Book Review: Four by Veronica Roth

Four: A Divergent Story Collection

by Veronica Roth
Published: July 8th 2014
(208 pages)

Two years before Beatrice Prior made her choice, the sixteen-year-old son of Abnegation’s faction leader did the same. Tobias’s transfer to Dauntless is a chance to begin again. Here, he will not be called the name his parents gave him. Here, he will not let fear turn him into a cowering child.
Newly christened “Four,” he discovers during initiation that he will succeed in Dauntless. Initiation is only the beginning, though; Four must claim his place in the Dauntless hierarchy. His decisions will affect future initiates as well as uncover secrets that could threaten his own future—and the future of the entire faction system.
Two years later, Four is poised to take action, but the course is still unclear. The first new initiate who jumps into the net might change all that. With her, the way to righting their world might become clear. With her, it might become possible to be Tobias once again.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth comes a companion volume to the worldwide bestselling DIVERGENT series, told from the per-spective of the immensely popular character Tobias. The four pieces included here—THE TRANSFER, THE INITIATE, THE SON, and THE TRAITOR—plus three additional exclusive scenes, give readers an electrifying glimpse into the history and heart of Tobias, and set the stage for the epic saga of the DIVERGENT trilogy.

I’m surprised how much I liked this book. I was not wild about ALLEGIANT and I didn’t think I would be interested to read more about this series. Honestly, I thought Four was much more interesting to follow than Tris. He’s more conflicted and I liked learning his thoughts and motivations. They weren’t what I thought they would be. Four’s internal voice says “should” a lot and I related to that. Four is more motivated by shame than I realized. I never really related to Tris. Four also feels like an imposter which was fascinating because Tris never sees him that way. My favorite quote from Four was:

Maybe there is a masochistic streak inside me that uses pain to cope with pain.

-Veronica Roth, Four pg 164

Four starts to find himself and realize that there is a third choice that no one has told him about (other than being in a faction or being factionless) and it’s to be true to himself despite the rigid system they live in. That’s probably the most attractive and inspiring thing about him. He’s also kind of snarky which I loved.

Also, the writing is much better than it was in the Divergent series. #justsayin

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I received this book for review from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was not told what to say, I was not paid to write this review and all the opinions expressed are my own.