newwavepolly

I was actually kind of shocked at how much I didn't hate this???? Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that good and I wouldn't go as far as to say I liked it, but as far as current young adult fantasy/dystopic nonsense goes, this wasn't that bad. The characters, though a bit empty and one dimensional, weren't terrible or silly or too stereotypical and the plot had some good ideas. As for the writing, it wasn't great (but I had expected that).

Divergent's biggest failing is the shared failing of most current YA fantasy/dystopic attempts - horrible world building. That's the thing that sets these books apart as being more juvenile and frivolous than their contemporaries like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter (I'd even group Twilight in, despite its failings, the world building is fairly well done). Instead of fantastic worlds and dystopian societies, you get very vague ideas horribly executed and under-developed. And some of these vague ideas are pretty good, with a lot of potential, but the world building is so bad and so unnatural that the stories end up trite and ridiculous.