I’ve read a lot of shit in my life and I sometimes sit and wonder what books should I add to my collection, what books I should admit that I already read and what books I should never go near to.

My latest effort involved this Young Adult piece known as Divergent, and I must admit that Veronica Roth‘s book was entertaining and fun, though not so deep or special in the sea of special little snowflakes that’s the Young Adult genre these days. I loved that it has a fast pace and a dystopian world, but the lack of originality speaks of the author’s inexperience.

Of course, being a Young Adult book, Divergent deals with love and sighs and mushy feelings, and most of the time the way Roth chooses to deal with this is bearable to say the least. There are moments when you feel like you kinda wanna throw up, but you don’t feel like throwing the book onto a wall or something, so you just keep on reading. I fell asleep with the book in my hands every night since I started reading it, so I guess that speaks for the addiction one could develop for Divergent.

Even though the book doesn’t benefit from a strong female lead (let’s be honest, Tris-formerly-known-as-Beatrice is not quite the role model one would expect), Divergent has a certain charm that comes from the story of an oppressive government and from the story of a society arranged in classes and „factions”. The political aspect of the Divergent world is not so well explained or, maybe, I have too many hopes for this kind of books.

The characters are plain shallow, but in some degree that’s understandable. Given that 90% of the population in the book is 16yo, „superficial” should come as a compliment, really. People never know what they want, what they should do, some of them are fighters, some of them are not. Meh, teenagers, people, teenagers!

Tris is interesting most of the time, but too confused, as a 16yo girl should be. Her romantic interest seems perfect, of course, but she can do it without his help, yo! Four seems handsome enough, though, and I must admit that, at moments, I felt like reading some kiddie Sandra Brown and that was the only thing that kept me reading!!!

I’ve read my fair share of bad books, and Divergent is not one of them. If you look for something fun and easy, that doesn’t challenge you (too much), or doesn’t require much of your time and/or commitment, Divergent should be on your list.

I hate the comparisons with The Hunger Games trilogy, since those books are so much better, everything has layers under layers under a deep sea of shit that hits the fan almost every second, but yeah, the premise is quite similar and that’s where all the similarities end. Treat this book as a standalone piece and don’t confuse it with the greatness of Hunger Games. Also, take these 3 stars (out of 5) I’m giving it, Divergent deserves them.