Allegiant

The third book of the Divergent series, Allegiant, was released on October 22 this year. It being the final book in the Divergent series, people flocked to the stores to buy it and pre-ordered it online. In fact, my best friend pre-ordered it for me as a birthday present.
Divergent and Insurgent readers will know that Allegiant focuses mainly on the world outside the fence - outside Tris Prior's world. Tris, Tobias, and a couple of others join a rebel group known as the Allegiant, with which they attempt to go outside the fence to find out more about the world outside.
All of us fans were dying to know what lay outside the fence and what was in store for Tris. We all wanted to know what being Divergent really meant. True, all of that is revealed in Allegiant, however, the book has several loopholes and is not the exciting thriller we all imagined.

Okay, to explain this without spoilers is hard, but I will try my best here.

Sure, the book addresses all the main points about Divergence, but what about the rest of it? Tris and Tobias's relationship goes on and off, since they begin to have differences concerning Divergence. Caleb, Tris's backstabbing brother, is rescued. Caleb and Tris begin to get closer, though Tris has doubts about his motive for being nice to her, especially after delivering her to her execution in Insurgent. Christina and Tris do not hang out with one another as much as they used to, and *SPOILER ALERT* Uriah enters a coma, stays that way for most of the book and then dies.
Personally, I felt that the best part in the whole book was when Tris begins to find out more about her mother, Natalie Prior - who sacrificed herself for Tris in Divergent. Her mother was not the person Tris thought she was and through her mother's journal, she begins to feel closer to her mother, as if she is getting parts of her back through her words.
*HUGE SPOILER ALERT* Tris dies near the end of the book, sacrificing herself for her brother Caleb, who was to enter the Weapons Lab. Caleb had no chance of surviving, while Tris, being Divergent, had a slim chance, but she died. Tobias is left mourning her. Tris dying was the worst part of the book. Though the death itself was not very shocking, Tobias's reaction to it is heart-wrenching. True, Veronica Roth has shown her writing skills by making the readers cry. However, Tris's death was just too much to bear, and you will hear the Divergent fans say now, "I didn't ask for them to live happily ever after! I just asked for them to live!" No one ever imagined that the protagonist would be killed off, and this was what ruined the series.
Frankly speaking, Allegiant was a lukewarm ending to the Divergent series, and though Veronica Roth feels she did justice to her characters, many loyal fans feel the other way. There could have been a much better ending, and while reading the book, it came across as a not-very-well-thought-out plot. Like I said earlier, there were many loopholes, and there are many questions remaining unanswered at the end of the book.
I would say that, though the first book was the best in the trilogy, Allegiant is still a good dystopian novel. What makes it worth reading is that it is the final book in the Divergent trilogy, and that we finally come to know what Divergence really is. It's a book worth reading - even if it pains us. After all, a good series is one that makes you happy and excited, at the same time makes you terrified, cry and hurt. And the Divergent trilogy does that.

One video clipping...

Tris Prior's world is built on factions, divisions and being Divergent. And then, it all crumbles into a million little pieces. At the end of Insurgent, the sequel to Divergent, one small video clipping plunges everything into chaos.
The boundaries of the only home Tris has known falls away and so does the only fear she has known, being hunted for her Divergence.
Insurgent leaves off at a cliff-hanger, and a huge one at that. Looking forward to the third and final instalment of the series, I formed the idea for this review. But somehow, I didn't find myself publishing it until today. Allegiant, the last book of the series is out now, but before I review that, let's learn a little more about Divergence.
Until here, in the series, Divergence was a forbidden topic and it didn't just pop up into a conversation randomly. In fact, if you're Divergent and you talk about it, you're as good as already dead.
Jeanine Matthews, the Erudite head, made it her job to hunt down the Divergent and kill them, and the reason becomes somewhat clear at the end of Insurgent. The video clipping features Edith Prior, who calls to the Divergent. She tells everyone about the state of the world outside the fence, and requests the authorities to send out a Divergent army to purge the world of its illness. Jeanine Matthews sees this as a threat, and does not want to be usurped of her unofficial position as head of the city by the Divergent, who are made out to be all-powerful in the video.
Yet, it is unknown what actually Divergence is, whether it a trait, or the entire personality, whether it is a part of a person or their whole.
All these questions are answered in Allegiant, and I'm not going to start on it now or I probably won't stop before I post all the spoilers here.

Mrs. Packletide's Tiger

Well, I think I've begun feeling the monotony of writing about the same things that I have discussed a million times before with my friends. Let's get a breather now. I'm going to write about 'Mrs. Packletide's Tiger', a short story that I read sometime back (okay, it was in my English textbook last year).
The story is about one Mrs. Packletide who wants to kill a tiger, just to outshine her arch-rival Loona Bimberton, who has flown eleven miles in a plane with an Algerian aviator. Loona earned the awe and attention of the entire elite society for this feat. Mrs. Packletide hopes to turn the tide, literally speaking, and hopes that by shooting a tiger, she can gain more popularity in her society.
You could say Mrs. Packletide was a master strategist, as she had planned the whole journey to fame in complete detail. She would kill the tiger, host a party supposedly in Loona's honour, and then let a tiger-skin rug take up most of the foreground. Within days, she would be the talk of the town, and then she would present Loona a tiger-claw brooch on her birthday just to rub it in.
With such heroic plans, our hunter sets off to a village with a paid companion, Miss Mebbin. The villagers had been offered the meagre amount of one thousand rupees, which for them was a fortune. In return, the villagers took wonderful care of the 'venerable herd-robber', so that he might not stray from the grounds or die before the great event.
At last, Mrs. Packletide arrived to shoot the tiger. She was given a comfortable platform to crouch on while she waited for the old tiger to wander in. A goat with a loud bleat had been placed at a suitable position to attract the tiger.The creature finally ambled into view, and crept toward the goat softly, but steadily.
As soon as it was in the desired position, Miss Mebbin urged Mrs. Packletide to shoot, and the latter promptly obeyed.
There was a loud sound and the tiger jumped and fell over. Loud rejoicing erupted from the villagers and they started celebrating. After all, they had gained a thousand rupees!
It was Louisa Mebbin who brought to notice the fact that the goat was in death throes from a fatal bullet wound, while the tiger lay still, but had no sign of a bullet in it.
Apparently, the goat had been shot, and the tiger had collapsed of heart attack upon hearing the sudden report of the rifle. But the best part is yet to come.
The truth of the incident remains a secret, and as long as they received their reward, the villagers did not care about the fact that the wrong animal had been shot. The reporters interviewed Mrs. Packletide, who achieved her desire of outshining Loona Bimberton. But that success came at a huge price. Miss Mebbin, who was very shrewd, blackmailed Mrs. Packletide into buying her a weekend cottage that she liked. It was at the cost of revealing the truth which would make our hunter look like a grand old fool, which she could not afford. Thus, Mrs. Packletide was forced to accede to Louisa Mebbin's demands.
Miss Mebbin had the last laugh: 'Louisa Mebbin's pretty week-end cottage, christened by her "Les Fauves," and gay in summer-time with its garden borders of tiger-lilies, is the wonder and admiration of her friends.'

The Peverell Story

'Death takes all when their time comes' - A truth universally acknowledged.
Then what of the Peverell brothers? These three men - Cadmus, Antioch and Ignotus, played a very important role in shaping up the plot of the Harry Potter series.
Let me start with the Tale of the Three Brothers.
There were once three brothers, walking upon a deserted road at twilight (or midnight; it's debated, so take your pick). They approached a gloomy and forbidding forest, but collecting their nerves, they walked inside. The harsh echoes and deep silence of the woods were enough to make any passerby flee, but our three brothers walked on in bravery. Then they met a river in their path - it was eerie and too treacherous to pass. But the brothers, who were proficient in the magical arts, waved their wands and created a bridge, over which they could walk to safety. Death, who had set up the river as a trap and end for anyone who passed by, was angered that they had found a means of escape. So he confronted them and pretending to be pleased, offered them a reward each.
The first brother's nursed ambition was to be the strongest wizard in the world. He demanded such a tool of Death, that would make him invincible. Death fashioned an elder wand from a nearby tree, and handed it to the eldest brother. This wand was unconquerable when in duel and it acquired many other names such as the Deathstick and the Wand of Destiny.
The second brother begged Death to give him something to bring back his dead lover. Death gave him a pebble that could animate a dead person, and effectively, bring them back from the barrier of death.
The third and youngest brother, though, saw right through the hooded mask Death was wearing. Being shrewd, he realized that Death was manipulating them to their death. So, he chose to be left alone by Death until he was ready to die. Death, being outwitted, had no choice but to give the brother his cloak, which would render the wearer completely invisible.
Thus, the three deathly hallows were formed - The Elder Wand, The Resurrection Stone, and The Cloak of Invisibility. The story goes on to explain how the three brothers met their end - the first two, immediately after procuring their gifts, and the last one, after long years of happiness.
This story, though, is only an animated and interesting form of relating what happened. The brothers were probably strong magicians (according to Dumbledore) who created these hallows themselves, and were unable to understand their danger. Lust for obtaining the three hallows - especially the Elder Wand - brought many people face to face with their Death (pun intended!).