Variant

Oh man, you guys. This book! In one word: intense. In two words: intense and surprising.

I usually figure out the plot of books way before the end, but that was not the case with Variant. It literally kept me guessing to the last word.

If you like suspenseful books, I hope Variant find its way to your reading list. Saying it's suspenseful is a major understatement. I stayed up until 2 am to finish this book because I had to know what was coming. After a particularly gruesome scene, I found myself reading to know what the outcome would be. I told myself "just one more chapter" to see. But what I found made me stop and ask myself "what just happened?" So of course I had to keep reading. And that's just what I did until I finished the book.

I loved discovering what was going on at Maxfield Academy right along with Benson. He had his suspicions and I had mine. We both found surprises-- lots of them.

Benson is a great narrator. He has major flaws, which makes him very likable. I imagine if I was in his situation, I might feel a lot of the same emotions. His voice came through loud and clear without sounding forced or fake. The other characters were also great in their supporting roles. Robinson Wells did a phenomenal job of layering everyone with such mystery that it was hard to assign a label. I was constantly guessing, right along with Benson.

I can promise you, when you think you have this book figured out, get ready. There will be some insane twist that will throw you off and make you question what you just read. Fantastic. Because I enjoyed this book, I went ahead and reserved book 2 from the library because I have to know what is coming next!

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.