Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent is a poor man's Hunger Games.



I considered just leaving the post at that but I'll elucidate a little bit...

The themes in Divergent are very similar to those in The Hunger Games. Divergent is not as good as The Hunger Games, but still a page turner. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but I would avoid social interaction to read the Hunger Games and I would not do that for Divergent...so it's all relative.

There is a second book, Insurgent, which will be released in May (and immediately delivered to my Kindle). I believe it's meant to be a trilogy.

Basic premise is that there was some sort of war that destroyed the US as we know it currently - this book is set in the future in what is currently Chicago. There's a fence surrounding the city - but who knows what's on the other side of the fence? Is it holding them in or holding something else out? What caused the war that got them to the place they're currently in? Society is divided into five factions - Dauntless (bravery), Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (niceness, for lack of a better word), Erudite (intelligence), and Candor (honesty). You are born into a faction but at age 16 you take an aptitude test that tells you what faction you are most suited to. You don't have to choose the faction that your aptitude test points towards - it's all up to you. If you choose to leave your family, you could potentially be saying goodbye to them forever - kind of a faux pas. Which is stronger - faction or blood? Once you choose your faction, you must undergo an initiation. If you fail to pass, you'll end up factionless, living on the margins of the city and of society itself.

There's unrest among the factions - why are things the way they are? Have they always been this way? Do they have to continue to be so?

Roth is clever and the story is very well written but it's definitely YA fiction. There's a moment you're waiting for almost as soon as the book begins, and in my opinion it takes way too long to get there. I doubt teenagers (the target audience) would agree with me, so probably a good move on Roth's part.

If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, you'll likely enjoy Divergent.

UGH, yeah, I know...

Since I last posted...


Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
yes. read this. amazing book. biography of a WWII vet/olympian named louis zamperini...but his life was (is) so exciting that it reads like a page-turning novel. have gifted this book multiple times since i read it. 

One Day by David Nicholls

meh. read it on the beach in san diego. was a great beach read, but i don't really know that i recommend it otherwise. it was made into a movie this summer - the one with anne hathaway. i never saw the movie, nor do i really intend to. the story was uninspired. the layout of the book (checking in with two characters every year for 40 years on the same date) was quite creative, but the story itself was not. 

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

True story of two young men who grew up within miles of each other in Baltimore, both named Wes Moore. One turned out to be a huge success (decorated military vet, White House advisor, author), the other ended up in jail again...and again...and again. They became unlikely friends and this book describes the two paths the young men took and the influences in their lives that caused them to end up where they did. Very interesting but maybe not interesting to those who don't live in Baltimore. 

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Very good but not as good as the original in my opinion. Still great. Focuses more on Julia than on Quentin. If you're going to read one of the two, read the first. Don't read the second without reading the first. 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I decided to read this because I was hearing a lot about it and I needed something to get me back in the swing of reading as passionately as I had been in years past. It's the story of a mysterious traveling circus that shows up in the middle of the night with no warning and disappears in the same manner. There's a love story thrown in there, as well as an ongoing story of rivalry and revenge. There were points in the body of the text that really pulled the reader into the text - but the relative level of creativity in the end of the book versus the body was disappointing. I didn't get the big finish I expected. It was almost as if Morgenstern just said "Well...that'll do." 

Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling 

I had high hopes for this book after how much I enjoyed Tina Fey's book, but I should have remembered that Mindy Kaling (Kelly on the Office, also a writer on the Office) is not yet Tina Fey. She may never be Tina Fey, in fact. Maybe my expectations were too high. There were many funny moments, but overall I expected more. And it was disappointingly short as well. 

And finally - I reread the Hunger Games trilogy over the last few days. If you haven't read the Hunger Games trilogy yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? So. Good. Love.