On July 8, 2014 the fourth book of the Divergent series by Veronica Roth was released. The story Four is about an Abnegation Transfer named Tobias Eaton who lives a new life in Dauntless. The series is directed towards a younger audience, particularly teenagers. The story is science fiction that takes place in a dystopian society. It was also given a rating of 4.26 out of 5 (80%) stars according to www.goodreads.com. After Divergent became a huge hit and a popular movie, Four came out the following summer. The Divergent series mainly takes place in Chicago. However, it’s divided into five factions known as Abnegation; for the selfless, Erudite; for the intelligent, Dauntless; for the brave, Candor; for the honest, and Amity; for the peaceful. For the first three novels, Tobias Eaton is a secondary character and the story revolves around Beatrice Prior (Tris). Tris also transfers into Dauntless and when she meets Four (Tobias) she falls for him. Throughout the series Tris and Four experience several problems and go through journeys together. The two of them are forced to make decisions that end up changing their lives completely. Unlike Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant, Four is written from Tobias’ point of view before he met Tris. At age sixteen, Tobias was given a choice. He could either stay in Abnegation or transfer to get away from his monster of a father. After transferring to Dauntless, Tobias is ranked first in his class and is given the nickname “Four.” He discovers that he will make it in the Dauntless faction, although after claiming his spot in Dauntless he also discovers some information about certain factions that become a threat. He is forced to choose between his old faction and his new one. Two years after choosing Dauntless, Four meets another Abnegation transfer. He begins to have feelings for her. This part of the story was covered in the first book Divergent. But instead of looking at the story through Tris’ eyes, the story was being told by Four’s perspective and describes his feelings for Tris in more detail. The story Four had its positives and negatives. One thing that was rather upsetting about it was the fact that it wasn’t action packed like the rest of the series. The story was over a span of almost three years, yet there wasn’t anything that really made it exciting. In fact, it wasn’t a page turner type of novel. It was a little boring at some parts and it didn’t live up to the standards that the rest of the books set. Another thing that was rather disappointing was the fact that there wasn’t much about Tobias’ experiences with his father. Although there was some, Tobias’ relationship with his father was made a big deal in the other books and then there wasn’t much written about his childhood or his father that gave any detail. Also, Four changed his name because his relationship with his father created such strong negative emotions. Because Marcus Eaton (Four’s father) wasn’t explained enough, the readers didn’t really get to experience the emotion or understand Four’s painful past. Another thing that was bothersome was the lack of information on Four’s mother as well. When Four was younger, he was told that his mother Evelyn died. Unfortunately, the readers weren’t able to read about that time in Four’s life because nothing about it was written. Lastly, some of the scenes written from Four’s point of view seems so different that it took a moment to realize that it was the same scene as it was in Divergent. In other words, although it was good to experience what certain things were like from Four’s shoes, sometimes it just didn’t feel the same. It almost seems like the story Four was written merely to add another book for more popularity, not because Veronica Roth loved the idea. Although the story wasn’t as exciting as hoped, it was satisfying to get to see things that Four saw. In the first novel Divergent, Four’s thoughts were barely revealed and it left readers wondering. The readers were also given information on Four’s past although it wasn’t thoroughly explained, just left somewhat of a mystery. With the story Four, some of these mysteries were revealed and the readers got a chance to get answers to their remaining questions about the character Tobias Eaton. Another thing about the story that was interesting was that Roth kept the storyline from the previous novels. Although the story was written after the rest of the trilogy, the information provided in the story had little things such as Max’s (the Dauntless leader) meeting with the Erudite Leader and Eric’s (Four’s ‘enemy’) past with Erudite. Lastly, in the story the readers got to meet the character Amar. This was interesting because in the future this character is introduced and given a little background, but in the story the readers get to see exactly why Amar was so significant.
