Divergent

Dani's rating: 5 stars Steph's rating: 5 stars Overall rating: 5 starsDani's review:If you judge a book by its cover, you might notice the cover's resemblance to The Hunger Games symbol of a mockingjay enclosed in a circle. You might also wonder what the word "divergent" means.The dictionary definition of divergent is "tending to be different or developing in different directions". The key word is different. Dystopia young adult fiction is becoming more and more popular since Suzanne Collins's introduction of The Hunger Games. I have read young adult dystopias such as The Hunger Games (of course), Matched by Ally Condie, and Delirium by Lauren Oliver, but this book provides some serious competition for the king (or queen?) of dystopias, The Hunger Games.Tris is such a strong female protagonist, something that has become rare in the realm of YA fiction. The book begins with Tris preparing to take her aptitude test. The aptitude test supposedly will decide which faction she will fall into. Later in the story, Tris learns that the aptitude test is not a good judge of who you really are. The factions have become more corrupt over the years, as Tris learns when she encounters Eric, one of her instructors in the initiation process. Eric is one of the major antagonists in Divergent and wants the factions to be run a different way. He has a different view of what each faction should be doing.Of course, there is a romance. Tris's other initiation instructor, a mysterious and somewhat aloof boy nicknamed Four, begins to work his way into her heart from the very beginning."I roll off, and I would have fallen face-first onto a wood floor if he had not caught me. "He" is the young man attached to the hand I grabbed. He has a spare upper lip and a full lower lip. his eyes are so deep-set that his eyelashes touch the skin under his eyebrows, and they are dark blue, a dreaming, sleeping, waiting color." -Tris's first impression of Four.Four is not your normal swoon-worthy YA book boyfriend. He is not a particularly sympathetic person, but Tris wouldn't love him if he was. He tries to protect Tris in every way that he can, but he has his own fears that Tris must help him conquer. I love that this was not a "love at first sight" story. The romance started slowly through a student-crush-on-hot-instructor relationship, a kind of admiration for this ideal member of her faction. Four sees how brave and selfless Tris is, and sees someone who might actually understand his broken past. And yes, Tris does help Four begin to unravel the tangles and snags of his past.The basic plot of this book if Tris trying to survive her initiation process. Only the top 10 of possibly 20 (not telling you how many initiates there are) initiates will fully join the faction they chose. Some were born in the faction, and others were transfers. Those who do not make it become factionless, essentially the homeless of this dystopia world. Loyalty is very important in this world, as shown by the phrase and pledge "Faction before blood."Also, there is a shocking surprise near the end of this book that involves Eric, Tris's instructor, and another major antagonist. Tris is one of the few who is able to save her original faction and the faction she transferred to because of a special "mutation" in her mind. She will have to hide this special aspect of her mind because the leaders of each faction will most likely kill her if she reveals it. Why does she have to hide this? Will Tris be able to claw her way up to became a full member of her new faction? Will she be brave enough to fend off the various obstacles, both mental and physical, thrown in her way? What happened in Four's past and why is he called Four? All of these questions and many more will be answered if you read Divergent!Steph's Review (she feels the need to do one for this book): Before picking up Divergent (actually, the only reason I even bothered to pick it up was because of Danielle's recommendation), I had some serious skepticism about it. I admit I read plenty of reviews on Goodreads and lots of people said things like ,"It was so Hunger Games like", and "just unoriginal". It got pretty high ratings, but I thought the 4-5 stars were from people who just wanted, and got, another dose of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games. I started reading Divergent, thinking I would only be disappointed in the end. Well gosh was I wrong. Remind me not to doubt your judgement too much again Dani. One lesson I learned from reading this book: Just because a book is in the "dystopian" genre, that doesn't mean that it will be a Hunger Games or 1984 copycat. Divergent follows the story of Beatrice (Tris), who has a choice to make among the 5 factions of her nation, which will map out certain actions in her life: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intellectual). She has to take an aptitude test to see which faction she fits the most strongly into, which is supposed to help her in her decision-making process, even though it honestly isn't a good test for your real feelings. But things don't go as expected for Tris, and she is left with a decision: her family, or her independence and freedom. She wants both, but she can only have one. Which one does she want more? If she chooses family, she will be shackled to the rules of the Abnegation faction for the rest of her life--"you must always put others before yourself", something that is has never been easy for Tris from the start. If she chooses her independence and transfers to a different faction, she will never be able to see family again. Her choice is pretty obvious at this point, but I won't spell it out, just in case you don't put the pieces together. She must face the challenges that come with her decision, obstacles that she never knew she would have to overcome. She learns, the hard way, that your decisions can bring consequences unto yourself and those you care about. This plot is NOTHING like the Hunger Games. Hell, this book doesn't even have a dystopian feel to it in the beginning since Tris has a choice. The aptitude test didn't decide for her, it only gave her strengths and weaknesses. If I was a total clueless and I didn't ever hear about Divergent as a dystopian novel, I would have read the 1st half of the book thinking that its world was just a completely fictional world with the story of a girl's problems in her faction. Things do seem to turn upside-down for Tris later in the book, but I love that her earlier experiences can make her tough and strong for what is inevitably going to pass. There is a love story here--between her and the one nicknamed "Four", but it is pretty subtle in the beginning especially since Four seems like the cold-hearted bad boy :). It was nice to see Tris help Four with his fears; I think they really strengthen one another. No, this love story is not a "ridiculous-love-story-that-Steph-hates". All in all, I would recommend this book to people that are particularly fond of the dystopian genre. It's a great model book. If you aren't a big fan of dystopias, I would still say to give this one a chance, because it might make you like the genre a little more. It isn't a book that is heavy on the oppression, so much so that it is noticeable within the first few chapters of the book. You never really get a empty-stomach sense of foreboding, only butterflies because you are so excited about what's going to happen next. I was reeling throughout the entire book, and I had a hard time falling asleep after putting it down. The dystopian feel creeps in slowly, so that it feels natural and that it should be there by the time you actually notice it. Veronica Roth shows the reader glimpses of the corruptness in the system while Tris is learning of the same thing. You can...become Tris in this book. A full 5-stars! P.S. I stayed up until 3 A.M. to read this book. Then I had to force myself to go to bed when I had 50 pages left of it.--Steph and Dani @ A Walk on Words

I was a fan of dystopian fiction nearly two decades before the awesomeness that is Katniss Everdeen came along to knock Bella Swan’s pathetic ass off the YA bestseller charts. As is generally the case when a genre I quietly enjoy becomes the latest fad – and yes, this has happened to me more than once – I regard the bumper crop of new arrivals with a combination of excitement and skepticism. Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” had been on my Amazon wish list for several months, and although I thought it sounded intriguing, I also thought it sounded a bit gimmicky. Since it seemed to be selling well enough, I figured I’d grab a copy in a year or two when this year’s fad reads turn up on the shelves at Goodwill. There was no sense of urgency about it – until I learned the movie was coming out. I have a lifelong policy of never seeing a movie based on a book unless I’ve read the book first, and since my husband and I have a standing Tuesday-night movie date, it’s not at all unusual that a book skyrockets up my to-read list thanks to a Coming Attractions poster.Some books are so amazing that I put them down thinking it almost doesn’t matter anymore if the movie is any good, or even if I get to see it at all; I’m just grateful that it was made because otherwise, in a world of so many books and so little time, who knows how long it would have been before I got around to reading that particular one. “Divergent” wasn’t quite that good, but it was good enough to drive my casual excitement regarding the movie to a mild fever pitch. Before I even finished the novel, I downloaded a free e-book full of brightly colored stills from the film and studied them so I could better picture the characters and settings as I read. I’ve taken probably a dozen online “What’s Your ‘Divergent’ Faction?” quizzes, I’ve checked out some of the music from the soundtrack, I’m even trying to talk myself out of wearing Erudite blue and putting my hair up into a schoolmarmish bun when I go see the film. Really, fangirl much?“Divergent” is the kind of novel it’s easy and fun to get really, really excited about. The premise of a society divided into factions according to personality traits is a bit implausible, perhaps, but then again, I’ve spent my whole life daydreaming about a world where I could surround myself with “my kind,” and I imagine I’m not the only one. In Roth’s futuristic Chicago, everyone decides at the age of sixteen which personality trait s/he wants to define the rest of his or her life: selflessness (Abnegation), kindness (Amity), honesty (Candor), courage (Dauntless), or intellect (Erudite). Her protagonist, Beatrice “Tris” Prior, isn’t quite sure that she belongs in Abnegation, the faction in which she was raised, but the virtual-reality “aptitude test” that she hopes will tell her where she belongs only complicates matters. It turns out that Tris has roughly equal aptitude for life in Abnegation, Dauntless, or Erudite. Tris had never known such an inconclusive result was possible – but immediately she learns that there’s something dangerous about being “Divergent,” something that could get her killed for reasons she won’t begin to understand for several hundred pages yet.I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to relate to Tris as a character, knowing in advance that she was going to choose to join the Dauntless faction – the one faction for which I personally have no aptitude whatsoever, at least none that wouldn’t better qualify me for Abnegation or Candor. Of course, some of my favorite heroines have in abundance the kind of physical strength, emotional resilience, and mental toughness that the Dauntless prize – but they tend to be hardscrabble survivors like Katniss or mystical “Chosen Ones” like Buffy Summers. It is choice, not necessity or the Powers That Be, that has Tris jumping off moving trains and the roofs of buildings, practicing hand-to-hand combat, getting multiple tattoos - so I wasn’t sure I would feel much of a connection to this young thrill-seeker. I needn’t have worried. Beatrice Prior is a fully-realized, multidimensional character; Roth doesn’t just tell us what it means to be Divergent, she shows us. Having aptitude for multiple factions makes it harder to adapt to any one in particular. Although the action sequences in this novel are varied and thrilling, the real excitement here is in Tris’s psychological journey, as she discovers not only strength and selflessness and courage she never imagined she had, but also cruelty and vulnerability. There’s romance, here, too, and it manages to be exciting and sweet without ever dominating the plot. And although Tris’s love interest is much too young for my tastes – and heck, he would have been much too young for my tastes even when I was Tris’s age – I can’t help having just the slightest little bit of a crush on him.The premise couldn’t quite suspend my disbelief – really, is it reasonable that faction leaders would expect initiates raised in other factions to discard sixteen years’ worth of carefully cultivated attitudes and habits overnight? Is it reasonable that such open hostility would exist among factions created specifically to be interdependent? This isn’t necessarily a flaw, however. In my opinion, “Divergent” is less a realistic glimpse of a feasible future, (a la “The Hunger Games” or “1984”), written to draw attention to potentially problematic trends in present-day society, than a sort of dystopian parable written to draw attention to potentially problematic trends in human nature (a la “The Giver”). Maybe it’s a little silly to think that we could ever get so caught up in promoting one virtue that we would actually discourage the simultaneous cultivation of other virtues, even while recognizing their necessity – but we DO have a tendency to see the world in terms of “us” versus “them,” to try to fit the people around us into a preconceived mold of how a person “should” be, to proclaim “tolerance” as a cardinal virtue without actually practicing it. (By definition, you can only “tolerate” that which you cannot wholly approve.) What Roth has to say about human nature is important and unpleasant and true. I suggest you try to get a copy of the novel that includes the faction manifestos, or at least look them up – comparing and contrasting the founding principles of each faction with what it has become is an interesting exercise that underscores the story’s theme.Other reviewers have noted something of an anti-intellectual bent to this novel, as the Erudite faction is presented in a largely negative way. Tris’s father claims that the pursuit of knowledge leads to a hunger for power, and nothing in the novel ever refutes this. I would be very disappointed if that represented Veronica Roth’s own view, but for a number of reasons, I don’t believe it does. She is a very well-read young woman who has expressed interest in and curiosity about any number of subjects. (At the time of the interview printed in the edition I bought, she had a special fascination with “the northern lights and the social organization of ants.”) Within the fictional world itself, there is something of a long-standing enmity between Abnegation and Erudite, so it makes sense that Tris, born and raised in Abnegation, would reflect some of the prejudices of her home faction. The aptitude test reveals Tris to have an aptitude for Erudite, as well as for her home faction of Abnegation and her eventual chosen factor of Dauntless; courage and selflessness are principle themes in this novel, but although Tris is clearly intelligent, her aptitude for Erudite plays no role in the story at all. Since Roth has stated that she envisioned Tris’s story as a three-book series from the beginning, I have to assume that she made Erudite a facet of Tris’s Divergence for a reason, and that Tris will explore and integrate that aspect of herself in the other books. I expect that there will turn out to be good and bad people in Erudite, just as there are good and bad people in Abnegation and Dauntless.“Divergent” is fast and fun and well worth the read, and Beatrice Prior is a character you’ll love getting to know. I’m looking forward to seeing her on the big screen Tuesday after next . . . and, probably sometime this summer (so many books! so little time!), picking up “Insurgent” and learning even more about her vividly drawn and fascinating world.

Like Brave New World this novel deals with different groups (Abegnation, Dauntless, Erudite, Candor & Amity), which contribute to societies functions. Every group has its distinctive motifs, dress and colour. They represent the different sides of human nature taken to the extreme. Abegnatin are the selfless faction where Beatrice is born and the fact that she is divergent, not fitting neatly into any one faction, just highlights how complex human beings are.The induction creates the values and behaviours necessary to reinforce group mentality. Those who do not succeed, or conform, are factionless. This is portrayed as a fate worse than death, as they live outside the bounds of a civilised society. Again a little like Brave New World, a place outside of the compound filled with savages.It is interesting that the author has chosen 16 years of age as the time of choice. An age in the UK where students finish compulsory education. A stage which they are also still pliable and open to new ideas and influences.Like most YA novels it is written in the first person from Beatrice’s point of view and it is though her interactions that we learn about the rest of the characters. We learn a lot about Peter through his shocking behaviour and the way he treats Beatrice. Equally we love and respect Four for his ability as a leader and his care and respect for Beatrice. Four’s role is also contrasted with Eric and we discover that Four is the more able despite Eric’s seniority and obvious resentment.This book is a great example of groups, motifs and team dynamics and how these are woven together. The first person narrative, like the Hunger Games, is relational and exposes the other characters through their words and actions. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.<b>Insurgent</b>Divergent ends with Tris thinking of life beyond a faction, yet insurgent is so much more than this. She still clings to Dauntless as her faction of choice, but she also has to recognise that she is divergent with all the risks associated with this.We discover much more about the other factions in this book, starting with Amity, where they flee to first. Erudite by their nature hold the knowledge of all the faction as well as a secret they would prefer to see destroyed than fall into the wrong hands. It is this secret that drives the story forward as individuals set aside their factions to work together. The reader also sees the strain this puts on Tris and Tobias’s relationship as he works with this father and is reconciled to his mother.The divergent are much more important in this book than the previous one and we learn that there are more members of this group than Tris may have imagined. They are certainly a target for the Erudite and their Dauntless allies. From a political perspective they are the people who think across party lines. This can also be seen in the way Dauntless splits with some siding with Erudite, most notably Eric and those who don’t. Even peace loving, neutral Amity suffers a crisis amongst its members with some needing to fight rather than stay neutral.As the title suggests there is more fighting, violence and torture in this book, but I love the ending. The idea that the divergent are the future and that factions were only a temporary solution to restore order from chaos. I look forward to reading the next book.

To be honest this is not a novel I would normally have splashed out on, as I know it is intended for children/teenagers. But I have always enjoyed a good SF yarn on a dystopia so from that point of view, this was still a most entertaining read.It is written in a very simple style, almost as though the narrator is speaking aloud. This does mean that Divergent will be a very accessible novel to read, even for those who maybe haven't yet acquired stellar reading skills.Divergent is the first book of a trilogy - presumably, all following the adventures of unlikely heroine, Beatrice Prior - or Tris. It is set among the poisoned ruins of a rusty post-apocalyptic world. The city she inhabits - apparently Chicago - is full of dilapidated railways and skyscrapers and is surrounded by mud and marshes rather than lakes. At various points Tris wonders whether these lakes and surrounding countryside could be reclaimed, but this is not within the scope of this ferociously-paced debut novel.At 16, this girl, still with the body of a child, is poised to make the first adult decisions of her life. The trouble is, that some of these may mean that she will have to say goodbye to her family and everything she has known, for good. Then, during her assessment, intended to determine where her future, she finds herself with another problem. She is a Divergent. And that means she could be killed if this is ever found out.....This is a future world where humanity is divided up into five castes, or rather, factions - well six actually, as there is a subgroup of dispossessed and unemployable individuals who are factionless. Tris starts out as a demure Abegnate, who are conditioned always to put the needs for others before their own. Then there are the honest Candors, the intelligentsia, known as Erudite, the peace-making Amity and finally the thrill-seeking Dauntless, who value courage.Each Faction is designed to instil conditioned virtues intended to correct the human evils responsible for war and social discord. Now only Abegnators may be in positions in power, because being devoid of ego, they are least likely to be corrupted by it.Sounds like a good system and not really dystopic at all. But the worm of human evil within the apple is beginning to turn within some Factions.Though long, this novel does not seen to flesh out the details of this future social order, nor what lead to it, nearly as much as readers such as myself might have wished for. What it does do, and with great efficiency, is to create a compulsive page-turner as this Tris negotiates the brutal combat training involved in her initiation into the warrior caste and then the traumatic mind simulations, designed to confront the initiates with their deepest fears to they can overcome these. It is all very dog-eat-dog as this is a process of ruthless elimination and is far removed from the Abegnation way of life as could be imagined.Divergence includes a love interest too, who may or may not have secrets of his own to protect. The relationships does seem rather complicated by the fact that he is supposed to be one of her mentors.Tris ruminates at times whether or not the training truly fosters truly courage in its candidates or whether her initiation isn't more to do with bullying. She certainly seems to end up becoming capable of acts of cruel violence herself, which may not endear hr as a heroine to some. Overall, this is a precipitously savage tale and heads do roll, especially at the end. Still - thus is supposed to be a dystopia and our heroine may have a destiny beyond what she already knows. Either way that may not much bother the adrenaline-fuelled kids who may lap this up, though.Most young people will be confronted with the question on how far to accept or deny what they have grown up with, and maybe risking rejection from the culture that has fostered them so far, which us maybe why novels such as these address so well these angsts. It will be interesting to see how Tris's understanding of the world she lives in develops from here - if she can survive long enough to do so.

It was a good book, nothing earth shattering but it was enjoyable. I liked the thought she put into building a world based off individual values and traits.Its an interesting angle to take, maybe a bit limited in scope but in the case of this novel it does help show the crossover of these traits and the effect it has on the particular individuals in the book.The protagonist is in my opinion rather annoying, I can't put my finger on why she annoys me, I think it has something to do with the fact she believes she's oh so special.... But that's just me. I also have a bit of a problem with the fact that the bad guys *spoiler* are supposed to be the guys who favour intelligence, yet in this case are scared of growth.... A counter to intelligence, again in my opinion.....Anyway, good book, worth the read if you got time and want a nice easy read.

Oh, my. A book FULL of PROMISE. I love clever and detailed world-building, and I found plenty to love here. Of course, comparisons will be made to The Hunger Games as we have a some-what unlikely female protagonist—an underdog, even—in a dystopian world, but I don't feel that either book is lessened because the other exists.Divergent probably breaks a lot of the accepted rules on pacing, and possibly even with regard to 'info dumping' but it woks because the author and readers are at play in a fantasy world, where a lot of words are required to set each new scene and stage. Also, the book is part one in a trilogy so the story arc will span right across the three which creates additional time to dally. That said, there is still a proper story with a beginning, middle and end, although it is clear the further instalments of the trilogy cannot be read as stand alone books.I almost don't know what I want to say about it, except I found myself caught up in the world and really enjoying it. I cared less for the more dramatic parts as some of them read in a choreographed way and were a little telling but, for me, so much of the strength of this story lies in the rich detail of an imagined world that I will forgive almost anything else. The city becomes a character in its own right - a place I'd visit if it weren't quite so dangerous to be there.The blossoming romance between the main characters was very sweet, and I hope they make their way through the following two books unscathed. I stumbled across a couple of things I didn't like, or that seemed unlikely - such as when Tris switched to calling Four by his real name with little second thought. This should have been more difficult for her (as it was for me) and I also found Tris borderline unlikeable at times. She acted both as a selfish child, and therefore a possibly believable naive sixteen-year-old but she also conformed to that richly mined trope of the orphaned (if not dead, parents for this trope are removed from the child by some other means) child in an adult world whom adults defer to for leadership decisions. A lot of the characters in the story are stereotypes, or tropes, but there are two further books to further define them and round them out, so I am happy for now.I am happy to be able to move straight on to book two in the Trilogy (Insurgent) and learn some more about the world, and maybe even get some of my unanswered questions taken care of.I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Divergent is an enjoyable YA thriller. It's uncomplicated, unsophisticated, but chock full of enthusiasm and energy. It lacks the relative complexity of the Hunger Games (which it is obviously modelled upon) but even given the simplicity of the morality within it's a lot of fun to read. In many ways it makes me think of it as 'Uglies done right' - I really didn't like Uglies, which I thought had a lazy premise and a paper thin premise. But it had some interesting bones that a more competent execution could have built upon - Divergent really seems like it fills that niche. The factional system of Divergent is at least moderately believable, even if it lacks the geopolitical nuance of the Hunger Games. The characters are like-able, even though the villains don't get much in the way of characterisation beyond 'look how mean they are'. The story is - well, it's okay. It's much like Full Metal Jacket in that it's very much a book of two halves, and the second half doesn't come remotely close to the quality of the first. But I didn't resent a second I spent reading it, and I'll happily move on to the next one before too much time has passed.