Nocturnal Book Reviews

4.75/5
I'm pretty sure I've forced my poor local library to buy this book by ordering it before the acquisition. Yay!

I'm a huge fan of dystopias and I couldn't pass Divergent after it got so much publicity and so many rave reviews. Did I love it? You bet! Will I read the book #2? Undoubtedly. Did it top my favorite YA dystopian The Hunger Games? No.

The premise was fantastic. I loved the different factions, Tris as a person and the whole idea of training and simulations. Four was an attractive enough character as well. I particularly loved reading about training, it's always so fascinating to find out with the heroes their unknown depths and what they are really capable of.

Take Rose in Vampire Academy or Dru in Strange Angels - the training is a yummy part of the book because then you are able to see how they use it in real life situations.

As to the rest of the book, despite the shocking end, I felt that the author didn't dig deep enough. I needed to see more dirt, what was happening inside the factions - the intrigues, the conspiracies, the suspicion of what was outside the city gate, why the walls needed patrolling? What happened to the world in general? I had so many questions but pretty much all of them were left unanswered, and the end felt somewhat anticlimactic.

There was also the matter of the nature of Divergents. What was the precedent which led to such extreme treatment of them? Because there has to be at least one major case.

So, although I enjoyed Divergent I hope the second book will give us some answers and more insight into its world.