Book Talk - Divergent by Veronica Roth

Sixteen year-old Beatrice Prior lives in dystopian Chicago, where people are separated into the five factions, Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent). Every year the sixteen year-old's of the community must decide whether they want to remain in the faction they were born or whether to switch factions and leave their entire family behind. Whatever they choose they will have to denounce the views of the other factions and devote themselves to their chosen faction for the rest of their lives. For Beatrice she must decide between her family and the person she really is, she can't pick both.  So she makes a choice that shocks everyone, including herself.

What follows is the highly competitive initiation processes were Beatrice has the opportunity to create a new name for herself, she chooses Tris. Alongside her fellow initiates she at first struggles to cope with her choice. As a group they must take part in extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations which for some will have devastating consequences. The initiation will change every single one of them and Tris must determine who her friends really are and if a romance between her and her 18 year old instructor a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy would now fit in to the life that she had chosen.

But Tris has a deep and dangerous secret, one she was warned could mean her death so she hid it from everyone. As her initiation continues she discovers unrest and growing conflict that will threaten to unravel the seemingly perfect society she inhabits, she also learns that the secret she's fought so desperately to keep hidden  might help her to save those that she loves . . . or it might just destroy her first.

First the cover, I'm not sure if this is a newish addition, but it is different to the hard back; however that said I think this paperback version is beautiful.

My first opinion is on the cover, I held off buying this book for a while because everywhere I looked I could only get it in hardback, being cheapskate I waited for the release of the paperback which came in the form of this a cover strikingly different to its hardback counterpart and frankly more beautiful too.

This book as with many that belong to similar genres was marketed as being "the next...." whatever was huge then in this case it was compared to the Hunger Games. I disagree however it's clear it's just for marketing the similarities begin and end in the fact that both books belong to the dystopian genre.

Honestly I think I actually prefer Divergent to the Hunger Games. Beatrice 'Tris' is as Four describes her "tough as nails" Tris embraced her choice whole heartedly. She chooses to switch factions to Dauntless (the brave) she never succumbs to cowardice. Roth's character development is without doubt some of the best on offer in the YA world and I found myself relating to Tris more than I related to any other character, the depth that Roth goes to in fleshing out her character means you understand all the choices that she makes.

As you read you find yourself falling in love with Four as Tris does and let's be honest he's not a hard guy to love. He was a character shrouded in mystery; he wanted to live his life using the beliefs of all the factions’ not just one. But we constantly wonder who he is, and Roth doesn't disappoint when the mystery is finally revealed.

Though this book is part of a trilogy it doesn't really have any unanswered questions and you could finish Divergent and be happy never reading any further in the series if you chose.  It's a resolute ending that had an enticing cliff hanger but it doesn't end abruptly and doesn't leave you pining for the next book more intrigued. Yet it is Roth's talent that makes me want to delve deeper into the world that she created.

The story itself didn't seem at all too far-fetched as some dystopian tales can seem it feels as though the world the characters live in could actually happen.

It is a book that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of Young Adult novels and even more Dystopian ones.

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