"Divergent" think it goes in the 'how is this a best seller?' category.

Don't confuse interest with craft. Good, interesting, appealing, or entertaining are not the same as well-written. My favorite examples are Heart of Darkness and Paradise Lost. Both are masterfully written, but most readers today would find them awful. As a matter of audience, craft has changed since this time, and new forms can be considered good, but within these forms the same guidelines apply



This is a rocking chair, hand-crafted by famous Californian carpenter, Sam Maloof. It may not be the most interesting, the most beautiful, or even the most preferred, but it is well-crafted. Extremely well-crafted. Is that a matter of opinion, but those who understand the craft generally see why it is. Some people don't necessarily like the leg divider at the front of the seat. It's a matter of preference, but the Maloof's technique is flawless.

Writing is the same, although more open-ended. That's what I'm driving at.

Another example is film many people enjoyed the Transformers movies, but there were many technical flaws. It is what it is. Some people don't mind the flaws others do. Neither Divergent nor The Hunger Games are generally regarded as great literature. Both have their flaws, my point is that one is more technically sound than the other and there are better books out there than both.

By all means, have your own opinions, and don't take this as me claiming some authority to shoot you down. I'm not doing that in the slightest. I'd have no grounds for that anyway.

If you want more discussion on what "well-written" means, feel free to read through, and chime in on my other thread: "Well-written" Well what does that mean?
Lots of good perspectives there.

 

I could not finish more than fifty pages of The Hunger Games, and I could not finish the trailer to the movie Divergent. They're all publisher-bait, pandering to the lowest common denominator. I do not read YA, and I have yet still read better YA.

 

Got to say this is one of them books that sounds better as a movie. Seriously I gave up after reading 75% of this book, there is little to no action. If you want a pathetic "copy" of the hunger games; people split into factions and a love story. Then you will love it, if that isn't your cup of tea I'd stay far away.

 

I'm going to go on a rant about Divergent for a minute so bear with me.

It was a good plot. But the meaning was too obvious. In the city there are five factions that represent the social classes (selfless people, intellectuals, addrenalline (not spelling that right) junkies, and the brutally honest ones). The "Divergent" are the ones that don't fit into a single category and could join any faction. They represent the people that jump between social groups. They're hated and in the end hunted within this post-apocalyptic city. The writing isn't exceptional at all and the romance is predictable. That's the first book. The second book is just kinda there. The third book made me want to punch Veronica Roth. It tried even harder to push a social issue and it was a pathetic attempt. It also was a failed attempt at continuing a series that had to just die.

Okay, now onto the movie. Bad casting. The only person who was good was Shalline Woodly. Didn't Four have a British accept? What the hell? Random pop songs would start randomly throughout the movie and it was dumb. I think they got some plot parts wrong but I can live with that.

 

I read the first few chapters and I agree with Andrae in that it's perfect if you don't read into it too much. For me it is next to impossible not to read a chapter of a story, latch on to it, and then begin asking questions so early in the game that make me want to read further and find out of those questions are answered. This, if I'm not mistaken, is how the majority of fanfiction comes to being.

Divergent isn't poorly written, but it does pander to the audience that is still riding the curtails of The Hunger Games and I admit I read the first few chapters because I wanted a fix. That's not Veronica Roth's fault, they're books written in the same genre and the marketing execs put them out there so close to each other in order to cash in on a successful trend. But the reason I lost interest in Divergent is because of the whole "Choosing" ceremony.

Wait, so they take this all important test and they can still choose what faction they want to go to? That horrible oppressive society!

Dystopian fiction isn't new. The Time Machine could be considered the first foray into Dystopian fiction, with the divide between Upper and Lower resulting in the evolution of mankind into two separate species, one cultivating and feeding on the other. Just like others, Divergent addresses certain flaws in our own current society that could not realistically work on a much larger scale. In this case, that aspect is the unfair standards set by "career assessment" tests and other arbitrary forms of testing that go on in schools.

As to the question of why it belongs in the "best seller" category, well, best seller just means that people are buying it. That doesn't judge the quality of a book any more than the box office figures on opening night determine how good a movie is.

 

It's riding the Young Adult wave like The Hunger Games. That's why it's a best seller.