Another dystopian novel with similarity to The Hunger Games but with much better writing. The author makes great use of vocabulary and the world she creates is original and thought-provoking. Roth explores values and what happens when people focus on only one good thing. She also explores fear and overcoming it with such effective descriptions that many times I noticed my own breathing was quickened, my heart rate was elevated, and my palms were sweating. The story does not have a love triangle for which I was grateful as I think that particular plot device is getting pretty tired. This is the first in a trilogy and I look forward to the next installment (Insurgent) to come out this spring. Exciting, interesting, and a definite page-turner, Divergent is
something more substantial.
Beastly is the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast set in modern NYC. Despite Kyle's goth transformation in the movie, in the book he really is a beast. Not quite lion, wolf, or bear, he walks upright but looks like an animal. That slightly major detail is more true to the fairy tale and far less believeable as a love story. I couldn't decide if I liked his beastliness or not. Other than that I thought this was an enjoyable read. Super fast- definitely an airplane book, but entertaining. The language and writing is on a 14 or 15 year old level but some of the subject matter is too mature for 14 year olds (at least in my opinion). Sex is alluded to a couple of times. The beast also spends his nights fantasizing about sleeping with his true love. There are no details, but I wouldn't feel comfortable with my 13 year old daughter reading it. The writing in this book is not nearly as good as any of the Jessica Day George fairy tales which include a great deal more character development and attention to detail. Although Beastly is not very substantial it was fun refined sugar that only took about 2 hours to read and I would like to read more of Alex Flinn's fairy tales.
