"Divergent": Not Bad, but not Great Either

Going into Divergent, I had some high hopes. A lot of people were raving about it and I've started to seen some previews for the movie online. As someone who likes to read the book before the movie comes out, I figured I'd jump right on this and get ahead.

I don't necessarily regret it, but I don't think it did me any favors.

I just feel like I am not a dystopian book lover. I honestly don't think this book was terrible, but I didn't feel connected to it at all. Instead of being sucked in, I just felt like an observer, watching the events of the story unfold before me. This shouldn't be surprising because I didn't care for the original Hunger Games book either, and, while they are two COMPLETELY different books, I feel like they had similar concepts going on.

And, for the record, I would reread Divergent before the Hunger Games. That first one I just did not like...

Back to Divergent, though. It had everything I like in a book: some badassery, a love interest, and a strong main character.  SO WHY DON'T YOU LIKE THIS BOOK KATIE?!

TRUST ME, I want to like this book more than I did. But I just feel like there wasn't a lot of setting change and the same things would keep happening. The end of the book felt rushed, but I was kind of glad because I just wanted to finish this book (it was due in 24 hours and I'm a college student. The struggle). They also didn't really go out of their way to show the importance of divergence, WHICH IS THE TITLE OF THE BOOK. Usually, when that is the case, the reveal leading up to it is full of suspense and guessing what its importance is. Roth doesn't build it up at all and, in the end, you know what it is but it's nothing extraordinary.

That might be the reason why I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did. There was not a lot of buildup to suspense. There is some, but it's not enough to make your heart start to race and want to continue reading. I want that kind of suspense, because that's the whole reason why I read!

So, Divergent. It's not bad, but it's not great. If you like dystopian societies, you'll probably love it, but, for me, it was only eh.

KATIE'S LAST WORDS: I am looking forward to the movie, though. I mean, I didn't like the Hunger Games book, but I loved the movie. Hopefully, the same thing happens with Divergent.