Divergent
By Veronica Roth
Katherine Tegen Books February 2014
496 pages
From the library
Beatrice Prior is a member of the Abnegation faction, which prides itself on selflessly governing their community and caring for others. Since she is sixteen, she and her peers must choose whether they stay in their own faction or join another. Tris chooses to join Dauntless, the faction charged with protecting the city. The members of Dauntless are brave and daring, traveling by jumping on and off of moving trains, climbing the tallest towers of the city, and learning to fight. Tris must pass several tests to become a full member of the Dauntless faction. She is mentally and physically stretched to the limit. But Tris has to deal with more than just the normal gauntlet of testing: she is hiding a secret.
I did that bizarre thing where I saw the movie and then read the book. When the book and then the movie first came out, I didn't think it would be something I would like. My husband put the movie on one night and I expected to sort of half watch the movie. Instead, I found myself engaged and watched the whole thing.
Divergent looks pretty long but it is always moving. The action is consistent as Tris decides which faction to join, fights to make it through initiation, and discovers the dark side of her society. There is real fear for Tris that she could get cut from Dauntless since she is small and weak compared to many of the other initiates. While all of the action makes for some compelling reading, it also leaves a lot of holes in the reader's knowledge. We get limited information about why the society became the way that it did and it makes sense because Tris wouldn't know. A society divided into factions is the only life she has ever known. But I wonder if Tris and the reader get some more information in later books about when and why the world changed.
This book is fast-paced and has equal parts action and coming-of-age as Tris decides where she belongs and who she can trust. It can't seem to escape comparison to The Hunger Games as both series become major hits in both the bookstore and at the movie theaters. It's difficult for me to judge one book against an entire series, but I will say that Veronica Roth had an intriguing idea and I will be interested to see how it plays out in the rest of the series.
Divergent looks pretty long but it is always moving. The action is consistent as Tris decides which faction to join, fights to make it through initiation, and discovers the dark side of her society. There is real fear for Tris that she could get cut from Dauntless since she is small and weak compared to many of the other initiates. While all of the action makes for some compelling reading, it also leaves a lot of holes in the reader's knowledge. We get limited information about why the society became the way that it did and it makes sense because Tris wouldn't know. A society divided into factions is the only life she has ever known. But I wonder if Tris and the reader get some more information in later books about when and why the world changed.
This book is fast-paced and has equal parts action and coming-of-age as Tris decides where she belongs and who she can trust. It can't seem to escape comparison to The Hunger Games as both series become major hits in both the bookstore and at the movie theaters. It's difficult for me to judge one book against an entire series, but I will say that Veronica Roth had an intriguing idea and I will be interested to see how it plays out in the rest of the series.
