What's been going on, literally.

(Source)

With all the stress that came with a job promotion/the holidays I started looking for an audiobook that was "easy listening." I saw a preview for Veronica Roth's Divergent at the theater and remembered one of my friends reading it when I was in high school. I decided to listen to it to see what I thought. 

I was immediately immersed  in the story and decided listening to it was too slow so I picked up an e-copy and finished it in less than a day. 

Then, I saw Catching Fire in theaters and remembered how much I loved Suzanne Collins' trilogy, so just for fun I read all three in four days time. 

Then I switched to Insurgent and finished it in record time. A part of me was wincing at the fact that I was reveling in the overly-emoting, quick-paced drama, but the other part of me told the first to shut up because she was reading. 

Then it all came to a grinding halt with Allegiant. I think my problem is with the switch in perspective. The narrator, Tris is a diverse character that is so unlike other heroines in teen fiction. She actually has talent and intelligence, isn't so shy it's paralyzing and isn't so humble it's obnoxious. I liked her problem-solving and coming into her own in the first two books, but in this third one she's sharing the narrative spotlight with her boyfriend. It's just gone a little two far away from the original concept/ structure and it's lost some appeal for me.

It makes me think of Scott Westerfeld's Extras which was so far away from the first in the series it felt like a half-formed after thought. (I will pretty much say that for anything that throws aliens in last minute) or Melissa de la Cruz's Gates of Paradise which I just managed to skim and hardly remember over the loud yelling of "Wtf???" in my head.

Now, I'm sort of stuck. A part of me really wants to know what happens in this story, and the other part of me is now really bored and ready for some kind of a challenge.

For some reason I've been curious about modern French literature, but I need a better way to find lists or descriptions. I've not been specific enough in my searches and it takes me to French websites and since  I don't read French remotely I have no idea what's happening.

Maybe, I'll just ease out of my teen fiction mode with something from Terry Prachet it'll be easy but not overly emotional and I'm four days into another seven day work week, so humor would be welcome.