Author: Veronica Roth
Ages: 13+
Rating: 8/10
Number of Pages: 285
Plot: Two years before Tris Prior made
her choice to leave her faction and join another, Tobias Eaton too makes the
decision to leave his faction and start a new life. In these four short stories
from Veronica Roth the reader gets an insight into how Tobias became known as
‘Four’ and how his life in Dauntless started. In these stories, ‘The Transfer’,
‘The Initiative’, ‘The Son’ and ‘The Traitor’, we follow Four as he claims his
place in the Dauntless hierarchy and discovers secrets that could jeopardise
his future and the future of the whole faction system. The first three stories
follow Four as he adjusts to Dauntless life, making friends and enemies along
the way. The final story, set two years later, follows Four, now an instructor,
still trying to figure out the secrets of his faction, when he meets an
unexpected hero, who will change the future of the faction system forever.
Review: As a massive fan of the Divergent
series, when I discovered this little miracle I was beside myself. As most of
you are probably aware, if you have read my reviews before, I am reluctant to
give books a 10/10, but last April I was so excited by the series and so in
love with the characters that I had to give ‘Divergent’ exactly that. My
favourite character in the whole series was of course Four so when I discovered
that after the disappointing ending of the final book in the series I was going
to get more stories about my favourite character I was very excited. There are
four individual short stories within the book, each focusing on different times
in Four’s life.
“One
thing I know: For helping me forget how awful the world is, I prefer her to
alcohol.” - Four
The
first, second and third story occur two years before Tris made her decision to
leave Abnegation. In these stories, I felt that we learnt more about the
sensitive side of Four, rather than the tough image we get in ‘Divergent’. I
especially liked the first short story, ‘The Transfer’, as Roth showed the true
extent of how his father’s actions affected him. In the first story we are also
introduced to a range of new characters, and some familiar ones, that reveal
more about Four and also made me love these characters even more. My favourites
were Zeke and Shauna. Although we don’t see much of them, or are told how
significant they are in Four’s life, in the ‘Divergent’ trilogy, these short
stories really show how much characters like Zeke and Shauna care for Four and
vice versa. I especially loved the relationship that Roth created between Four
and Zeke, there were parts in these short stories, mainly seen in the control
room, where we got a real insight into how important Zeke is to Four.
Another
amazing thing about this collection of short stories is that Roth has also
included three exclusive scenes that occur in ‘Divergent’ but are from Four’s
perspective. These scenes reveal so much more about what Four was truly
thinking when he met Tris, something that we don’t really get in ‘Divergent’.
The stories and the added exclusive scenes were presented wonderfully and made
me love Four even more. However, although I feel that a whole book from the
perspective of Four would have killed the appeal of the franchise, it would
have been nice to read about what happened to Four after the shocking events in
the final book, ‘Allegiant’. Roth has managed to successfully remind the fans
of the ‘Divergent’ series that Four is an amazing literary character who is not
just tough but has a heart-breaking back story. Although I loved reading this
and being taken back to the ‘Divergent’ world, I could not give these stories a
rating as high as my previous review on ‘Divergent’ as I am still recovering
from the ending of the series and I feel that there could have been more
stories from my favourite character, Four.
