Monday, November 5, 2012

Recently Read

(I am FINALLY getting around to posting about these books. You will have to forgive my lateness, which is probably going to make for a pretty crappy post, but here goes nothin'...)

A few months ago I read a few books that I thought I would share about because I liked them so much. After reading The Hunger Games (HG) by Suzanne Collins, I have been itching for a good read. I really loved HG, however, the writing style was not up to par for me. I found my taste for "a book as good as HG" sad, because HG was not the best written book I have ever read. I had been doing some tootling around on some blogs and found a list of books recommended by the author of a particular blog that I frequent. I went out on a limb and just bought one of the books she recommended, hoping it would be good. The first book that I read was called Divergent by Veronica Roth.



Image via www.goodreads.com


The reason I was excited to read this book was because it is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, which intrigued me after reading my very first post-apocalyptic novel, HG. It is also about a young girl who is coming of age in this post-apocalyptic society, which divides its' people into five factions by distinct personality traits/characteristics: honesty, intelligence, peacefulness, bravery, and selflessness. In order to be apart of one of these factions, you must prove to the people in the faction that you belong there by a series of "tests" designated by each faction. If you don't complete the tests up to their standards (which you might not survive), you are placed into a group of people (more like the "untouchables" of the society) known as the "factionless." The main character is at the age where she must choose to either stay with the faction she was born into (stay with her family and everything she has ever known) or leave her home, reject her family, and choose another faction, even if it is where she thinks she belongs. Like HG, this book presents its' readers with many questions of social norms as well as ethical issues. It was a thrilling read for me (not for my husband, he made me stop reading it to him at the climax of the book, boo) and also, very thought provoking. I actually thought it was better than HG in most instances. My husband disagreed.

The other book that I read (as soon as I stopped reading this one) was Divergent's sequel, Insurgent.


Image also via www.goodreads.com


This book was just as good as the first (which HG did a bad job at). I gobbled it down in a short time, and was left wanting more and more! Unfortunately, the last installment of the trilogy is not to be released until next fall.

I highly recommend both of these books to anyone who liked/loved HG, or who loves good books, period. They are considered "Young Adult" reads, so if you are not into that, I wouldn't read them. 

Anyone read anything good lately? I am looking for some good books to read over the holiday once my semester is over with (yep, back to no pleasure reading books while in school, BOO!). I will also do another review if I read anything good (I have read a few books since then, but they weren't good enough to do an actual review on). 

Hope everyone had a good start to their week! Is anyone else as tired as I am at about 6pm once it is already pitch black dark outside?! Darn you, time change! 

No comments:

Post a Comment