I HAD TO READ DIVERGENT BEFORE IT CAME OUT IN THEATERS...

I have a confession to make.
Perhaps more than one confession.

First confession:
I joined a group dictating what I should read (http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/books-to-read-before-they-hit-theaters-this-year)

Second confession:
I LOVE IT!
It's like going back to college English 101 and devouring the reading list.
(Yes, I did that.)

Third confession:
I'm not reading the list in the "correct" order.
This is primarily because I had some of these books on hand and others I had difficulty locating.

But this is supposed to be a review for DIVERGENT (and I am digressing).

I gotta say I love these graphics.

I just finished this tonight, and--to be honest--I feel a bit bruised and battered. Perhaps this is a good sign, that I am feeling--quite intensely--what Tris felt. Beaten. Bleeding. Wounded. Shot. The list goes on and on...

And, of course, there is the perhaps justifiable argument that it appears that violence as entertainment seems to be an increasingly dominant force in YA literature.



I am perhaps middle-of-the-road on this topic. I do not seek nor shun violence, but I want it to be present for good reason.

There were a few times that DIVERGENT stepped pretty close to the line where I thought "this is too much", but then I got drawn back in to the story and all my doubts disappeared.

I am very excited to see the movie version.



Fourth confession:
I love watching movies on screen.
I like seeing the characters come to life, I like the costumes and setting, and (perhaps most of all) I like to hear music in the background.
Yes, sometimes I am disappointed. But not always.
Just think of how amazing it is that ALL THOSE Harry Potter movies were done so PERFECTLY up there on the screen.

Fifth confession: I've been spying this image everywhere
and had to have it for my very own.

But let's go back to the book.

I'd describe it as fast-paced action interrupted by an occasional stunning thought.

I liked how family was important to Tris.

I appreciated how she was torn. This book was so well written that I felt everything: the doubts in her head, the wind in her hair,

and the bruises on her body.

Well done, I say. I give this book 4.5 stars. I just have to figure out how to give a book the 1/2 sign on GoodReads. Anybody know how to do this?

I'm looking forward to the second book in the series...

AFTER I finish the rest of my homework (1 down, 15 to go).

What did you think of DIVERGENT?