Review Detail

Variant by Robison Wells is a sort of combination between Uglies by Scott Westerfield, Harbinger by Sara Wilson Etienne, and Divergent by Veronica Roth (more on Divergent later). Altogether, I think it’s a pretty good mix, and while I don’t feel that Variant is “unique” strictly speaking, I did really enjoy it.

This book’s storyline was good. The suspense and mystery were well played, though it sometimes felt like Benson was waiting for the answers to fall into his lap instead of actively searching for them. There were twists that I liked, though they fit very snugly into a pre-existing mold. But altogether, Variant was a very good story.

Benson’s narration, too, was well done. His thoughts were logical and flowed nicely, thanks to Wells’ neat, effective prose. I definitely appreciated the male point of view and the clarity in Variant’s narration. As a result this was an easy book to like and to follow along with.

I was honestly quite worried by the many, many similarities between Variant and Roth’s Divergent, especially since both books were released only a few months apart. Bad planning, on the publishers’ part, to have two eerily alike YA dystopian debuts coming out on the market around the same time.

I, personally, liked Variant best of the two, though I think I would have liked it more if as I was reading I didn’t feel like I was re-reading Divergent, plot-wise. Very, very close storylines between these two books.

Curiously enough, even the titles come from the same place—Tris is a member of the “Divergent” group, Benson joins the “Variant” gang.

I wonder if Robison Wells and Veronica Roth have read each others’ books…

Verdict: I really really liked Variant. It was a fast-paced, suspenseful book with a likable lead character and good writing. I did feel, though, that something was missing, though I’m not quite sure what. And definitely, the Divergent vibes I got from Variant kept me from wholly loving it.