Divergent
by Veronica Roth
Copyright:2011
Pages: 487
Rating: 5/5
Read: March 8 – March 13, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 11
Format: Print
Source: Purchased new
Series: Divergent Trilogy #1
Blurb: In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are–and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
Review: You may remember me mentioning in my review of Attachments that I had signed up for some Goodreads challenges, one being where we were encouraged to read outside our comfort genres. This is another book that I chose for that challenge.
So what did I think? Honest to goodness, I LOVED this book. I surprised myself by how much I truly enjoyed it. I really took to Tris’s character. And Four. I think I may have had a little bit of a crush on Four by the end of the book.
I think my only complaint about this book is the lack of background. We just jump right in. What happened to put the City in its current state? Why the factions? Why the hatred between the factions? What caused all this discontent? I hope the other two books address this.
This book was about initiations. We got to see all the training that Tris had to go through to become Dauntless. It was unrealistic, to say the least. There’s no way anyone could have survived what they had to go through. Okay, maybe some people could have – I sure wouldn’t have, ha! It’s this training that sets up for whatever is going down. We get a little bit of a preview of what is to come in the last few chapters of the book. But now I’m anxious to know what will happen next!
I am still amazed that I liked this book as much as I did. I liked it so much that I’m going out to buy Insurgent.
Highly recommended.
Tales of a Book Addict 