Divergent Review

I'm creating a separate post for Divergent because I have a lot to say, and I don't want to take over half of my "Books I've Read" with just one book. There might be spoilers for the book or series as a whole, though I usually try to avoid those in reviews. Anyway:

Divergent by Veronica Roth, finished 3/18. I first read Divergent a while ago -- either before or right around when Insurgent came out. And the first time, I loved it. To bits. I've been excited for the movie ever since I learned there was going to be one. Unfortunately, then Allegiant happened. I decided to re-read Divergent just to brush up on what happened before I go see the movie, and to hopefully restore some faith in the series. 

... It didn't help. Yes, I think Divergent is still my favorite out of the series, but it wasn't quite as strong as I remembered it. Maybe I'm just getting sick of dystopians and (practically) insta-love romances. Maybe the writing reminds me a little too much of how I feel about my own writing. (Which is to say, not very highly.) Maybe I'm just subconsciously so mad about Allegiant that I refuse to love the series. I don't know. 

One thing I can definitely say is that I feel like Tris and Four seemed weaker the second time around. It could be from knowing what goes on in the other two books. It could be because I've read more books since the first time, ones with stronger characters. It could be because they're flat characters. I can't tell you for certain. And honestly, I'm not sure I could point out any specific character growth over the course of the series. Divergent Tris and Four don't seem much different from Allegiant Tris and Four in my mind.

I can also say that the lack of a love V is a strong plus for the series. I'm so incredibly sick of those. So while Tris and Four sort of suffer from insta-love, at least Tris isn't trying to choose one of two guys. And I think their relationship is more realistic than some I've read. They disagree, they fight, and they apologize. (Or at least as far as I can remember. I do know that they disagree a lot.)

So while I don't think that the characters are strong, I do love the world-building. I think factions could definitely replace Hogwarts houses as a way to quickly identify yourself and others with an ideology. (Which is the point of factions, anyway.) And I think a part of my love for the setting is the fact that I visited Chicago before I ever learned about the books. I could clearly picture the "capture the flag" scene in my head, and at least had a pretty good understanding of places in the rest of the book. I wish the world-building had been clearer towards the beginning of the series, as you really don't learn the basics of their world as a whole until Allegiant.

And I seriously don't think it works well to compare Divergent to the Hunger Games series. Really, all they share is a dystopian society. They work in very different ways. And besides, there's no love V in Divergent. I don't think it's really fair to keep comparing books to the most recent best-seller.

TL;DR I would recommend the book, but I don't think that it quite deserves all of the hype and prestige it's being given by the media.

As for the movie, I would recommend that even more. I think the movie can stand alone without reading the book, and the movie does differ from the book a significant amount, but I think the background knowledge would help. The movie has to cover a whole lot of ground in about an hour and a half, so some things are skipped over or just barely touched. I'm going to make an entire post for a movie review as well, but I'm not going to avoid spoilers for the movie.