2014 Off My Bookshelf #7

Allegiant

by Veronica Roth

The conclusion of the Divergent trilogy was heart-achingly perfect for me. I know many teens, especially teen girls dislike it. Could it be an age thing? I not longer need a happy ending. I want a "right" ending, an ending that may make me cry, but leaves me deeply satisfied. I won't spoil the ending for you. But I will say I shed tears while reading this book, good tears, tears that let me know I had gone deep into relationship with the characters and was grateful for their honesty and acts of bravery.


Here are my two favorite quotes:

There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known or everyone you have ever loved for the sake of something greater. But sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it is nothing more than gritting your teeth through the pain and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life.

(How many of us are willing to walk toward that better life? Isn't it sometimes easier to lie down under the pain and work load of every day?)

Since I was young I have always known this, life damages us, everyone. We can't escape that damage. But now I'm also learning this, we can be mended. We mend each other.

(True words: now to allow community to pour salve onto our broken lives.