society formed out of the ashes of Chicago. In this particular dystopian society, the people have divided themselves into five factions based on the values they believe will help their society prosper and avoid future conflicts. There is Abnegation for the selfless, Dauntless for the brave, Erudite for the knowledge-seekers, Amity for the peaceful, and Candor for the honest. Although birth determines which faction each child grows up in during his/her childhood, during his/her sixteenth year the city holds aptitude tests and the Choosing Ceremony, where children can decide to either remain in their faction or become part of a new one. Their faction becomes the most important and distinguishing factor of each person, which allowed for the commonly accepted idea of "faction before blood." I thought this was a really interesting premise and hope that Roth continues to examine the impact and implications of the creation of the different factions in the following novels.

Beatrice has grown up in Abnegation, but has never fully felt a part of this society. Being selfless does not come easy to her. After an unexpected result on her aptitude test, Beatrice is even more unsure of how to proceed. Does she engage in the ultimate act of selfishness and leave her family and faction, or does she fake selflessness once again - this time with life-long consequences?

From Beatrice's initial decision to become Tris, a Dauntless, to the training and preparation she must undergo as an initiate, this novel does not slow down. I loved Tris; she's strong and believable and through her training comes across some important truths about bravery and selflessness. And I loved the romantic relationship she forms over the course of the novel. Roth does a very good job of slowly crafting a friendship and then gradually shifting that into something that is so much more.

I loved how many layers Roth had within the novel. And yet at its heart it is still basically a coming-of-age story. Tris' society is unlike our own, yet she still struggles to find her place in it and figure out her own personal beliefs. The story is about Tris finding out herself, but along the way we as readers get to see a completely new type of society, young love, and the stirrings of a rebellion against a repressive regime. I think there's a little bit of something for everyone within this novel, which made it that much more interesting to read.

There are a few issues that I had with the novel. Some of the character development seemed a little flat. I find it hard to believe that youths who spend their lives immersed completely in one culture are suddenly able to overcome all their life experiences thus far to fit the mold of a new culture. This is especially true in Tris' case. I know Roth tries to explain how Tris never really fit in with the Abnegation mindset, but even so I don't think the emotional toll she'd have by going through a complete culture shock was really there. Same with the other transfer teens.

In general I also feel like the supporting characters could have been more developed. Tris and Four are the only ones I could really connect with on an emotional level. In comparison, Tris' friends seemed rather flat and one-dimensional, as did the villains. And I really, really wish we either had more time to read about Tris with her family, or else Roth utilized flashbacks to better explain Tris' family dynamics. Near the ending of the novel, I feel as though I was not given enough to care about her family relationships in the way that Roth expected me to feel.

I also wish that there had been some back-story of the society. Readers know the location and the main factions created out of the ideals of the people, but we are given no explanation of what happened to cause the creation of the dystopian society. Roth alludes to wars, but there needed to be something more there for me to understand how the descendents of the survivors could completely polarize themselves based on what moral values they think will save their new society.

Despite my desire for a few things to be more fully examined within the novel, I really enjoyed reading this book and I can't wait to get my hands on its sequel. 

A note: I read this book back in April of this year, but I wanted to include a review of the first book in the series on my blog before I reviewed Insurgent.

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Review: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Published: 2011, Random House

Series: Beka Cooper, #3

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Source: Library book

Contains spoilers for Terrier and Bloodhound

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“I hate the waste of it, the waste of life that criminals leave behind…Each of us has power, a kind of magic,” he told me, speaking as if I were a scholar like him. “We spend it somehow as we live, in great and lesser ways. Those three never even had a chance to use theirs.”…

…I said nothing, I was thinking about his words. They made sense. That was one of my reasons for doing what I did. I want more folk to make sommat of their lives, instead of losing them to slavery or prison or murder. But I’d never thought of it this way, that we each had a fire of some kind. We could each make a difference.

My thoughts on the final installment in Tamora Pierce’s Beka Cooper trilogy are not easily definable. In some ways I really enjoyed the story, while in others it provided a less-than-satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.

Once again there’s a large time gap between the previous book, Bloodhound, and this one. Roughly two years and nine months have elapsed since we last saw Beka and Goodwin stop the colemongering in Port Caynn. A lot has happened in Beka’s life since then – and I mean a lot. She’s now a fourth-year Dog and has an established position in the Evening Watch with her partner, Matthias Tunstall. She also was engaged to another Dog, Holborn, who is now deceased.

Mastiff begins with Holborn’s funeral and Beka’s internal guilt that she was no longer in love with Holborn and was actually about to break off their engagement. The night after the funeral, she and Tunstall, along with her scent hound Achoo, magical cat Pounce, Lady Knight Sabine of Macayhill, and mage Farmer Cape, are summoned on a secret mission by the Lord Provost. Tortall’s young prince has been kidnapped, and the Lord Provost wants the best scent hound team to track him down before the realm dissolves into chaos.

Since this is the third book in the trilogy, the stakes are at their highest. I loved how Pierce uses this novel to question two main aspects of Tortall that many of its inhabitants have taken for granted: the morality of the slave trade and the consequences of changing a society run by the privileged. Those are important questions in any age in any world.

I think one of the reasons that I have enjoyed the Beka Cooper trilogy is that it seems to be written for an older audience. It still contains many young adult elements, such as a young protagonist who is trying to establish her place in the world. But this is also far darker than Pierce’s other Tortall books. Although I like young adult books, sometimes it’s nice to read about a protagonist closer to my age, one who seems to be a little more established in the world  (at this point) and who is not constantly fixated on a love interest.

In Mastiff, Beka acts like and is viewed as an adult. She has strong beliefs which are not easily dissuaded. She’s dealt with her fair share of crimes, murders, and other tragedies, but that hasn’t caused her to lose sense of herself or her duties. Although Pounce accompanies Beka on this journey, I had full faith that Beka would be able to put together clues and retrieve the prince even without her constellation friend’s help. At times Beka comes across as apathetic or cold, but she is dealing with emotional trauma. If nothing else, Beka is efficient and good at what she does.

One aspect that was frustrating for me as a reader was how, because each of the books tackles a problem in a different area, there is no constant cast of characters in the series. Although I’m sure I would be bored reading only about Beka tackling criminals in Corus’ Lower City, I wish that I could have seen Beka establishing true relationships with other characters. Goodwin and Tunstall are Beka’s mentors in Terrier, but then Bloodhound focuses on Beka and Goodwin, excluding Tunstall, while Mastiff focuses on Beka and Tunstall and excludes Goodwin.

I liked the addition of Sabine and Farmer to the mix, but they are both new characters so once again Beka must learn to start forming relationships with others. I felt as though by not giving Beka enough characters with whom to establish a long-lasting relationship that I could experience through the books, Pierce reinforces Beka’s status as a loner. That’s not a bad thing, but I just wanted to see Beka grow and learn through solid relationships, platonic and romantic.

I really liked how Terrier seemed to set up a potential conflict of morality for Beka as she shared an apartment and became friends with members of the Court of the Rogue, specifically Rosto, Kora, and Aniki. I assumed I’d read about a good friendship, perhaps one that is always teetering on the edge, based on their different allegiances, but certainly an interesting one. I guess Beka’s friendship does continue with them all, but unfortunately I am not exposed to any development in friendships in the second and third books.

I had some problems on subject of romantic relationships. Through very brief periods of guilt over her inability to mourn her fiancé Holborn, Beka reveals that he was verbally abusive. While others might disbelieve that Beka would allow herself to be in any abusive relationship, that’s not what bothered me. I wanted Beka to experience some emotions over the course of the book. She’s obviously damaged. There’s a little guilt mentioned, but I wanted more. I was not able to connect with Beka enough on this, and I just don’t believe she’d get over the trauma of her relationship and Holborn’s death so easily, even if she is on a Hunt. And then the new relationship that Beka forms is very much an insta-love relationship. There’s not enough buildup. As others have said, in the real world this would totally be considered a rebound. After months of working up her courage to end an abusive relationship, Beka’s obligations are freed through death. I get that she stopped loving Holborn. Really, I do. But I don’t get how quickly things escalate, nor the relationship decisions she makes by the end. It seems unrealistic of the Beka I’ve come to know.

The twist in the end took me totally by surprise, and not in a good way. In my review of Terrier, I mentioned that I did figure out the twist before it was revealed. Given my choice, I’d rather have my books be that way, especially because I don’t believe that Pierce gave any indication of this potential path. Mastiff’s twist caused me reevaluate everything I knew about the characters. What happened was simply not believable. It seemed to be done more for convenience’s sake than anything else, which is a bit of a disappointment.

It may sound as though my criticisms of the book are more numerous than the praises. I did enjoy the book. It’s well-written, tackles some very important issues, has a strong female protagonist, and a very interesting plot. I guess all of my main problems with the book have to do with character development. I feel as though this book is much more focused on the plot than the characters. I did, however, appreciate how everything started to fit together and I could imagine the foundations for the Tortall of Alanna, Daine, Kel, and Aly being set. In my opinion this trilogy is even with the Aly series (Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen): I enjoyed it, but it’s not as good as Pierce’s other series.  

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Review: Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce

Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce

Published: 2009, Random House

Series: Beka Cooper, #2

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Source: Library book

Contains spoilers for Terrier

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Sir Lionel shook his head. “I have no problems in working with Corus, Corporal Goodwin. My problem lies in first, the fact that we have a peace here, and I fear that you will break it, and second, in the fact that both of you are women. I would be far happier if my lord Gershom had sent men. I feel, along with others, that women’s souls are more tender, more vulnerable.”

Unlike all of Tamora Pierce's other Tortall books, Bloodhound does not pick up almost exactly where its predecessor, Terrier, left off. Nearly a year and a half has passed since Puppy Beka managed to solve the dual murder mysteries connected to the fire opals and to the Shadow Snake. She's grown a lot since then and has been an official Dog for the past year. While she may have the label of a Dog, however, she's still a junior member of the organization and has a lot to prove.

After her fourth partner asks to be reassigned, Beka once again joins ranks with Goodwin and Tunstall, her former mentor Dog team, as a new problem is slowly building in Tortall. Someone is mass-producing coles (silver-plated copper coins that are being exchanged as actual silver coins). Winter is coming, the harvest was not nearly as good as expected, and people are beginning to whisper about the circulation of fake coins. Beka, Goodwin, and Tunstall soon find that the trail of coles leads to the city of Port Caynn. Lord Gershom, the Lord Provost of Tortall, wants some of his Dogs up there to investigate. With Tunstall injured from a bread riot (an eerie foreboding of the chaos the realm will undergo if the cole problem remains), Goodwin and Beka are assigned to this duty. Although Pounce opts out of coming with them, Beka is not without help. Her pigeon friend Slapper comes along, as does her new hound, Achoo, one of the Dogs' bloodhounds whom she saved from a cruel trainer. Under the guise of a necessary break from the dangers of the Lower City, Beka and Goodwin hope to find the source of the money forgery quickly, before the economic situation in Tortall spirals out of control.

This book's publication was not as speedy as most of Pierce's work. I know that a lot of people complained about the fact that there were three whole years between Terrier and Bloodhound. Curious as to what would have slowed Pierce down on this book, I read her explanation for the delay in the back of Bloodhound. Apparently she was worried that her readers wouldn't find money forgery that interesting of a premise and so that worry delayed her quite a bit. That was not the case for me; I loved this book! I think I actually enjoyed it even better than Terrier, if truth be told. Yes, it was long and complex and there was lots of information to process and not as much action, but I think this was essential to breathing new life into the Beka Cooper trilogy.  

Beka solved two major crimes within her first few weeks of training as a Puppy. I would expect that the next book worth writing about Beka would feature something different and even more complicated. I liked that the vast majority of the story takes place in a new city. Although Beka's relatively new to being an official part of the Provost's Guard, she still has served the organization in some capacity or another for over half of her life. She is very familiar with the Lower City and understands how it and its people tick. Beka proved her ability to work in the Lower City in the first book (and presumably in the year and a half gap in between the first and second books). Now she is challenged to apply her training and skills to another city, a place where nothing is familiar.

I loved the setting of Port Caynn. Beka is out of her element in practically every way possible, pretending to be a spoiled favorite Dog of the Lord Provost who needs to spend some time away from a few dangers in Corus. She doesn't understand the people in Port Caynn, nor does she feel comfortable going out to bars and gambling the Provost's money to try to find a lead to the fake money production. Beka is definitely a prickly character, but I emphasized with her as she was forced into this uncomfortable situation.

I was also glad to see that Beka finds herself a love interest in Dale. I was glad that the first book focused on Beka and her development. Now that she's a little older and a little more confident in her abilities, it was nice to read about her reaching out and forming a romantic/emotional relationship with another person.

The time span for this book is super short (about three weeks). I'd say this was my main issue with the book. It seems like there is simply too much that happens for the events to have occurred in such a short time period. And I also doubt Beka's writing abilities in such a time. I know that some days she'll say she was writing the events of the day before. But seriously, her days are so jam-packed I don't see when she'd have the time to write up her events. Unless she just doesn't sleep. I am happy that I have not become tired of the journal format and how the story is told in first-person.

This book took me longer to read than usual. This is not because I didn't enjoy it – although with a plot more focused on subtleties and intricacies like this one, there are definitely slower points. I think this is a strong second novel in the series, although I have to admit that between the first and second books, I have absolutely no idea where Pierce will take Beka's story in the third and final installment of the trilogy, Mastiff.

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Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the bloggers of The Broke and the Bookish. This week everyone is supposed to post the top ten books on his/her summer TBR list. 

Summer's usually my time for light reading. In between reading lots of academic and more critical books for school and then writing papers about them, I savored having more fun reads in the summer, where I could focus on characterization, plot development, and writing styles as little or as much as I wanted. Now that I'm not in school right now, I can read my "summer reads" type books all the time. So my top ten books on my summer TBR list don't necessarily have anything to do with the summer and everything to do with what I need to read within the next few months. And unfortunately I live over 1000 miles from any beach, so these books below will probably be read in my air-conditioned house. I want a mostly fantasy-driven summer, so here are my top ten picks for my summer TBR list.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – I bought this for my Kindle, so it will be read in the very near future. I am super excited about this one, particularly because YA high fantasies do not seem to be in high demand lately. And this has gotten rave reviews by just about everyone. Fantasy is my favorite genre, and high fantasy is my favorite subdivision of that. If anyone has recommendations for great YA or adult high fantasies, please let me know! 

Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore – Since there are three books in this series, this counts as three of my books. I read Graceling a few years ago and I enjoyed it very much. I remember a great story with a strong female protagonist and very detailed world-building. I am such a sucker for a strong female protagonist – it's a bit ridiculous, really – and Katsa doesn't disappoint in the slightest. I loved the idea of certain people being gifted with "Graces." I started to read Fire last summer, but realized I didn't remember Graceling enough so continuing with Fire would have become very difficult. Now that Bitterblue has just been released, I think it's high time to reread Graceling so that I can move on to the next books in the series.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I was not the biggest fan of An Abundance of Katherines, but John Green receives so much praise for his books that I feel obligated to try out something else of his before I make any lasting opinions on his work as a YA author. I'm fully prepared for the range of emotions I'll go through as I read this book. This can be my one true contemporary read of the summer.

The Stand by Stephen King – Reading this book is going to be a task in itself, I just know it. The unabridged version of the book is over 1000 pages. But I have yet to read any Stephen King, so I need to remedy that problem. My good friend is a huge Stephen King fan but has not read this book of his either. This is apparently one of his classics, and one of the books that helped to establish him as a great force in the horror/science fiction genres. We're going to read the book at the same time, so hopefully through discussions and moral support this won't be too difficult to read through.

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta – Since the beginning of the year, Melina Marchetta has become one of my favorite YA authors. I adored both Finnikin of the Rock and Jellicoe Road. While I'm a little more hesitant to read Froi of the Exiles, knowing that Froi is the protagonist now, I'm more than willing to give it a try. After all, Marchetta has taken many unusual twists in her writing and they've all ended up being executed perfectly. 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – The premise behind this book sounds really interesting, and I love the fact that it seems to transcend the YA and adult audience boundaries. Plus this just won the 2012 Locus Award for Best First Novel. And apparently it's just come out in paperback, so I may even go and purchase a physical copy of it.

 

Insurgent by Veronica Roth – My biggest regret with Divergent was that I read it during the week. Being unable to read until the wee hours of the morning and having to go to work in the mornings was super frustrating. I just wanted to stay home and do nothing but read the book. For Insurgent I plan on reading it over the course of a weekend this summer. That's if all the people on the library waitlist can hurry up with their copies.

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers – I have not read a zombie book yet. Not only has this book been receiving great reviews, but I love how it uses the premise of a zombie invasion to really examine six high school students and their interactions in the midst of a terrible situation. I don't think I'd mind a contemporary book masquerading as a horror/sci fi book at all; I love intense focus on characterization in books, which is what this promises to be.

I'll see how many of these books I actually end up reading this summer (hopefully most – if not all – of them!). What's on your summer TBR list?

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TGIF (1)

TGIF is a weekly meme hosted by Ginger of GReads! She posts a book-related question or a prompt that's open to everyone in the book blogging community.

Most Valuable Book: 
From your personal collection of books, which ones hold the most value to you - is it signed by the author? or maybe it's your favorite story of all time? Share it with us.

All of my stories are valuable to me, simply because I value each and every book. I chose the three books listed below because they hold a sentimental value to me, both for the story inside of the covers and the one outside of them.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

The actual act of buying this book holds so much significance to me. The final Harry Potter book came out the summer after I graduated high school. Words can't even express how amazing it was to grow up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. That was also the summer that my family moved 1000 miles away from the town I'd grown up in. I was about to start college in the fall, as were all of my friends. Any way you look at it, the summer of 2007 was a transitionary time for me. So it was beyond perfect that I came back to visit my hometown and high school friends at the end of that July to participate together in the final hours-long wait for the final book's release. We brought food, made a Harry Potter-inspired CD, a mattress to sit on, and just read aloud and talked about our love of the books. It was just perfect, and the copy I bought from my hometown's local bookstore will always remind me of that.

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Be warned: this book will show up on literally every meme I participate in until more people start reading it. When I was younger, my mom and I created a mother-daughter book club for some of my friends and their moms. It lasted a number of years, and this is my favorite book that we read for it. I remember picking it out as a potential read from a Chinaberry magazine (anyone remember those?). The book starts out as a more typical YA fantasy read, and then Megan Whalen Turner starts throwing in all of these plot twists from left field and they're brilliant and the book goes from enjoyable to something incredibly clever. All of my friends and their moms were in agreement that this book was amazing. And what was even more amazing was finding out with my friends a few years later that this was not a stand-alone. This is one series I want to continue forever.

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

My signed copy of this book brings together so many of my interests at once. Julia Alvarez came to my school as part of April's National Poetry Month and my entire creative writing class went to the presentation together. It was amazing to hear her present. And it was also great timing - one of my good friends is Dominican-American and kept telling me that as an English and Spanish double major with an interest in writing and historical fiction, I really should check out this Dominican-American writer's work, specifically In the Time of the Butterflies. Alvarez was very gracious and I even got to speak to her for a minute. This is a great work of historical fiction that deals with a cruel dictatorship and four sisters willing to oppose it in a country we normally don't hear too much about: the Dominican Republic.

So these are three of my most valuable books. Let me know what some of your most valuable books are!

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Review: Terrier by Tamora Pierce

Terrier by Tamora Pierce

Published: 2006, Random House

Series: Beka Cooper, #1

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Source: Library book

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I well knew the rules to follow with our training Dogs: Speak when you're spoken to. Keep out of the way. Obey all orders. Get killed on your own time.

Tamora Pierce is one of my favorite YA fantasy writers of all time. We have a long history – I remember buying the second book in The Immortals quartet, Wolf Speaker, back at a middle school book fair. I was introduced to Pierce's Tortall through Daine's quartet, and then went on to read The Song of the Lioness quartet, the Protector of the Small quartet, and Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen. I have read each of Pierce's series multiple times. Through her Tortall books, Pierce has established such an intricate and intriguing world and many strong female heroines. So I don't know what happened to me with the Beka Cooper trilogy. I think I waited so long to pick these up because they were published as I moved and entered college. During college I did not read much outside of class, and what I did read tended to be more adult fiction. But I love YA fiction, too, so I've been working to catch up on some fantastic series I've missed, including the Beka Cooper trilogy.

Terrier introduces a new Tortallan heroine: Beka Cooper. Beka lives in Tortall's Lower City and writes about her life as a Dog in the Provost's Guard, rounding up criminals and protecting the inhabitants. Beka has a strong sense of duty and is protective of the city she calls home, so when she begins her year of training to become a Dog (trainees are referred to as Puppies), Beka chooses to work the most dangerous part of the Lower City, the place she once called home. As with other Pierce heroines, there's far more to Beka than meets the eye. She can hear the dead spirits that ride alongside pigeon carriers. She can communicate with swirling bits of wind, gathering up what information they have to offer. She also has a black-furred, purple-eyed cat who is more than he appears(!). Paired with the Lower City's best team of Dogs, Beka is ready to capture every criminal who threatens the peace of her beloved city.

The Beka Cooper trilogy takes readers back to Tortall, but this time hundreds of years earlier than the age of Alanna, Daine, Kel, and Aly. I'm not going to lie – when I started reading Terrier I was a little nostalgic for fifth-century H.E. Tortall. I loved how Pierce's other Tortall series built upon one another, and how the main characters from previous books made appearances in the newer series. I also really liked the focus on the nobility and knights in the other Tortall books, but it was a rather limited view of the world of Tortall. Once I got over the disappointment that Beka's Tortall is two hundred years earlier and lower class, I realized the many perks and added information that Terrier brings to the Tortall world, things I wasn't even aware I wanted to know, like the history of the Court of the Rogue and another appearance of a certain purple-eyed cat.

All of Pierce's novels deal with acceptance and maturation, with her heroines starting out in a new place and needing to prove their worth, and this one is no different. Beka has heard all the stories about the fame (and infamy) of Goodwin and Tunstall, the two Dogs assigned as her mentors. After a humiliating first day, Beka strives harder than ever to prove herself. Her determination and strong sense of justice allow Beka to find unconventional ways to solve crimes and help the people. While this is a coming-of-age story as much as any of Pierce's other novels are, Terrier is also a crime/mystery story. I don't think I've ever willingly chosen to read a story like this, but I did enjoy reading about Beka trying to find ways to solve these mysteries. I did figure out the identity of the main killer quite a while before the big reveal, but I'm not sure if this has to do with me being a few years older than the intended audience or if the clues are too obvious.

Beka is a great, believable character. I didn't love her, per se – but I am incredibly biased in my opinion here since she has fierce Tortallan heroine competition – but I really respected her character. I feel like I really understood her motivations and I loved her strengths as well as her weaknesses. She's super conscientious about her role and duties as a Puppy and must balance what's expected of her and what extra assets she can bring to her Dogs and to the Provost's Guard in general.  She also is painfully shy and uncomfortable with human interactions. It was so nice to see how her training as a Puppy assisted in her evolution into a stronger, more confident person. She takes her duty so seriously and she's definitely the kind of person I'd want protecting me. I loved her nickname Terrier and found it to be super fitting.

This book represents a break from Pierce's traditional mode of storytelling. All of her other Tortall books are told in third person, and this is told through Beka's diary entries. Diary entries have the potential to be really annoying; I tend to ignore dates and all other heading information when reading epistolary novels (which I know isn't good, but I just want to read the story without any interruptions). But Beka's diary entries are not bad at all – they're long and broken up just like chapters. After the first few chapters, the story is fast-paced, and it only takes place over the course of a month and a half. The epistolary format allows the text to be riddled with the idioms and different speech patterns of people from the Lower City, but fortunately Pierce always includes appendices full of glossaries and other reference materials. It was nice to get Beka's internal thoughts on events, especially since she doesn't express them to others. In this case, I think the writing style worked and made sense.

I really enjoyed getting back into the Tortall world, even with quite a few differences between this and the other Tortall books. I have Bloodhound ready to go and can't wait to see what happens to Beka next!

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