Allegiant Book Review

by The Wanderer

Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian Science Fiction
Series: Divergent Book Three
Pages: 526

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(Spoilers for Divergent and Insurgent are below).

In concept Veronica Roth had the right idea for ending her Divergent Trilogy. In execution, though, there were a lot of problems. The two major characters get the endings they deserve, but the minute by minute decisions they make undermines the story’s themes and the logic of the plot.

Like the previous two books, Roth’s story will likely please the young adults it’s written to cater to – although the ending might cause some division between people who prefer conventional or unconventional endings.  Active readers will likely be infuriated by the revealed back story which takes a messy dump on science and forces the reader to ask all sorts of questions that break down the structure of this story.

Insurgent Book Review

by The Wanderer

Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian Science Fiction
Series: Divergent Book Two
Pages: 525

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(Contains spoilers for the book Divergent).

Insurgent doesn’t offer much more than its predecessor did.  As a young adult book it will likely succeed in pleasing its target audience.  However I just don’t see how this story finds a broader audience unless there are disproportionately large number of adults who like to reminisce about high school romances … are there?

Roth does feel slightly more polished as a writer – the number of bad metaphors are down – but there is still a lot of room for prose improvement.  Gaps in logic plague the book, especially with the way the Erudite handle taking over Chicago. Withholding information that could resolve much of the problems in the story is used as a crutch to create tension.  This makes for a less exciting plot, and in order to ramify this, the author resorts to an intensifying more of what was in the last book: lots of violence interspersed with awkward first romance moments. Overall this story is engaging, but it’s also just as flawed (if not more so), than the last book.

Divergent Book Review

by The Wanderer

Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian Science Fiction
Series: Divergent Book One
Pages: 487

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With its target market being geared towards young adults; its first person narration being told from the perspective of a strong-minded teenage girl; it’s bring down the government plot set in a sci-fi dystopian society, it’s no wonder Divergent is constantly being compared to The Hunger Games.

That being said Divergent is it’s own story with its own characters with their own sets of flaws – in other words it’s not derivative of Suzanne Collins’ story.

As a young adult book, Divergent should be pleasing to its target audience – young teenagers.  It will probably please them more than the Hunger Games, as Veronica Roth focuses on using a dystopian science fiction backdrop to tell a story with the moral codes you would likely find in a high school.

Finding an audience outside the teenage realm will be a lot more challenging for this series, but some adults may enjoy the fast pace and a nostalgic look back at their youths.

As for me Divergent is a success from a marketing point, but from a literary point this book has a lot of flaws and oftentimes oversimplifies morals and other adult related issues.  Divergent’s not a bad book, but there aren’t a whole lot of praises to sing either.