As we await the final installment of the Divergent trilogy, I am obliged to note that there are previews of what we can expect in Allegiant that are being leaked in what I assume is a campaign to inspire discussion and interest. Who needs inspiration? Let’s take a look, though, at what we have and what we’ll be getting soon.

What we have: Divergent, Insurgent, ‘Free Four,’ and ‘The Transfer’ are canon, per se. In addition, there are the items that have been published as a 48 page booklet included in the Divergent box set (which set, of course, will look silly when the third book is out, hence the incentive ‘extra’). Many of these previews and peeks behind the curtain have been posted by the author and by fans online — see the Faction Manifestos, the Series Inspirations, etc. — and will be released as a Kindle give-away on 24 September as Path to Allegiant: The World of Divergent. Here is the Amazon description of that —

Fascinated by the world of the Divergent series? This fifty-page bonus, previously only available in the Divergent Series Box Set, includes faction manifestos, a faction quiz, Q&A with #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth, book playlists, discussion questions, series inspirations, and much more!

So what we will have, in this case, is something we already have for the most part. More on this in a second.

We also have in hand a quotation from Allegiant, chapter 7, that was posted on Entertainment Weekly last week.

“We don’t know what’s happened out there since they put us in here, or how many generations have lived and died since they did. We could be the last people left.” Chapter Seven, Tris

What We Will Have: The insert to the box set was 48 pages long and The Path to Allegiant is 50 pages. A formatting glitch? Maybe. It could also be the actual only authentic ‘extra’ that we don’t have already. The Amazon teaser for Path concludes:

It also contains ten enticing teasers from Allegiant, the final book in the Divergent series.

Three quick questions:

(1) Do you believe, as I do, that we will not be given anything substantive, anything not already apparent from the ‘wow’ finish of Insurgent, in any of these teaers and extras?

(2) In the quotation from EW, are we to assume that Chapter Seven is titled ‘Tris’ or that this is Tris speaking? There must be quite the opening action scenes or play-back for us (her?) to have only learned this much after six chapters, no?

(3) I’m guessing that there is more to be learned about Allegiant in The Transfer, especially in Tobias’ relationship with the woman who read him as a Divergent and the man in charge of his initiation (who tags him as ‘Four’) than in anything that we’re getting from the publisher. Ms Roth enjoys a good mystery, I think, and it isn’t afraid to offer hints to serious readers.

Your thoughts?

If you cannot wait for Allegiant to come out next month, Veronica Roth has published a new Divergent short story, the first in a series of four, available on Amazon Kindle for $1.99. At 30 pages in length, it’s not a per page bargain but for the Divergent-o-phile, it’s certainly worth the price of a decent comic book (okay, half that price).

My first three thoughts on reading it are after the jump. You don’t want to go there, of course, if you don’t want to know what The Transfer is about before reading it yourself.

[Read more…]

This is Part 2 of a series of three Guest Posts by Christine Wesley on the Literary Alchemy of Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy. Click here for Part 1: On Divergent as Series Nigredo.

One Choice Can Destroy You: Insurgent as Albedo

In the first post of this alchemical exploration, we posed the following question: if Book One of the Beatrice Prior novels bears significant nigredo hallmarks of an alchemical work, does Insurgent’s artistry satisfy the requirements of the work’s albedo?

In Divergent, Tris learned not only to overcome fear, but also recognize that two parts of her tripartite Divergence—courage and selflessness—when working in tandem, enable her to achieve heroic status. But her achievement comes at a sobering cost: her parents are dead, having sacrificed themselves to save her, and she carries the guilt of killing her friend Will while he was subject to Erudite’s mind-controlling simulation. If Tris had to choose between bravery and meekness in Divergent, in its sequel she grapples with prioritizing truth (Candor) over willful ignorance in the service of peace (Amity).

More after the jump! [Read more…]

A Guest Post, the first of three on Divergent and literary alchemy, by Christine Wesley. Enjoy!

One Choice Can Change You: Divergent as Nigredo

Having devoured Divergent and Insurgent over the past week, I could not help but ponder what influence, if any, the literary alchemy of the Harry Potter books, of which Veronica Roth is an admitted fan, imparted on the writing of her work. Given the release of the first “Divergent” teaser trailer and the Fandango Behind-the-Scenes featurette last week, and the upcoming launch of Allegiant in October [editor: not to mention the The Transfer story coming out Tuesday and The World of Divergent on 22 September…], the time seems as ripe as any for a thorough unpacking of the literary alchemy undergirding Divergent and Insurgent (Significant props to Jenna’s first post and to Arabella over at the Hog’s Head for her early analysis on this topic).

On the surface, the theory that Divergent operates as the nigredo installment of Tris’s story—the crucible reducing her to her most essential understanding—seemed to apply: well over 80 percent of the narrative unfolds in the shadowy depths of the Dauntless compound’s system of caves and tunnels, with the entry point a seven-story drop into darkness. And of course, Dauntless faction members and initiates wear black.

But for Divergent to resonate on an alchemical level, it must first function as one part of a tightly woven three-act narrative. Plenty of tripartite book series earn the classification of “trilogy,” but while the individual books share settings or characters, each installment may not necessarily flow together as a singular, uninterrupted narrative. Considering that Insurgent begins at almost the second Divergent concluded, I think it is safe to say that Roth intends for her trilogy to operate as one story. (To find more evidence of this, check out her weblog). Secondly, for Divergent to unspool as a narrative of distillation, Insurgent’s crises must influence Tris’s development in a washing, purifying capacity. Part 2 of this post will demonstrate how Insurgent’s structure fulfills that requirement, and Part 3 will attempt to predict how Roth’s alchemical framework might support the plot of Allegiant.

But first, Divergent as alchemical nigredo — [Read more…]