After over 5 years of this book staring at me on my shelf, I have finally read Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth. 

 

Let me be clear, I had a huge Divergent phase in high school. I was infatuated with the books, obsessively looked for any movie casting news, and was the first in line to buy my ticket for the premiere of Divergent. This series was my post Hunger Games hangover… until I read Allegiant, but that is another story altogether. 

 

After finishing my last read, I wanted something quick, fun and familiar, and this book immediately caught my eye. Four is a collection of four short stories (get it? Because his name… nevermind) surrounding Tobias Eaton. The first 3 stories take place before the events of Divergent, while the last story runs simultaneously with those events. 

 

If you are here for my quick review, I will say this; is it as good as Divergent? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Was it a fast and easy read? Yes again. If you are a fan of the original trilogy, this is definitely worth a read. However, if you did not like the original trilogy I can almost guarantee that you will not like this book. 
 

Four is definitely a fun addition to the original trilogy, but I do also feel like we did not learn anything new about the world or the characters living within it. This book did not even further the journey that our original characters took! Whereas novels like The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes were interesting because we were learning more about a previously underdeveloped character, and A Court of Frost and Starlight furthered the adventures of our characters and set up a sequel, Four just seemed like a pandering to all of the fangirls who were obsessed with Tobias. Which would have been fine, had I read this book at the height of the Divergent craze. But, because I read this years later, it definitely did not have the same effect on me that it would have had in 2014. 

Overall, there is not much else to say about a 285 page collection of short stories based on a fully developed character that we already knew everything about. Don’t get me wrong, I still did enjoy this book for what it was, but it definitely will not be making my top 10 books of 2020. My rating is a ⅖ stars for Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth.