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book reviews: Divergent and White Cat
Aug. 14th, 2012 08:57 pmIt's not really fair to compare these books - Divergent is a first novel and White Cat is experienced author Holly Black at the top of her game. However I happened to read them at the same time so a double review it is. (And they do have a little in common, each being the first book of a YA SFF trilogy.)
White Cat was awesome, book two is in transit to me right now and I can't wait for it to get here because oh my god. I did not know much about this book going in and thus don't want to say too much here so that other people can have the same great reading experience but I will just say: three-brothers fairy tale with gangsters.
Divergent felt a little bit like it had been assembled from other popular series - take the teen-on-teen brutality and fucked-up system of The Hunger Games, add the house-sorting from Harry Potter, mix in a little train riding and skyscraper ruins from Uglies and Extras for excitement. I don't mean to say that I think the author, Veronica Roth, actually *did* that in like a cynical or calculating way; a YA writer is also probably a YA reader and thus may well have had those books naturally percolating in her as influences. But I do sort of think the conversation between her agent and publisher might have sounded like that. And, you know, it's fine - everyone likes house-sorting, and the action-y bits whenever Tris climbs or jumps off of something are good, and there's some nice stuff about the relationships between different virtues, and virtues and vices. But I don't think I'll bother reading the next one, I just don't care what happens to these people.
I would also like to add about Divergent that there were a couple of scenes that bothered me in a threat-of-sexual-violence way - it doesn't go beyond groping, but I found those bits quite unpleasant to read, and I don't think of myself as being hugely sensitive about that sort of thing, so, be forewarned. Also ( a spoiler relating to said uncomfortable content )
Huh, and after thinking about it more, I do have an actual comparative thought regarding these two books, namely that ( MAJOR SPOILER FOR WHITE CAT )
White Cat was awesome, book two is in transit to me right now and I can't wait for it to get here because oh my god. I did not know much about this book going in and thus don't want to say too much here so that other people can have the same great reading experience but I will just say: three-brothers fairy tale with gangsters.
Divergent felt a little bit like it had been assembled from other popular series - take the teen-on-teen brutality and fucked-up system of The Hunger Games, add the house-sorting from Harry Potter, mix in a little train riding and skyscraper ruins from Uglies and Extras for excitement. I don't mean to say that I think the author, Veronica Roth, actually *did* that in like a cynical or calculating way; a YA writer is also probably a YA reader and thus may well have had those books naturally percolating in her as influences. But I do sort of think the conversation between her agent and publisher might have sounded like that. And, you know, it's fine - everyone likes house-sorting, and the action-y bits whenever Tris climbs or jumps off of something are good, and there's some nice stuff about the relationships between different virtues, and virtues and vices. But I don't think I'll bother reading the next one, I just don't care what happens to these people.
I would also like to add about Divergent that there were a couple of scenes that bothered me in a threat-of-sexual-violence way - it doesn't go beyond groping, but I found those bits quite unpleasant to read, and I don't think of myself as being hugely sensitive about that sort of thing, so, be forewarned. Also ( a spoiler relating to said uncomfortable content )
Huh, and after thinking about it more, I do have an actual comparative thought regarding these two books, namely that ( MAJOR SPOILER FOR WHITE CAT )
