Divergent by Veronica Roth
Read: December 26th, 2013
Release Date: April 25th, 2011
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Pages: 487
Price: $9.99
“I don’t want to be just one thing. “I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest.”
In Beatrice Prior’s futuristic dystopian world, life is divided among factions: Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). Without these five factions, life in dystopian Chicago would cease to exist. Each faction serves a purpose, creating different jobs for different faction members that help make their city function.
Beatrice grew up attempting to be a selfless human being. Her faction, Abnegation, taught her to always think of others before herself, but she longed for something more. After her sixteenth birthday, on selection day, Beatrice readies herself with her older brother Caleb, whom she is sure, will choose Abnegation, and remain with her parents in her home faction. Beatrice is torn between the family she loves and being who she truly is—which is not Abnegation. During her selection process, Beatrice finds out that she is something special—Divergent. However, this different word isn’t a good thing, and Beatrice is sworn to keep this to herself for fear of punishment.
During her selection, Beatrice makes a choice that forever changes her fate, causing her to leave everything she has ever known behind in hopes of finding somewhere she truly belongs. Her choice isn’t the easiest however, with a competitive initiation that could rival most boot camps. No longer Abnegation, Beatrice renames herself Tris and joins the Dauntless faction to free herself from confinement. Once in the belly of Dauntless headquarters, the initiates must compete with one another, undergoing grueling physical tests, simulations, and hazing which end in brutal consequences for some recruits.
As Tris begins to build muscle and become stronger she has to decide who her true friends are if she is ever going to make it through initiation. Not only is she up against kids from other factions, but Dauntless requires even their own faction students to compete in initiation, something that has most of the initiates rattled.
Tris catches the eye of one of her leaders who shows special interest in her. His name is peculiar, a number, something that means absolutely nothing to Tris, but everything to him. He attempts to try to help Tris in any way that he can so that she will make it through initiation. Having never acquired male attention like this, as the Abnegation frown upon public displays of affection, Tris has no idea what to do in her current situation. She must focus on the initiation and not allow herself to become sidetracked over a boy who is just as difficult to figure out as the daily challenges set in front of the initiates.
Tris has kept a good lock on her secret since being told of her divergence during her selection as it could mean death. She knows what it means and how she is different, but when a single night changes everything she ever believed about her family, her faction, and her world, perhaps a little divergence could save her loved ones—or it could destroy them.
I loved this book, and I will tell you why in a separate post because it will be long and in depth. With that being said, it was definitely an amazing book. We aren’t just talking about a love plot here, we are talking dystopian novel that crushes everything you have believed so far about the world in which you have entered. The writing is simple, yet effective. As you may, or may not, have noticed, I finished this in a day, followed by the sequel in two days, and the third book two days after that. Overall, I swallowed this series whole, and I miss it terribly. I became so immersed in the characters that I felt like an initiate along with them, turning page after page to find out what was to become of Tris, and how her world had turned against her.
Breaking The Binding 