Review: Divergent

Beatrice "Tris" Prior has reached the fateful age of sixteen, the stage at which teenagers in Veronica Roth's dystopian Chicago must select which of five factions to join for life. Each faction represents a virtue: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite. To the surprise of herself and her selfless Abnegation family, she chooses Dauntless, the path of courage. Her choice exposes her to the demanding, violent initiation rites of this group, but it also threatens to expose a personal secret that could place in mortal danger. Veronica Roth's young adult Divergent trilogy launches with a captivating adventure about love and loyalty playing out under most extreme circumstances.
-Good Reads



Stats:

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 1, 2011
• Page count: 487
• Unique elements: 5 factions idea (maybe not totally unique)
• Would appeal to: Hunger Games fans, Matched fans

Favorite Quotes:

"A pale ring of sunlight burns into the clouds like the end of a lit cigarette."

"Eric smiles, and in the blue light, his smile looks wicked, like it was cut into his face with a knife."

"'And Molly...she's the kind of person who fries ants with a magnifying glass just to watch them flail around.'"

"His touch is light, sensitive. A heavy, warm feeling, like spilling honey, fills my body, slowing my thoughts."

Now I see what all the hype was about.

This book has been selling out at bookstores. It was on the NY Times Best Sellers List for 11 weeks in a row.

As far as world building goes, this dystopian one is pretty solidly put together.

The romance is wonderful and almost made me do a happy dance! Veronica Roth really thought about her characters' interactions, how each touch means something. Just enough sexual tension sprinkled throughout to make you long for the main couple's next interaction. I love when the girl can never tell that the guy has a crush on her and misinterprets all his signals because isn't that how we are as teens?

This might be the first book I read straight through to the finish (with normal disruptions like grocery shopping) in one day in a very long time.

It's very similar to The Hunger Games...strong female lead who's considered weak, must go through lots of training. At least one person there to protect her, but she still has to make major split-second decisions on her own. Death lurks around every corner.

Not all happy endings for the characters, which I appreciate, as it more closely reflects real life.

I like that at first I thought I knew who Tris's crush would be, then I picked someone else, then I knew for sure.

I totally guessed a secret from Tris's mom's past before they revealed it, as well as the secret identity of her initiation leader Four. It was nice that the author dropped subtle hints in the text along the way.

I did like the ending...sets it up perfectly for two more books to follow. Can't wait for the next one (she wrote the first draft in eleven weeks!) Also, movie rights have been sold!

If you are a fan of figurative language, Roth's similes are pretty amazing.

I also liked the names of each faction and that the reason for each faction wasn't revealed until the Choosing Ceremony.

Great read. I couldn't put it down. I would recommend to anybody. Still, I'd give it about a 4.5 out of 5 stars. If I hadn't read The Hunger Games first and seen quite a few similar ideas, I would definitely have said 5 stars.