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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