Divergent (Divergent #1)

First off, I have to commend Veronica Roth on going as intense and as dark as she did. Often times, I feel like authors want to write a truly gripping novel, but often back down from fully committing out of fear of retaliation from the readers. However, Roth sticks you on this roller-coaster from the very beginning, straps you in, sets the speed to keep-your-heart-lodged-in-your-throat-and-your-stomach-at-your-toes, and you just pray you make it to the finish line unscathed.

Beatrice (Tris) Prior is a sixteen year old girl on the cusp of making the biggest decision of her life. In a dystopian setting, what we now know is Chicago has been divided into five factions. These sectors are divided into the cultivation of certain virtues- Abnegation(the selfless), Candor (the honest), Erudite (the intelligent), Dauntless (the fearless), and Amity (the peaceful). Brought up in the faction of her parents, Abnegation, Tris can either choose to stay there or risk never seeing her loved ones again and pick another place and lifestyle to call her own.

The thing that I truly loved about this book is the right of choice. In most books of this particular genre, it always seems like the main character's life has been predetermined for them. The adversary tells them what to wear, who to love, where to live, and how to live. This isn't the case in "Divergent." Each sixteen year old is given an aptitude test to help them understand which faction is better suited to their personality, but the ultimate decision is up to them. Just as Beatrice says, "The tests don't have to change our choices."

This story is basically the grueling initiation process of where Tris decides she wants to be. It's the growth of her character as her mind, body, and spirit are put to the test time and time again. I felt invested in her storyline, her life, and her survival as well as those around her. Her overall characterization was refreshing and likable. I adored her sarcasm and strength, as well as her determination to prove to herself that she may look weak, but she's not.

As far as the secondary characters, I loved many and loathed a few. I actually really appreciated the diversity because at least I had an opinion of them at all. All the characters felt necessary and three-dimensional, thus adding to the depth of the plot and my investment in the story. Then, there's Four. He's the mysterious, swoon-inducing yet often times frustrating and indifferent male lead. There's not much I can say without spoilage, but just know that he made me weak in the knees and every single touch made me a shivering, flailing mess.

This is one that I would buy and reread multiple times. I absolutely can not wait to read the rest in the series, and I have good faith that they'll be just as good, if not better.

Veronica Roth, you rock my socks!

Loved this book, could not and did not want to put it down. Tris is a great heroine and look forward to reading the next book. Loved Tris strength, determination and passion to follow her own path.

This is definitely the next big series!! I would not, could not put this book down!!!! It's got the action of Hunger Games, the love story of The Mortal Instruments, which in my book, makes it absolutely perfect!

Tris is an amazing heroine--not fearless, but ambitious and determined. She does not let anyone push her around. Yet, she is still vulnerable. In fact, those moments where we see failure, tears, and bruises are the moments that make me relate to her the most. She's not a superhero which makes Divergent believable. I felt like I was watching the future unfold before my eyes! And I can't wait for the future of this series to be revealed!

AND THEN THERE WAS FOUR!

Oh gosh, I don't even know where to start. One of my absolute favorite hunky guys! He's dark, mysterious, and quite fierce on the outside--just the way I like my men. But then take a closer look. I love the way Veronica Roth lets us peer into his head and see what frightens him, what frustrates him, and what entices him!

This is a must read. If you haven't read it, I demand you go straight to the bookstore and purchase it! You won't be let down!

I just had to re-read Divergent after I realized that I never reviewed it the first time. What can I say? When a book takes your breath away as easily as this one does, it's hard to write a coherent review. Now that I've taken another shot at it, well it's not going to be much easier but I'll try to make sense! Let the fan girl reviewing commence!

Veronica Roth has built an entirely new dystopian society. One that relies on factions to keep things at peace. Unfortunately for everyone involved, that peace is only a superficial sham. What follows is a story that made me burn through these 400+ pages in a matter of hours. Divergent isn't something that you should start to read before bed time. It's the type of book that you'll want to finish once you start, whether you currently have the time or not. The writing is gorgeous, the society is perfectly built. Let's face it. There isn't a single thing that I didn't love about this book.

Which brings me to the characters. Seriously, the best part of this story. Tris and Four normal people. Realistic in their flaws and strengths. They are strong characters who are so easy to get behind. Tris isn't a shrinking violet. She isn't someone who sits around and waits for other people to take care of her. No, Tris can take care of anything that comes her way, even when she's terrified while doing it. She may selfish and temperamental at times, but that just shows the reality of who she is. Pardon my French, but Tris is bad-ass!

Then there is Four. Tris' equal and opposite all rolled into one. Strong willed, and yet with a heart. I loved how he didn't treat Tris as a weak-willed girl. He treated her as someone who was worth his time. Oh, and the best part? No love triangle! Do you know how refreshing that is? It's just Tris and Four, two people who are stubborn, strong-willed and care for one another despite all odds. This was a huge part of why I loved Divergent so much.

I've been looking for a series to fill the hole that The Hunger Games series left behind. Something with a driven plot and a kick-ass heroine. This book? Completely filled that void. I finished reading Divergent with my mouth wide open. All I know now is that I need to get my hands on the next book in the series as soon as possible. This is book addiction at its finest, and I'm more than willing to give in to it.

I set out on this review carefully, and in hopes that people will not hate me too much for it. I did not love Divergent; in fact, I wavered between a rating of 2.5 and 3. Part of the problem, I suspect, is likely the hype. The fandom did such a good job of convincing me that this dystopia was flipping awesome that I bought it at full price without having read it, something I pretty much never do...for good reason, apparently. To my mind, Divergent does not deserve the crazy amounts of hype, and definitely is not one of the better dystopias I've read.

My problems, though, are much more widespread than just expectations set to high because of the blogosphere's immense love for this book. Let's just go in order as I experienced my big three issues, shall we? First off, there's the writing. I realized on the first page that Roth writes in the stereotypical YA style that I loathe: short sentences that are rarely compound, mostly simple words, and lots of dashes. The writing in Divergent is only marginally better than the writing in Twilight. I make this comparison not because it's common to compare every YA book to Twilight, but because that really is the book Roth's writing reminded me of.

Next up is the world-building. Maybe it's just me but this society does not make one lick of sense. You probably know, if you follow YA fiction at all, that this world is divided up into five factions based on a personality trait: Erudite (intelligence), Dauntless (bravery), Abnegation (selflessness), Candor (honesty), and Amity (kindness). Lol whut, right? How did this happen?
"‘Decades ago our ancestors realized that it is not political ideology, religious belief, race, or nationalism that is to blame for a warring world. Rather, they determines that it was the fault of human personality—of humankind’s inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is. They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world’s disarray.’"
Right. Because the obvious way to remove disarray and prevent people from fighting is to break them up into groups. They'll be separate but equal. In fact, each faction is responsible for a different aspect of making the society run. Abnegation, since they're so selfless, run the government and mete out resources. Amity farms. The Erudite think things and make technology. Candor run the judicial system. The Dauntless defend from any possible external threats. Am I the only one who thinks this is the worst idea ever? Who would ever have agreed to this plan?

Not only that, but a big part of being in a faction seems to be hatred of certain other factions. How is that healthy? To eliminate evil, we will separate into groups and resent one another. This is supposed to come off as a recent development, I think, but I really can't see how it could ever be any other way, since certain personality types just won't necessarily mesh well. If this were the real world, the Dauntless would probably have overthrown everyone as soon as they were unhappy with a governmental decision, since they're THE ONLY ONES WHO KNOW HOW TO FIGHT AND THEY HAVE ALL OF THE GUNS.

Oh, and I need to say a little bit more about those factions they developed. I've heard the factions in Divergent compared to the houses in Harry Potter, but that's not what I thought of as I read about them. I like to think of the factions as 'fratorities,' a word I made up to describe a gender neutral fraternity or sorority. At the age of 16, the kids of this world have to essentially rush a faction/fratority. Then they go through initiation, and if they don't pass they can be kicked out. Just like the fraternities and sororities on my college campus, each of these has a different mentality: the friendly ones, the partiers, the smart ones, the trustworthy ones, the ones that do community service for their job applications. Perhaps it was because we so few older individuals in the book, except for some parents, but there was a very childish, fratority feel to the whole thing.

The other nigh insurmountable issue with Divergent to my mind is Tris. At the best of times, I just could not believe that she's particularly special. At the worst, I wanted to throw her off the cliff more than Peter did. Since she was divergent, she was supposed to basically fit into each faction equally, but I just didn't see that. She did not strike me as especially brave, honest, kind, intelligent or selfless, despite all the attempts to prove her so. She struck me, in fact, as very average. This is fine and could have been a good thing, except that I was constantly told how unique and amazing she was. I feel like is she's divergent, than probably about half the population should be.

The other thing that really bothered me about her was her inability to be a good friend, and how incredibly mean she was. The perfect example of this is in her treatment of Al. On the very first night in Dauntless, she's in her cot, trying to sleep and resisting the urge to cry. Then she hears Al crying and thinks: "I should comfort him---I should want to comfort him, because I was raised that way. Instead I feel disgust. Someone who looks so strong shouldn't act so weak." Wow, really, bitch? It would be okay if he was an itty bitty girl like you, but big, masculine men aren't allowed to cry? This just makes me so incredibly angry. She later befriends Al, but always secretly thinks of him as a wussy baby. This is not okay.

However, you may notice that I went with a 3 rating, so I didn't hate it, even if I did flirt with a meh. Well, the 3 is because I think I will be reading the next book, because I would like to know what happens next. I do kind of like Four, and I hope he'll have more of a personality in the next book. I also liked Christina and Will and, assuming their both alive, might enjoy Insurgent more if they had a larger role.

To conclude, I think this book has been vastly over-rated. I recommend it in the same way I would recommend The Selection: with caution and to people looking for a fun, fluffy read. This one has more darkness and violence, but is ultimately satisfying to me in precisely the same unhealthy way.

I love this series, I love the Roth is a new, vibrant face in the YA fiction world. I love that she is herself young and reaches out to her fans in a way that is relatable. I want to be her best friend!

You guys, this book was amazing and fantastic and awesome and every other adjective for "great" that you could possibly think. As I tweeted during my reading, books like Divergent are the reason I fell head over heels in love with dystopian.

I really loved all the characters, even if it didn't happen until near the end for some. Tris has the perfect rate of growth throughout the story. I could totally understand her thought process, but I don't think I could ever be half the awesome kick-a** character she is. If I were to make a team of super-tough and awesome main characters, so would definitely make the cut.
It took me a little while to warm up to Four, but I finally did. I may have even fell in love with him a bit ;P At first I just thought he was okay, you know, not horribly mean but not exactly the kind of guy I'd go for either. But then, somewhere along the lines he became one of those dreamy YA boys you just want all to yourself.
The side characters were great too. Christina and Will were fun and kept things interesting.

The story itself was fantastic, but once again I was left wondering about the dystopian world history. I suppose that never really happens in the first book of a series though. It still worked fantastically. I doubt I'd miss the history if it wasn't one of my favorite aspects of dystopian.
The whole story was great, but that ending! I was up until 3 having myself a little sob fest (I don't consider this a spoiler since I didn't actually tell you anything) finishing it up.

Final Thoughts: Divergent was an amazing start to what is sure to be one of my favorite series. This book has the whole package: awesome characters, fantastic setting/world building, lots of action (but not too much), and just a hint of romance. In short, you should go out and buy this book (because you will love it) and then proceed to tell everyone you know how awesome it is.

If you like this, read Insurgent and wait at the edge of your seat for Veronica Roth’s third book.

This book is by far one of my favorites. After this was recommended to me by my librarian, I didn't know what to expect. I quickly realized how amazing this book really was. I walked to school whilst reading (almost running into things in the process).
As soon as I met Beatrice I felt empathy towards her. I really got how hard the choosing ceremony must have been for her. The writer really shows you that. After she made her decision, I was beyond engrossed.
When she met Four I felt like I needed to get to know him as well. As their relationship progressed, I fell in love with him.
During the high part of the book, I needed to know more and keep reading (which is what I did).
When the story ended, I ran out and bought the next one, needing to read that one as well.
Over all, this book was amazing.

Full review to come.

However, in short, I was not impressed with the world-building or the writing of this one. What a disappointment.