Audiobook Review – Four: A Divergent Story Collection by Veronica Roth

Author: Veronica Roth

Narrator: Aaron Stanford

Audiobook length: 6 hours and 33 minutes

Genre: Young adult, dystopian, science fiction

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Check out the full synopsis on Goodreads.

I finished this one early last month and have continued to forget to post a review ever since. I liked it, mostly, but it didn’t really leave a lasting impression on me. Let’s do a one or two sentence mini review for each of the four stories in Four: A Divergent Story Collection and then I’ll talk about the narrator.

The Transfer – very cool to learn about Four when he still lived in Abnegation and the process he went through in deciding to transfer to Dauntless. We learned about his home life with Marcus, and while we already knew most of what was discussed, we actually got to see why Four transferred and why he felt the way he did towards his home and Marcus. I also enjoyed being back in this world.

The Initiate – this one was probably the best of the four stories. We learn more about Four, but also about some of the secondary characters like Shauna and Zeke. I wish we’d gotten to know Amar a bit better as he was supposed to mean so much to Four, but we hardly see him and they don’t get that close. Learning more about Four BEFORE he meets Tris was why I liked this story.

The Son – this is the story in which Four begins to question Dauntless leadership. Other than that, I honestly can’t really remember what happens…seriously, I’m sitting here trying to remember and it obviously just left hardly any impression on me.

The Traitor – this was probably my least favorite story. It takes place during the events in Divergent and is basically that story but from Four’s perspective, which could’ve been cool if it had actually added anything to the story. Four and Tris feel like basically the same character, especially when we are reading (or in this case, listening) to scenes with both of them in it. I had to force myself to finish this one because I was bored.

In addition to these four stories, we also get three extra scenes from Four’s perspective, one of which was when Tris was the first jumper. While I didn’t really like the story when Four and Tris were already together, this scene was fun to see from Four’s perspective.

The narrator – Aaron Stanford has a REALLY monotone, even voice. When I first starting listening to Four, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to finish it. But then his voice started to pull me in and began to really fit Four and his personality. I ended up really liking his voice for the middle part of the audiobook. And then we got to the last story that bored me and added his monotone voice and…yeah, it was hard to get through that last story.

The bottom line: Even though the last two stories weren’t my favorite, I do think any fans of the Divergent trilogy will appreciate learning more about Four and his life before and after Tris.

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