Divergent by Veronica Roth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book - I've always been a fan of apocalyptic/dystopian stories, and this one is one I might consider "the thinking man's Hunger Games.  I loved that series - because it was fast paced and left lots to the imagination (you never really know why the United States because Panem, for example).  Divergent is not as fast paced, and some have criticized the first part of it for being boring, slow, or lacking in action.  I disagree.

What I really like about this book is its language, and the way introspective teens might relate to it.  Tris (short for "Beatrice") lives in a world of the not-too-distant future in a ruined Chicago (like the Hunger Games, you never know exactly what catastrophic even has taken place), where people are assigned to 'factions"'.  There are five factions - Abnegation (Selflessness), Amity, Dauntless, Candor and Erudite.  At 16, individuals are tested and required to choose a faction and are initiated by the chosen faction.  If they don't make it through the initiation the become 'factionless', which is essentially the equivalent of the Untouchable caste in Indian society.

Tris is tested and is found to be Divergent - that is, she doesn't strongly favor any one faction, which makes her dangerous. She chooses a faction, and tries to keep the nature of her divergent character a secret.  Her choice of factions, however, sets into motion a chain of events that will jeopardize her own existence, but more importantly, the stability of the only society she has ever known.

This is a well-written YA book that, like the Hunger Games, offers an alternate world for escape and allows for imagination to run wild.  The subtext, however, of the effects of stratifying society into organized 'factions', in my opinion, makes "Divergent" less of just another appealing, fast-paced YA dystopian novel and more of a genuinely thought-provoking piece of literature that adults and teens might enjoy reading and discussing together.



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