A Review of Divinitive: Book One
Divinitive are just like humans, except their ancestors were gifted super-human powers by a demigoddess many years ago. Humans have always been suspicious of divinitive, frightened that their powers make them dangerous. For centuries, the divide between humans and divinitive has grown. Humans call divinitive freaks and half-bloods. Divinitive are forced to hide their powers, fearful of being treated as social outcasts simply for how they were born.
Plot
The concept for this book is great. There are interwoven stories and a number of complex subplots that make this an epic fantasy. However, for a book in this genre, the pacing was slow, especially at the beginning. It felt like a number of scenes of characters doing mundane things could have been cut to expedite the plot. Since there are multiple points of view in this book, it also contributed to a slower plot, as each time a new point of view is introduced, the tension is slowed down with backstory.
Characters
With such a complex storyline, there is bound to be a large cast. But I didn’t expect such a large number of points of view. By a quarter of the way through the book, there are five different characters who tell part of the story. This made it difficult to feel connected to any one character, especially because early on I wasn’t sure which character would be the protagonist that I need to focus on. I would have liked to see the story just told from the point of view of Sophia, who feels the most like the protagonist, and Lucas, an opposing character that shows another view of the plot.
Setting
The world in this book is so intriguing and the author does a great job introducing it. I loved learning about the different gods of this world and the concept of the Divinitive, a special race with god-like powers. Through the story, we get to see a lot of Divinitive and different roles they play in the world., as well as a number of different settings. I was thinking about the Divinitive and the setting long after I’d finished reading.
My Recommendation
Divinitive: Book One is the first book in S.C. Boy’ds Divinitive series. The author lays a great foundation for the rest of her series with this book, but I’d like to see some adjustments to the series going forward. The large number of points of view affectedthe pacing and connection to the story, but I definitely recommend this book to fans of the gods and goddess genre. The world offers a new take on the genre.