"Divergent" think it goes in the 'how is this a best seller?' category.

Edit: The title is "Divergent" and I'm a space case.

The writing quality is right up down there with Twilight and 50 Shades so far. I'm not through the book yet and I'll wait for the movie reviews.

I was wondering if anyone has finished the book. Does it get better or should I put it down?

But dang, if that book can make it, so can mine.

 

I remember skimming it, 'cause the cover caught my eye. For some reason I thought it was a book in the Hunger Games series (dystopia, female lead, first person pov, some symbol on the cover), then I noticed it's by a different author. In any case, I don't really read YA, and infuriating but fascinating love interests are my pet peeves, so I didn't give it a chance, lol. See how the blurb and the first page can affect a potential buyer´s decision? I wasn't impressed by the writing, but then again, first person present is not one of my favorite povs.

To become so huge, it must have that something in it. Maybe it's the trend right now; dystopia, strong-willed female characters, etc and that formula really appeals to the majority of young readers, especially if they're looking for something similar to the Hunger Games.

 

I think you just answered the question. The Formula!

 

Is this book really that bad? Because she apparently studied creative writing in college. I would have thought it's at least better than Twilight and Fifty Shades just based on that fact alone.

 

Damn. My novel is a utopian story with male lead in third person with trees on the cover

 

Well so far I've not come across repetitive lip biting or eyebrow raising but there is something very stale about the beginning.

The "choosing ceremony" really? Given the Hunger Games and Harry Potter's Sorting Hat, it's unimaginative. The world building so far is dismal. And the oversimplification of the social groups, I just can't see it. It's one thing to have a caste system or that nightmare where the school's guidance counselor really does chose your profession for you, but the group divisions in this book make the characters all one-dimensional.

And the protag's conflict is uninteresting: does she stay with her family where she doesn't fit in or go with some other of the one dimensional groups it just so happens she also doesn't fit into.

Compare that to the Hunger Games where Katniss' conflict was survival in a desperate setting, taking care of her sister after their father was killed in a mine explosion caused by the mistreatment by the well off of these poverty stricken people, and to pile on even more her mother just mentally fell apart. That's conflict. Not, oh dear I have to leave home.

 

I had to read up on this novel a bit more, and yeah, the premise is stupid and categorizes people in an oversimplified way, but it seems the author hit the market at the right time, riding on the coattails of the Hunger Games. Good for her. Maybe this just proves how important timing really is...

 

Woop ...well never heard of this one. Divergence, eh? Think I'll give it a miss...

 

Oh crap, how did I make such a blatant error?

"Divergent". Mods: help please, can you edit the title for me? Thanks.

 

Dun did it.

 

Well, I've never heard of Divergent, either. Think I'll give that a miss, too!

 

Thank you thank you thank you.

 

The movie will eventually make its way to your side of the pond. I'd suspect I'd have never heard of the book were the airwaves not currently saturated with the movie trailer.

 

Lol, I didn´t even notice it. I just googled Diverg... to check what the novel was about. It's translated Outolintu (=Odd bird) into Finnish, apparently. So I guess the protag is some kind of an odd bird rebelling against the establishment etc. That kind of stories seem to appeal to teenagers.

 

I did not read the book, but I watched the movie yesterday not even knowing it was based on a book.

However, I did read The Hunger Games and found the Divergent movie to be very similar. Sitting in the movie theater I couldn't help but mentally label it as some sort of Hunger Games knock off with the teenage female lead, the classification system, and so forth. If The Hunger Games wasn't a thing, I would consider Divergent to be a very creative piece of work, but as it is, it just seems generic. (Still a decent movie though.. I've seen worse, but I like almost anything dystopian.)

 

My niece described it as "Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games". So far as I can tell from the trailers she has the magic power of not being afraid of things.

 

From what I'm reading, it sounds like Divergent is not a copy of Hunger Games--it was written too early to be a copy.

However, I read a few pages in the Amazon preview and, oh, dear, no. It might get better after it plows through all the explanatory backstory, but I won't be finding out.

 

Mmmm... I read a little bit out of the first few pages and I can see why young people like it. It is simple and fast-paced, much like a teenager's brain. Not to bash on that age group, but it's perfect for an audience who's mind can so easily wander. In that sense, I find no egregious errors. The book is a breeze to read, which is, again, perfect for an audience of such short attention spans.

Nevertheless, I found that after a few pages I didn't want to keep going. The prose is just boring, as are the chosen details. This author repeats a simple and choppy construction that makes wonder if she or her narrator is capable of complex thought. (Not nice, I'm sorry!) The details she chooses for her protagonist to focus on do nothing to add to my interest. And they come in an order that makes the protagonist seem somewhat scatter-brained. It's fine exposition, but not great, in my opinion. I'm not going to say The Hunger Games is great, but as I happened to be rereading it yesterday, I feel comfortable saying this is not up to the same caliber despite any similarities.

@Wreybies this is where a section for book critique might come in handy. We could talk about just what makes this book "bad," and what qualities might have made it effective enough to get published--assuming someone has read it.

 

Isn't that what this sub-forum is for?

 

Hmm, it's not a copy of Hunger Games? Then I feel a little bad for the author. It would be unfortunate for your creative idea to come out at roughly around the same time as someone else's similarly creative idea because people will make comparisons and assume one influenced the other.

Of course in this case, the similarities between the two stories seemed to only help them in terms of popularity. They both became big movies, after all. Still I'd feel a little ripped off even though I wasn't...

 

Yes and no. I recently asked about implementing a place where we could/would post small samples from books, stories, or poems that have found success (whether they are good or bad), and then talk about specific elements in a way that's similar to the workshop.

 

I see.

 

So you're saying the book would be better titled Convergent?

 

I shelter myself from tripe like this by only reading things canonized by the literary establishment

Snobby? No...Just culturally insecure

 

As in the Formula items converging? Then, yes!