I received a package in the mail the other day, not having any idea what it could be. I am constantly getting mail from colleges since I am a sophomore in high school, who literally is one of the top of her class but I got a random package. It wasn’t until I opened the package that I remembered what it was. If you preordered or bought the book Carve the Mark the day it came out, you could send your receipt in and get the epilogue of Divergent sent to you. Of course I had to do it and last night, I finally read the short epilogue, which brings us to my review. If you haven’t read this book or the series Divergent, you might want to be cautious of the spoilers!
Title: We Can Be Mended
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Released: January 17, 2017
Pages: 33 (Unknown Binding)
We Can Be Mended is a short-story epilogue that focuses on Four and takes place five years after Allegiant, the conclusion of the Divergent series.
About the Author: Veronica Roth is an American novelist and short story writer known for her debut New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy, consisting of Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant; and Four: A Divergent Collection. Divergent was the recipient of the Goodreads Favorite Book of 2011 and the 2012 winner for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction.
My Review:
I had always wondered what actually happens after Allegiant. I already hate the ending of that book, basically because Tris is the one who dies through it all – it should have been Caleb. I really never liked Caleb so I would have been fine with him dead. Allegiant sort of made me mad in the first place with how it was written and everything that happens in the book so I didn’t place a lot of hope on this book/short story. I was still hoping that it would be a little better than what it was. On Goodreads, I think I gave this a 3 out of 5 but I don’t even know if it is worth a 2.5 in reality.
I really did enjoy getting to know what happened with Caleb, Tobias, Christina, etc after everything that happened. I think everyone wondered what happened once they finished the book. I had always heard that Veronica Roth said that Tobias and Christina get together after Tris’ death. I never wanted to believe that because I would have never have seen these two together. I liked Tobias and I liked Christina but these two together? Yes, they do know each other very well but I really didn’t care for them.
The book was written like it was being told by Tobias. I loved Tobias’ character in the series. He was one of my favorites and I really wanted to know more about him. The thing is, I felt like Tobias was almost like a girl in the book. I know. That doesn’t make sense but the way he changed from the death of Tris and the way the book was written just made him sound really girly. Maybe if the book was written from Christina’s view point I would have enjoyed it more.
One thing I really did enjoy in this book was knowing what happens after words. It takes place five years after everything that happened in Allegiant. Each year, all the ‘survivors’ get together to celebrate life and all their freedom they now have after the factions. They no longer live in fear and have to listen to anyone telling them what they have to do. The only memories, or remains from those days are the Fear Serum, which Tobias goes and uses every so often to see his four new fears. One of his new fears? Seeing Tris die. Are there still four fears? Yep. Everyone was moving on but Tobias and Christina.
I think I read somewhere were Veronica Roth wrote this epilogue for her own personal use. I think that she should have kept it that way. I did enjoy reading it, and learning what happens but the writing doesn’t seem to be that well and it didn’t really seem that interesting. I felt like I was reading more fanfiction stuff rather than a real book. It didn’t really have a good flow and I really didn’t have a good time reading the book. It felt like I was just reading words instead of reading a book. If you actually liked the ending of the Divergent series and didn’t want to throw it against a wall, you might actually enjoy reading this book. You might like it a lot more than me. I am glad that I got the chance to read the book but would I buy the book? I don’t think so.
Have you read this book? Have you read Carve the Mark? What were your thoughts about the Divergent series? Who was your favorite character from the series? What were you hoping would happen at the end of the series or in this epilogue? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Happy Reading,
Ann's Reading Corner 
Little nitpick, but the first sentence in your fourth paragraph states “One thing I really did enjoy in this book was knowing what happens after words.” I believe you mean to write “afterwards” since “after words” doesn’t make much sense. I enjoyed the review and randomly stumbled upon your blog. I’m sure there’s more good stuff here!
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I probably did mean to put that but sometimes I go and write something so fast that I don’t really comprehend it. I don’t think I caught it when I proof reading it as well! Thanks for letting me know about that! I’m glad that you stumbled your way here and that you enjoyed what you see!
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I did not like the end of Allegiant (and the book overall not only for the ending), not because the main character dies (I am not against the main character dying per se) but because Veronica Roth killed her in a bad way and not for a very good reason and so I felt the whole thing was really unnecessary and senseless. Anyway I liked this further epilogue even less ( and I did not think it was possible as Allegiant is probably the worst book I have ever read) and I wished VR kept it for herself as she now ruined for me not only the end of the series but even Divergent and Insurgent as I won’t be able to look at them in the same way. I now hope she is finally done with this series she destroyed and will devote her energy to new books which I won’t read as I can never forgive her for what she has done with Divergent so I won’t spend any more money, time and emotional involvment in any of her books anymore.
P.S. In case anyone is interested I made peace with Allegiant thanks to an amazing version of the book I found on fanfiction (Determinant : one choice will change everything by Windchimed). It is a better version of the original book and not only for the ending. After I read this now this will be the ending of the trilogy for me and I will consider Veronica’s one as a nightmare! (and we can be mended epilogue as an even worse nightmare!)
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I might have to check out Determinant and see what it is like! Like you, Veronica goes and kills the main character in such a way that want to slap her upside the head with her own book. Sometimes main character deaths are needed but since they are the star of the book, they should have it in a memorable, great way.
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Let me know what you think if you read it.
It is obviously not perfect, but I much prefer the windchimed’s version than the real one and not only for the ending!
In Roth’s Allegiant there are so many things not working the way they should that I thought the whole book was a flop. I even wondered at some point if it was really the same author of Divergent and Insurgent that wrote that third book! Anyway no wonder the third movie was also a flop after that awful book. Who would want to go and watch the movie?
Anyway, my personal advice is to read the read Roth’s Divergent and Insurgent, windchimed’s Allegiant and ignore whatever other epilogue and further epilogue Roth comes up with!!!
We really did not need a further epilogue after the tragic ending of Allegiant, but maybe Roth needed it to try and sell better her new book.
Shame on you Veronica, you had such a good and powerful story in your hands!
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I’ll definitely let you know what I think about it when I read it! I thought the same thing when I was reading Allegiant. I’m going to attempt to read her new book Carve the Mark really soon and I hope that it is a lot better than Allegiant! She probably did need something to sell her new book because I think there are so many people that hated the ending of that book.
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Unfortunately I really don’t feel like giving Roth another chance so I don’t think I will ever read any other book from her. There are so many talented young authors that I won’t waste any more time on her. I usually don’t read much YA, but ended up reading the Divergent trilogy only after my older daughter that at the time was 14 got so upset after reading Allegiant that I wanted to understand better what she had been reading. Well in the end I was probably even more upset than my daughter! (my younger daughter wisely decided to only read the first book of the trilogy and knowing what I know now I think it would have been the best choice, but clearly we could not foresee that the third book would have been so bad.)
After Allegiant “we can be mended” only confirmed to me what I already knew and that is that I won’t be reading anything else from Roth! Actually reading this further epilogue brought up again all the grief and upsetting that I felt at the time I read Allegiant. I even went looking to all the interviews with Roth I could find to try and understand her reasonings, but nothing she said made sense to me and she even sounded a bit crazy (to me) when in one of these interviews she said she always thought the Harry Potter saga would have had a much more powerful ending if Harry died. That was the last straw for me!
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I loved “Divergent” and absolutely hated “Allegiant.” I could go on and on about why. The biggest reason was that it was revealed to us: “Oh, everything that you just read in the other books is made up. The factions, the initiations, everything.” Why did we even waste time reading it, then?!
So yes, I disliked “Allegiant,” too. I LOVED Tobias. But yes, Tobias and Christina together? No no no.
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