Review - Divergent... (YES, I finally read it!)

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth

Summary:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Review:

WOW… so where do you even start with this? I will say, that at first I was skeptical, not only because everyone said it was good and like the Hunger Games (which I LOVED) and it just didn’t seem likely that EVERYONE liked it, but also because of the premise. The story is set in the future, I guess, and everyone is split into 1 of 5 factions of Virtue (this is the part that sounded weird and made it unlikely that I would like it.)

At the age of 16 you must decide to stay with the faction you grew up with (where your family is) or leave (everyone you love) to go to a new faction. But in order to enter a faction as a member, you have to first go through initiation, which is different according to which Virtue the faction has. (Example- the Selfless faction of Abnegation has to volunteer for a month, and the honest faction of Candor has to go through extensive lie detector tests and answer every personal question they can think of in front of everyone so you never have to feel like you must hide something or lie)  

BUT if you FAIL initiation (like MANY do) then you are factionless- which is horrible. You are poor and friendless and community-less. Basically its REALLY bad.

So… weird, right? At the WISE (see the sarcasm there??) age of 16 you know enough about yourself and the world to decide the rest of your life??? I don’t know about that.

BUT even though it doesn’t SOUND amazing, it really is!!!!

Its not like the Hunger Games to me, but it is amazing. You follow Beatrice (who later is just Tris) as she leaves Abnegation (the selfless) to join the Dauntless (the brave). See, at 16 you take this test which advises you which faction to choose, but for a very small group of people, the test is inconclusive because they could conceivably fit into more than one faction. These people are Divergent. Tris is Divergent…

At first you don’t really know what that means to the story, just that its not a good thing because the leaders don’t like it. Tris decides to be Brave… Initiation is CRAZY hard and a few people die and you already know going into it, it is impossible for everyone to make it.

Then you realize the Bigger picture and Tris has to step up to the plate. And it just gets crazy good. Man, I could go on and on about this book, but I really don’t want to spoil it. I guess technically this already has a few minor spoilers… but nothing you don’t learn at the beginning of the novel.

 

Anyways, I could barely put the book down. The tension builds and builds, and you realize (very early on) that the author isn’t afraid to kill off some main players. Like holy crap, talk about people dying!!!  ANYWAYS… again I don’t want to spoil anything.

The characters are all so real. I believed Tris. I believed IN Tris. Veronica does an amazing job at SHOWING you everything instead of telling you. She does an amazing job at making you understand what the characters are feeling!!!! Like, reading this book I just wanted to take notes about how to write better!!!

There is even a little romance in this book. It isn’t the main focus, but its big enough to mention. It is so sweet and precious and I LOVE IT. I love the way you could FEEL how they feel! And Four (though I HATE the name) I LOVE him!! Oh man!!! Honest, strong, dependable and real. He has weaknesses and a sad past, but is stronger for it!! these characters have SO much depth, which makes the romance SO much more real!!

There is some crazy action, and the things the Dauntless have to do are wild and outrageous. I couldn’t do it, for sure. I think I would probably be factionless because I don’t think I could fit into ANY of these… L

Oh well. All that said, I don’t have the second book yet… but I will get it very soon, and im very sad the third book isn’t out yet. There wasn’t a huge cliffhanger at the end, but I can tell the story goes on!

Overall- AMAZING book with great story line with awesome writing, unique concepts, awesome action scenes and even some sweet romantic moments. You MUST read this book!!!

Rating: 5 Stars