Divergent

The cover is finished! The cover is finished! Are you ready to see it? Are you??

Well, unfortunately I don’t ACTUALLY have it, but I’ve been assured that it’s finished and that it’s brilliant, and that I’ll be able to show you all tomorrow.

Ahem.

The cynical among you may begin to suspect that all of this is the result of bad planning and borderline incompetence on my part, as I had promised to reveal the cover oh, maybe two weeks ago.

However- the nice and the kind and the generous among you might recognise this as a cunning way of drawing out the mystery and building the excitement, and regard all these delays and missed deadlines purely as brilliant marketing on my part.

It is, of course, entirely up to you to decide which of these kinds of people you are- cynical and suspicious (boo!) or nice and lovely and so very pretty (yay!).

So, while we wait for the cover to be revealed tomorrow, I now have a Blog post to fill, and I want to mention a book I’m reading which I think is brilliant. It’s called Divergent, and it’s by Veronica Roth, a new American writer. I’ve read the first hundred pages here- http://browseinside.harperteen.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780062024022 - and I absolutely love it so far. It’s set in a Dystopian future- because those are ALWAYS the best kind- where the population splits itself into Factions according to their personality traits. People are always telling me I must read The Hunger Games- and I will, I swear I will- but Divergent grabbed me from the first paragraph, and now I’m pretty much helpless.

Aside from the great idea at its centre, this book is REALLY well written. I make no apologies for the fact that I’m a snob when it comes to the quality of writing- no matter how wonderful the premise, I simply can’t read it if the words don’t flow like they should or the characters aren’t genuine. I reckon I’ve improved as a writer since the first Skulduggery, and the later books are much better written than the first one (even if the first one remains my absolute favourite), but Miss Roth seems to have bypassed that awkward debut-writer stage completely. If she’s this good now, how good is she going to be in five books’ time? Scary good, is the answer.

If you’re looking for something new to read, click the link above and try it out.