Review--Four by Veronica Roth

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 have finally, finally read Veronica Roth’s Four! I was a huge fan of the Divergent trilogy, possibly one of the few after how it ended. I never had issues with that. Though I did always enjoy Four’s character and having a set of novellas dedicated to telling his story of before he met Tris was something I definitely wanted to read! I will divide this up into mini reviews as I always do for novella/short story collections!

The Transfer

I did read this one some years ago when these novellas were initially going to be released one at a time. Then they were all compiled into what we know as Four today, or however long ago it was when it released! Lol! The Transfer is basically Four’s Choosing Day ceremony and how he came to choose Dauntless.

Once again, I forgot what a cruel father he had, the leader of Abnegation no less. Tobias Eaton, as he’s known then, was ready to make a new life for himself since he could freely choose to escape his father and he decides that Dauntless is the best course for him. His journey was much like Tris’ was and it was interesting to see things from his point of view.

Rating 4.5/5 stars


The Initiate

This story goes into Four’s initiation trials in order to become a full member of the Dauntless faction. He throws himself into his training and trying to overcome his fears, when his sort of mentor, Amar brings him out for a game of Dare with some of the other Dauntless members. It’s a night he’ll always remember; he also gets his first tattoo as his dare.

We get our first look at Jeanine Matthews in this one when she’s called in to look at a possible problem with the test simulator. It seems there’s something peculiar with Four’s test results. Though, Amar helps him out of what could be a sticky situation.

There was a good deal of suspense in this one, even though it’s so short. Some shocking reveals too. By the end, we know where Four stands in his new faction.

Rating 4/5 stars


The Son

In this story, Four learns the truth about his mother. Since it’s been ages since I read the books, I was finding it hard to remember what Four actually knew and what Four/Theo knew from the movies (first and second, because yeah, that third one…). Four’s next challenge comes with his placement in the Dauntless society. The leader Max thinks he has potential to be another leader as well and wants to put him through the training process, along with Eric, much to Four’s dismay.

Four starts to learn a thing or two about what’s really going with the Dauntless faction and their ties to Erudite. He’s starting to make a stand for himself and while he doesn’t know what may come, he knows which side he’ll want to be on.

This story was a little less adventurous for me. While it was still enjoyable, I felt like it was just a little too slow and in the end, what did we really learn? But it still provided a good deal of information and made for an interesting story, if not entirely lovable.

Rating 3.5/5 stars


The Traitor

We now are at the point where Divergent takes place. Tris has chosen Dauntless as the faction she wishes to live and grow in. Though things have changed greatly in the two years that Four was an initiate. Now the initiates have to fight for their right to be considered Dauntless, as it was Eric’s bright idea to do this and he was able to convince the leader, Max to go along with it.

Four has been keeping a quiet eye on things, he’s since learned a few things are happening within the factions. Something is going to happen, and when he learns that it’s an attack planned on Abnegation, he’s not sure who to tell. Everyone seems to be keen with how things are running within the factions.

But he also notices that there’s something different about his initiate, Tris. They spend quite a bit of time together. It was nice seeing things from Four’s point of view. Though it has been years since I read Divergent, I can’t recall what I felt when reading it all from Tris’ point of view.

This was a rather interesting story. It’s definitely longer than the others too and helps us see what was going on with Four while we were busy with Tris in moments in Divergent. It ends on a high note, or rather some very intense conversations that will soon lead to action!

Rating 5/5 stars
 

There is also the added bonus of reading a few more scenes from Divergent from Four’s point of view. There’s the time when Tris was the first to make the jump, when she was having her first meal with the other initiates, and then when a drunken Four comments on her tattoo—to sum up briefly. Naturally, I don’t really remember these moments from the book and my brain might be meshing the movie in with some of the moments, but I felt like the first movie didn’t do too terrible with its depiction. Like with any of the novellas, it was fun to be in Four’s head. Moreso with these I guess because he was interacting with Tris in all these moments. Just some fun little bonus scenes to read!

Overall I’ll say that this was fun series of novellas! Since the majority of the trilogy was from Tris’ point of view, I liked having this extra bit with Four being the storyteller. It was fun and definitely something I’d recommend if you were a fan of Divergent! Note that these novellas took place before the first book, with the fourth one being during Divergent. There’s nothing in them that regards Insurgent or Allegiant, so even if you didn’t like how things turned out in the end and still enjoyed the first book, you will definitely enjoy this one too!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars