Divergent by Veronica Roth : A review.

Author: Veronica Roth
Pages: 487
Rating: 2/5
Link: Divergent

Nothing is stable, the world and the system with which it is governed, cycles continuously. A post dystopian world clamors for stability and a utopian world lives at the risk of losing its balance and dipping into dystopia.

The Divergent by Veronica Roth is a dystopian Chicago, where people are divided into factions affiliated to their personality. At the age of sixteen every teenager has to choose a faction. He can be brave like the Dauntless, Intelligent like the Erudite, Honest like the Candor, Selfless like the Abnegation or Peaceful like the Amity. The fate of not choosing a faction or not clearing its initiation is a fate worse than death as it means being factionless.

Faction before Blood is the idea. Once you choose a faction it becomes a part and parcel of your life. The key to choosing the right faction is through a simulation test that will tell you to which faction you belong. But for sixteen year old Beatrice Price the test doesn’t work. The only thing that would have told her where she belonged, failed to do so.

The choice Beatrice makes at the choosing ceremony surprises everyone. During the initiation in her new faction, Beatrice would go through intense training, competition and the psychological pressure of not making the cut; the threat of becoming a factionless looming large. The stable yet dystopian Chicago is about to tumult into further chaos, and Beatrice must guard her secret more than ever.

Among numerous dystopian fictions, divergent presents a very novel concept. The story is brilliant but the writing is very average. The sentences are simple, short and lack imagination. The whole novel is written in this way: He did that. I did this. She said that. I said this, which makes it very irritating.

I felt that the brilliant imaginative mind that put together the idea did not do justice in putting it into words. The narration is in first person, and immensely boring. The novel reads like a diary of a thirteen year old girl. Reading it was a bumpy experience, with no flow between the sentences. In my opinion, not a single scene was moving enough to connect with the reader. The reader can just skim through the pages even during the most emotional and daring scenes. Everything from romance and comedy to grief reads like a sentence, uninterestingly making the first word meet the last.

The novel does not live up to the fame, the electrifying decisions were not powerful enough, the breathtaking betrayals were no surprise at all, the astounding consequences were of no significance and the unexpected romance was such a cliché.

One for the money by Janet Evanovich: A review.

  My rating: 2/5
Pages: 320
Author: Janet Evanovich

I would have never stumbled upon a Janet evanovich novel if it was not for Katherine Heigl. Random browsing on the Internet got me to the movie starring Katherine Heigl. The trailer looked interesting enough for me to pick up the book, the movie was based on. I have never been so disappointed.

One for the money is the story of Stephanie plum, who lost her job, sold her furniture, appliances and is now living hand-to-mouth with her pet hamster, in dire need of a job. Luckily, her cousin Vinnie has a fondness for girls with pointed breasts, young lads and there was an odd incident of him sodomising a duck. Not that Stephanie has pointed breasts but she blackmails Vinnie into giving her a job. So our soft, plum Stephanie starts as a bounty hunter and her first case is apprehending the town’s bad boy Joe Morelli. The same morelli she lost her virginity to. 

The novel is very ‘chick’. I have no problem with that, but the fact  that it is so poorly written bugs me. Unnecessary information is roped in to fill the sentences. The author tried everything in her power to pen strong characters. A modern grandma, an overbearing mother, an unconcerned father, damsel-in-distress heroine trying to face the world. But each and every one of them lacked a good seasoning. 

The only sensible thing in this novel was the chemistry between Stephanie and Morelli and it might persuade me to pick the second novel in the series.

The writing style is very crass. The narration is horrible. The narration reads more like a series of events bereft of any literary techniques. I was expecting so much from this novel. The jokes are not funny enough, the mystery not thrilling enough, the plot thin and dry, the ending predictable. Not a good read at all.