Divergent

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Divergent is the start of a great new series by author Veronica Roth. Veronica is a new writer, with this being her first published novel. She hangs out on Goodreads.com alot and blogs often.

Divergent is a young adult novel set in a dystopian world where society has broken down into different factions. Each faction has a specific purpose and serves a unique role in this society. This novel has drawn comparisons to the Hunger Games, and while there are some general similarities, it isn't the Hunger Games 2.0.  The story is a coming of age story with the main character, a teenage female named Beatrice Prior. (No, this is not the Hunger Games 2.0). Every year there is a ceremony where the young people have to choose which faction to join. Most end up joining the one they were raised in. Beatrice ends up choosing a different faction than the one she was raised in. She ends up leaving her home and family to join a new group of people to learn the new factions lifestyle.

Beatrice renames herself Tris and has to learn how to go from being raised in a peaceful faction, Abnegation, to learning how to fight, as she has joined the faction that is more aggressive and in charge of enforcing law and order - Dauntless. Much of the story's angst comes as Tris has to learn how adapt to this new lifestyle and her training with the other new recruits.  There are some emotional struggles for Tris, there is a lot of physical action and fighting, and there is romance as Tris falls in love with one of her trainers.

Divergent is written in the first person POV of Tris and while it took me a couple of chapters to get used to the style; it allowed me to easily read through the story in a matter of hours. While the world of Divergent doesn't have much depth to it, the characters are mostly well developed and their actions are believable. I had fun reading this book and it is one of those summer reads that you're glad that you read it and can move on to your next book.

Divergent is a good story overall, quick paced, easy to read with some good angst. At times, it was easy to tell this was Ms. Roth's first novel due to the simple writing style. The story was pretty linear with not much depth. However, I did enjoy the overall story and it is a page turner. I would recommend it for those that are looking for something fun and quick to read.

A Dance With Dragons

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A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My Initial Thoughts after my first read of this long awaited book:

You'd think that after spending 6+ years writing a book, it would be one of the best, if not THE best books of the entire series. Alas, I rank it just above A Feast For Crows (the previous book of the series), the worst book in the series. I had given Martin a pass on Feast, as Dance With Dragons and Feast were originally going to be one book and after the story kept growing, Martin decided to split the story and was going to put the 'good' storylines in DWD. However, what we got were alot of extra storylines about minor characters and even new characters who I could care less about. All the awesome characters that he developed in the first couple of books, Bran, Arya, even Sansa, etc. are barely addressed if at all. I'm very, very, very dissappointed in these last two books of what started out as a great new series.

At this point I don't care about the series. I don't see how an author can write 1500 (Feast and DWD) pages and not have anything interesting happen, and have very minimal story progression. Martin's writing style is very frustrating to read when there are no interesting story arcs. Each chapter is a different viewpoint, so there is no continuity amongst the chapters. Then it seemed like in each chapter I was just reading what the character was monologuing in his head, or reading conversations people were having with each other. He also tends to use alot of the same phrases over and over again. which came across as lazy to me.

Also, one of the characters spent half the book thinking about how he had killed his father to the point that I was bored of reading this characters storyline. This storyline had historically been a good one too.

I believe Martin has fallen into the trap of introducing new characters and writing endlessly about things that are BORING! He needs to hangout with Brandon Sanderson to get a clue on how to progress his story.

Then there were a couple of chapters that seemed so disconnected from the rest of the story and the writing was sooo disinteresting that I couldn't believe that it had been allowed to be published. It made me wonder if the editor had fallen asleep herself while reading this story and had accidentally skipped these chapters and it wasn't reviewed properly.

I know I just went off, but it is just unbelievable to me that a writer, with as good as Martin has been, could spend 6+ years and 900+ pages on a book and have it turn out so subpar as this book is. (Taken from my Goodreads.com review)

I will write a more in depth review at some point.

View all my reviews

Pride And Prejudice And Zombies

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"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (PPZ) by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, a hybrid of the classic Pride and Prejudice (PP) and the zombies.  Zombies have found themselves involved in a resurgence as of late in pop culture and literature.  They have fittingly risen back from the netherworld from which they have been banished for the past couple of decades.

I was excited to read this book for a couple of reasons, one being the awesome cover art that drew my attention to the story. Another is the idea of the infusion of zombies into a classic story involving women and how these women are trained zombie killers. The last reason I was looking forward to reading this story, was unrelated to the actual story; I had gotten a Nook for Christmas and this was my first purchase.

I haven't read the original Pride and Prejudice and probably never will, as it is a genre of books that doesn't interest me. However, I believe that these are great books that hold lots of great memories for lots of people. So, I can only assume that PPZ at least loosely follows the original PP.  This being said, I would have to say that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is more Pride and Prejudice than it is Zombies.

The Zombies always being a danger and their random attacks of the people in the story was a great twist. So great in fact that because there wasn't more zombie attacks in the story, overall I was dissapointed with the story. The zombies were more of a secondary storyline and I felt were underused as a source of angst in the story.

As far as the writing and structure of the story, I have no complaints even though it took me awhile to get used to Jane Austen's style of writing. The zombies and the all the other parts of the story that were created by Seth Grahame-Smith were seamless and didn't detract from the overall story arc.

The main source of angst in the story is the emotional angst that existed with the Bennet sisters and their relationships, or lack thereof, with the men in their lives. There is some physical conflict that is present when the zombies attack. These zombie attacks are a welcome diversion to the constant worrying about men and whether or not the Bennet girls will find a husband and marry.

Overall I enjoyed the book and liked the zombie addition to a classic story that I would've never read otherwise. Really my only complaint to the story is that there wasn't enough zombie and zombie mayhem.

Profanity in the story is minimal and to be honest I don't remember any standing out. I would give it a ONE just in case I overlooked any. Violence in the story would be a TWO, in that the Zombie fights are at times described in gruesome detail. Sexual content is a soft ONE, in that it is implied but not described in the story.

I give the characterization a strong ONE  in that I liked the characters in the story and some of their characteristics. Their constant pining for a husband throughout the story turned me off after awhile.  The plot I give a ONE, in that it was pretty one dimensional and not too interesting.  Overall I give the story a ONE, as a result of what I stated earlier:   Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is more Pride and Prejudice than it is Zombies. If you liked the original PP and have even a passing interest in the zombie craze, then you will most likely enjoy this story more than I did.  I would recommend this novel if you are looking for something different to read that's entertaining and quick to read.

         

I give Pride and Prejudice and Zombies an angst rating of TWO, but wished it would've been a three with more zombie angst!