#DivergentNation: Team Amity, Unite!

Unless you have been living under a blogging rock (e.g. me), you have probably been encountering posts regarding Veronica Roth's upcoming novel, Insurgent, the sequel to last year's totally cool Divergent, and about the faction teams that are planning some fabulous events, giving away jaw-droppingly wonderful prizes, and are just all-around promoting some great bookish online community. A little late to the game, I declare myself to be a proud member of #TeamAmity (what?! they're a bit too nice for my taste, but, d'aww, the bloggers are so cool) and will now show you why you, too, should join #TeamAmity.

The #TeamAmity Group Giveaway

The first thing #TeamAmity decided on when we got together was that we wanted to come up with a way to thank all of you for your support. We pooled our resources and assembled the #TeamAmity Group Giveaway. We hope that you’re as excited about it as we are.

The giveaway starts Monday, April 9th at 12:01 EST and ends Monday, April 30th at 12:01 EST.

There will be a total of 15 winners. Here are the prize packages you could win :

• Prize #1: Kindle Touch, 1 Kindle Copy of Divergent, and 1 Kindle Copy of Insurgent (US Only)
• Prize #2: Kindle Touch, 1 Kindle Copy of Divergent, and 1 Kindle Copy of Insurgent (US Only)
• Prize #3: 1 Copy of Insurgent for NOOK, 1 Divergent Bookmark, 1 Insurgent Bookmark, 1 Amity Bookmark made by Designs by Leesa (US Only)
• Prize #4: Grab Bag of 10 YA ARCS (US Only)
• Prize #5: 1 Pre-Order of Insurgent and 1 Copy of Divergent (US and INT)
• Prize #6: 1 Pre-Order of Insurgent (US and INT)
• Prize #7: 1 Pre-Order of Insurgent (US and INT)
• Prize #8: 1 Pre-Order of Insurgent (US and INT)
• Prize #9: 1 Pre-Order of Insurgent (US and INT)
• Prize #10: 1 Pre-Order of Insurgent (US and INT)
• Prize #11: 1 Pre-Order of Insurgent (US and INT)
• Prize #12: Amity Necklace* made by The Green Forrest, 1 Insurgent Bookmark, 1 Divergent Bookmark, and 1 Amity Bookmark made by Designs by Leesa (US Only)
• Prize #13: Custom Made Divergent/Insurgent Clipboard and Bracelet designed by Kassiah (US Only)
• Prize #14: Book Lovers Prize Pack #1- Includes a Canvas Barnes and Noble bag, a book light and a bookmark (US Only)
• Prize #15: Book Lovers Prize Pack #2- Includes A Canvas Barnes and Noble bag, a book light and a bookmark (US Only)

So there it is, the #TeamAmity Group Giveaway. Thank you again for supporting us and #DivergentNation! Fill out the form below and keep those fingers crossed.

Want more entries? Members of #TeamAmity receive 5 bonus entries. If you haven’t joined us yet, fill out the form by clicking here. If you’re already a member, post about joining #TeamAmity on your blog and you’ll receive an additional 5 entries.

The #TeamAmity Group Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway was put together by the following #TeamAmity blogs:

A Life Bound By Books

All Things Urban Fantasy

Better Read Than Dead

Divergent Lexicon

Emily's Reading Room

Forever Young Adult

Hippies, Beauty, and Books Oh, My!

I Swim For Oceans

...

Special thanks to the following prize providers:

Sign up for #TeamAmity using the form here!

For joining #TeamAmity, you will receive:

• A "Four Thinks I'm Beautiful" bookmark
• A welcome email from our marvelous organizer
• The Team Amity "Four Thinks I'm Beautiful" graphics to post on your sites, twitter, etc.
• 5 extra entries in the Team Amity Group Giveaway
• Other bonuses throughout the month

After you've joined #TeamAmity, post the graphic you will receive via email to your blog and/or as your twitter avi, and help us tweet/pimp this link: https://bitly.com/amityfaction. If you make a blog post about joining Team Amity, you will receive extra entries into the Team Amity Group Giveaway!

Join the #TeamAmity Facebook page!

Check out the giveaways hosted by #TeamAmity members:

• http://www.angelsdemonsandvampires.com/2012/04/giveaway-and-special-event-insurgent.html
• http://www.hippiesbeautyandbooksohmy.com/2012/03/team-amity-news-insurgent-by-veronica.html
• http://www.iswimforoceans.com/2012/04/insurgent-by-veronica-roth-arc-giveaway.html
• http://www.squeakybooks.com/2012/04/choose-amity-win-insurgent_03.html

I will be putting up weekly posts summarizing #TeamAmity activity and mentioning more giveaways open to you. May the best faction win!

http://bit.ly/choose_amity || https://bitly.com/amityfaction

Waiting on Wednesday (116)

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life.... [summary from Goodreads]

Maria Snyder is an incredible storyteller, and I LOVE the premise of Touch of Power! This is the kind of stuff that runs through my head all too often, haha. A new book by Maria is always welcome. I also know that you can check out the first chapter of Touch of Power floating somewhere around teh internetz, but, uh, I have zero brainpower right now and can't recall where.

Touch of Power will be published by MIRA on December 20, 2011.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so. [summary from Goodreads]

What YA dystopian fan isn't dying for this book? I thought that Veronica's first book, and the first book in this series, Divergent, was one of the strongest dystopian books published this year, and I can't wait to get lost in Tris' absorbing narration again.

Insurgent will be published in hardcover by HarperCollins on May 28, 2012.

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Tags: YA, dystopian, Chicago

Summary

In a future dystopian Chicago, Tris’ society is divided up into five factions: Abnegation (selflessness, and where Tris grew up), Candor (honesty), Erudite (wisdom), Amity (friendliness), and Dauntless (courage). All people in her society must choose which faction they wish to join at the age of 16, and Tris makes a choice that startles everyone, including herself, when she decides to join Dauntless.

But truly being a part of Dauntless is not so easy, as Tris and other initiates must first pass a long and difficult trial that tests their physical, mental, and emotional strength. As Tris makes friends and maybe even falls in love, she also uncovers a burgeoning plot to upset the order of their society, and learns what it truly means to be Dauntless.

Review

Everyone, listen up. The hype for this book? It’s legit. At long last I do think I may have found the book that I will truly encourage fans in Hunger Games deprivation to pick up. DIVERGENT is fast-paced, with a thoroughly developed dystopian world, engaging plot, and an admirable protagonist. In a word, it is excellent.

As soon as Tris chooses to join the Dauntless faction, DIVERGENT becomes an unputdownable read as Tris navigates the often dangerous trials of her initiation period that keep both her and readers on their toes. It’s a classic enough plot structure—the trials that the protagonist must face in order to meet his or her goal—but one that always holds my attention, and Veronica Roth plots the story exceptionally well. When Tris is not learning how to handle weapons that she may have never seen before in her life, she is cautiously navigating her emotional connections with her new friends or nemeses. Physical action blends seamlessly with relationship intrigue to appeal to readers who generally prefer one over the other.

In the midst of all this action, Tris emerges as perhaps the strongest dystopian heroine I have read about since Katniss. All doubts that I may have had about whether or not she truly belongs in Dauntless disappeared only a few chapters in, and from then on I was firmly rooting for her the whole way. While not resourceful, per se (she is in a new faction, after all), Tris has unmatched mental strength, and just a bit too much determination to prove herself, that help carry her triumphantly through obstacles. In short, I like her. I like her I like her I like her. She is just the sort of girl I hope I could be like if, God forbid, I were ever in her situation.

Supporting characters, while nice and attractive, I wish were developed some more, in particularly Cristina, Tris’ closest female friends through the Dauntless initiation. Tris’ love interest is pretty good as far as love interests in YA speculative fiction usually go: he has no need for silly, enigmatic broodfests, and actually likes Tris for her strength and not because of some impenetrable vague reason like insta-luv (this is my interpretation of it, anyway). The ending, unfortunately, felt rushed, and while I don’t disagree with it being a good way for the book to end, it lacked the forceful punch I was looking for, and to which I felt like the rest of the book had been building up.

My minor quibbles with supporting character development and the ending aside, I found DIVERGENT to be an entrancing read throughout. Dystopian? Strong female protagonist? Fast pace? Subtle critiques on our society’s incessant need to label and categorize everything? Read DIVERGENT for all of them. In the meantime, I will be camping outside the nearest bookstore for the next book in this series, thank you very much.

Similar Authors
Jackson Pearce (Sisters Red)
Suzanne Collins
Scott Westerfeld (Uglies)


Cover discussion: I like it well enough, and it should be unisex enough to attract both male and female readers. Plus that fiery eye-like thing makes more sense after you read the book. :)

Katherine Tegen Books / May 3, 2011 / Hardcover / 496pp. / $17.99

Won on author's blog; another review copy received from publisher.

Waiting on Wednesday (92)

Because I missed a few weeks, I figured I can pick more than one for today, hey? :)

Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky

Maddie lives in a world where everything is done on the computer. Whether it’s to go to school or on a date, people don’t venture out of their home. There’s really no need. For the most part, Maddie’s okay with the solitary, digital life—until she meets Justin. Justin likes being with people. He enjoys the physical closeness of face-to-face interactions. People aren’t meant to be alone, he tells her.

Suddenly, Maddie feels something awakening inside her—a feeling that maybe there is a different, better way to live. But with society and her parents telling her otherwise, Maddie is going to have to learn to stand up for herself if she wants to change the path her life is taking.

In this not-so-brave new world, two young people struggle to carve out their own space. [summary from Goodreads]

I can totally see this potentially being our future, which is rather tragic, in my opinion. I've heard some good things about this book, so I'm interested to see if it lives up to my expectations!

Awaken will be published in hardcover from Houghton Mifflin on May 23, 2011.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris, and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen.

But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves . . . or it might be what destroys her. [summary from author's blog]

I was initially a bit wary of Divergent. I mean, the premise is so ambitious! There's a lot of room for error and disappointment. However, I keep on hearing praise for this debut novel, so now I'm definitely curious and want to see for myself what this book is like!

Divergent will be published in hardcover from Katherine Tegen Books on May 3, 2011.