Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Thanks everyone for the beautiful comments on yesterday's post. I've met so many lovely people since I started blogging here in March, I'm incredibly lucky.

I bought Divergent to take away on holiday, pulled in by its shiny cover, my love of all things dystopian and favourable mentions on blogger. Also because it was part of a three books for the price of two special in Eason's book shop on O'Connell Street. Hey, there's a global economic crisis on don't you know?

Whatever the reason, I'm glad I picked this one up. Roth's writing style is engaging and full of beautiful imagery that easily evokes a dystopian Chicago. Tris is an interesting character, though I wish we had gotten to know her family a little bit more before everything changed.

There's not much that I can say about the plot, without rapidly wading into spoiler territory, but I really liked this gritty YA novel. There were some parts that I didn't buy, like the trains looping round the city constantly for the sole use of the Dauntless faction, but generally it was a solid enjoyable novel.

The ending is obviously set up for a sequel, but I didn't get that annoying feeling that the sole purpose of this book was to set up the sequel. This is becoming very common lately with the rise of popularity of book series. I'd recommend any fan of YA or dystopian fiction to pick this up, it's well worth a read.

Oh, and I think I'd plump for Erudite, if you're interested ;)

Check-In-Tuesday: Holiday Edition

I'm on holiday so I'm not writing, and I'm also away from my email account and my mailbox, so I'm also not getting rejected. Which is good, rejection on holiday is not good for relaxation. So what is there to talk about, you ask? Books. 

Books+Time to Read= Happy Christine. 

Here are a few of the books that I'm hoping to get through on holidays.

This is one YA book that I've been meaning to read for a while. It's been getting great reviews on the blogosphere and seems to be one of those books that divides the YA community down a 'those that have read it, and those that 

haven't' line. I'm very excited about this one.

This book is about a group of women who have different backgrounds, but one thing in common: they all have cancer. The author herself has suffered from an aggressive form of the disease itself. I was hooked by this line on the back 'the experience of facing and fighting this illness is life-changing - and even life enhancing'. As a fibromyalgia patient, I like to see books with this theme, that explore the difficulties of illness without wallowing in self-pity. Illness really separates you from people, and it's something we don't talk about enough. Also, the author signed it in pink pen, how sweet is that?

 

I got hooked on the HBO series, so now I just have to read the book. It's great as a historian to be able to read a story inspired by the medieval age, and not keep getting dragged out of the story by anachronisms and mistakes. What, they're drinking water? But pure water was undrinkable in the medieval age, that's why everyone drank beer. Even kids drank special 'light' beer. (This is a true fact). But wait, this is a fictional world! So people can drink the water.

*Any recommendations? Reading is an all round thing, I'll need new titles when I come back from holiday*

*These blog posts are scheduled, so I'll respond to any comments when I come back*

*Miss you all!*