Top Ten Tuesday | Most Anticipated 2013

Top Ten Most Anticipated Books of 2013

 -- Originally created by The Broke and Bookish

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

This is the third in the Infernal devices series, I am actually yet to read the second one but I will have finished that by the time that the third one is released. Even though I've only read the first one I am absolutely in love with this series and love Cassandra Clares character work with a passion - the way she creates believable witty characters that I actually laugh along with is amazing and I'm highly excited for this one to come out.

Divergent #3 by Veronica Roth

I wasn't too keen on Insurgent as I thought that the character of Tris got unbelievably irritating and I found myself wanting to punch her so many time during the whole thing - her stupidity was actually beyond me. However, the ending of the book, just wow. I have to find out what happens next no matter how awful the character development was - I'm just hoping that Veronica Roth pulls her finger out with the characterisation in this sequel as it has ever so much promise and I'm really looking forward to finding out what happens.

Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Again, like Clockwork Princess, I've only read the first one in the series and plan on reading the second one before this comes out. I absolutely adored Delirium and thought it such an imaginative and unique idea, it could have turned out so boring but Lauren Oliver's writing made it a wonderful story. I thought it would have been good as a stand alone book as it seemed to have the right feel for the end of the book, so we shall see how she carries on with the series.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Oh my goodness, Cinder was one of my favourite books of this year without a shadow of a doubt. The characters, the story, the plot twists, oh so amazing. I found myself thinking this was a novel all in itself and not just a fairytale retelling - it was not what I had expected of it at all. It was a novel all in itself with a hint of the fairytale shining through the surface just there to remind you of it. It was so original and imaginative that I found myself delving into the story and not looking back. This is probably my most anticipated book out of all of them as I'm literally fan girling just thinking about it. I really can't contain myself about this one. It's also released around my birthday so that's an even better treat!

"Insurgent" by Veronica Roth

One choice. A choice becomes a sacrifice. A sacrifice becomes a loss. A loss becomes a burden. A burden becomes a battle. One choice can destroy you...

...And one choice can be the most idiotic choice a character could ever make.

Just a quick note, this may contain spoilers on Divergent depending on how you look at it.

Insurgent is the second in a series of what it seeming to be three books, and following it's predecessor Divergent it had a lot to live up to. I do not believe that Veronica Roth achieved that at all with this sequel to an amazing book.

Roth's sequel carries straight off from where Divergent ends, it could literally be the next page in the book. This is one of the only things I loved about this book, just the fact that it started as action packed as the other ended and it made an exciting start for a new book. There's a war between the factions, sides are being formed, and everything seems to be in pieces. In Insurgent Tris is out to stop all of this happening and finds out along the way it isn't as simple as it first seems and there are some truths that need to be uncovered.

I loved Tris in Divergent, she was strong and brave yet vulnerable and naive at the same time which added to her good qualities as she wasn't perfect or down right dumb like a lot of protagonists I have read about. However, in this book Tris became the biggest idiot I have read about in a long time - now you can't call this character development at all because it was just ridiculous. She was just irresponsible and quite frankly acting her age, making rash decisions and not caring for the consequences. She would on several occasions be told to stop being stupid yet she would carry on doing the most annoying things and putting herself in needless danger thinking it was for the sake of everybody else. No, Tris, you're just a stupid little girl who for one thinks before she acts and two doesn't think at all or at least logically or thoroughly like any sensible person would do in that situation. I could go on but I'll just say that her character thoroughly frustrated me throughout the entire book.

The storyline was very haphazard and I blame this on Tris' character mainly due to her stupid behaviour. It just seemed to chop and change every few pages, stupid situation after stupid situation, each being caused by one of Tris' many bad choices. Obviously there were a few amazing scenes where I was on the edge of my seat and at one point I actually laughed at some of the twists they were that unpredictable, but unfortunately this was a minority of the book and I felt the majority to be very disappointing storyline-wise.

The one thing I loved about this book however, was the fact you see how the other factions live. Even Tris was caught up by the stereotypes of the different units and was surprised when they acted like normal human beings. It was a wonderful insight into the dystopian world which I felt was greatly needed to carry on from the prequel as they weren't examined as deeply in Divergent. The carefree nature yet efficient of the Amity, the sternness of truth yet accepting of Candor and the intelligent and well though through (and not all bad) nature of the Erudite - the Abnegation and dauntless you saw more in Divergent.

The end of the ending was amazing and shocking and left me excited for the third instalment of the series no matter how awful Tris was in this book. I can tell that the third book will answer all of the unanswered in the second book, unless a fourth book is planned of course. I just hope above all hope that Veronica Roth thinks twice about the stupidity of Tris.

All in all I thought this was the biggest disappointment for me of this year and only a few factors bring up my rating and that's the explanations of the factions being one of them. I'd only recommend reading it if you want to read all of the series but as a stand alone book this was awful.

★★