this was an oddly beautiful book.

[edit] aug. 3:

✧ — 3.5 stars.

❝A person's universe is her home.❞

I'm really glad that I picked this off of the shelf and decided to give it a try. I was a bit hesitant to see how Veronica Roth would tackle adult literature, especially since my previous experiences with her have been through ya lit.

But this was a beautiful book, that explored so much about morality, what it means when saving the world is constantly your job, and the definition of being a "good" person.

likes:

✵ I really loved Sloane, lmfao. Her characterization was enjoyable for me as a reader and I also really liked her struggle with showing emotion and affection, especially with those two things being intertwined with her PTSD
✵ Esther got on my nerves but in a good way<3
✵ The worldbuilding was beautiful + I never got lost. Like, I never had to flip back through the book to remember things or alleviate my confusion because of how well everything was written. I love that in a book, especially one where the plot is heavily based on it
✵ The villain
✵

Spoiler

I like how it ended because we know there are possible other books but we could stop here and still feel satisfied.

dislikes:

✵ I feel like 1.5 stars were taken off solely for Matt. I could not STAND him. I really hope that if there's another book he learns to change or something because I would fight him and not even for money. My God, could he just shut up?????
✵ There were like these reports and stuff included for us to like understand??? ig what was happening behind the scenes but they felt lacking or just filler, not actually helpful

All in all, this was a good read and fast-paced. It drew me in from the opening and I wanted nothing more than to see the end.

❝They both felt together.❞