Divergent

I have been wanting to read this book FOREVER, but as the months passed and more and more exciting new books were being published, this one just got pushed further and further on the back burner. Well, this week I found I had a little extra time, so I pulled this one out, and all I can say is ...I AM SOOOO GLAD THAT I WAITED UNTIL BOOK TWO WAS OUT TO BEGIN THIS ONE!!!I loved this book so much! I don't think I could have handled waiting months to see what happens next. If you haven't had the chance to read this book, you totally should. It has all the elements that a good dystopian fiction should have.The details:Divergent is told in 1st person narration by Beatrice, a sixteen year-old girl living in a post-apocalyptic city standing on the remains of modern-day Chicago. Beatrice lives with her brother and parents in one of five factions that make up the world where she exists. Each faction emphasizes one trait over all others, hopefully placing people with desirable traits into the part of society that best matches their instincts and leads to a better society. There is no mention of what led to the demise of our current world and led to this new way of governing. Beatrice's faction is one that values self-sacrifice and altruism. But at the beginning of this book after a test to show which faction best suits her, Beatrice finds that her results are inconclusive, making her Divergent, something that is dangerous enough to the society at large that her tester goes to some lengths to hide her anomaly of a result. Beatrice chooses to leave the faction of her parents to join Dauntless, the faction that emphasizes courage and fearlessness as they prepare to be the security forces of this world. My explanation probably makes it seem more complicated than it really is. The world building is simple and understandable, and I could immediately feel the possible good of this world while also recognizing the danger of their system very quickly. As a Dauntless initiate Beatrice becomes Tris and goes through a series of brutal tests to see if she has what it takes to be a full member of Dauntless. It is during those tests that she meets Four, a seemingly cold and driven trainer who is tasked with getting them prepared for the tasks ahead. It turns out that Four is more like Tris than she could ever imagine, and there is more going on in this world than she would have thought possible a few short weeks before her training. All is not as it seems in this world, and there are forces that consider Tris and those like her to be a threat that must be either harnessed or eliminated.My thoughts:I loved the character of Tris. She was tough. Really tough. But she was also incredibly vulnerable. She has left all that she has known to enter a faction where ruthless behavior is valued, and others are quick to push her down in order to further their own goals. I really enjoyed her struggle to figure out exactly who she was and how she fit in this world. Okay, enjoyed probably isn't the right word. I should say that I found her fascinating. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have to only really focus on one personality trait, suppressing all the others. Can that even be done? Tris really struggled with this, and as she worked through all of the crazy emotions of this experience I could really, really relate to her. That is always a sign of a well-written main character. I loved that she could complete a tough task without completely breaking down, but then turn around and freak out about everyday common new relationship issues. The world may be crazy all around us, but there will always be teenage relationship angst.Four is the male counterpart to Tris. Because he is not narrating this story we don't get to learn as much about him and his inner thoughts. I like it like that. He's more mysterious and interesting that way. He has his own inner demons to deal with, and I have a feeling that there will be lots more to discover about him in future installments in this series. The romance between Tris and Four was well-written. This is not a book where the romance takes center stage. These two don't just automatically jump into each other's arms and declare their undying love for one another. There is a slow build to their feelings that I really appreciated. It made things all the more sweet at the end.This is a really quick read. I would say that the writing in this book is a bit simplistic, but considering the fact that the narrator is a sixteen year-old girl, I think that the writing style actually creates the right "feel" for the book. I really could see a girl her age telling her story in such a way. This is told in present tense, and I HATE it when books are written in present tense, but for this one I was engrossed enough in the story that I never had much time to gripe about it.What a mess of a world is left at the end of this book. I can't wait to see what happens next. This is a book that I would highly recommend to anyone from middle-school to adults who love a good and interesting dystopian story that makes you think, makes you swoon, and makes you cringe, all while giving you further witness of the goodness that can be found in humanity, even in the most controlled of circumstances. Five stars!

DIVERGENT, by Veronic Roth, is a post-apocalyptic novel about a future society in which the roles people play are determined by the "factions" to which they belong. Residents of Roth's world choose their faction at the age of 16 - Abnegation (for the selfless), Dauntless (for the courageous), Candor (for the truthful), Erudite (for the intelligent), and Amity (for the compassionate). Sixteen-year-olds are given a series of psychological tests that determine which faction would be best for each, although the final choice rests with each individual. The title of the novel refers to the rare individuals who are "divergent," meaning they do not demonstrate a clear link to any one of the five factions. They, Roth suggests, are uncontrollable, and thus a danger to the status quo.The novel is narrated by the protagonist, 16-year-old Beatrice (nicknamed Tris), who learns that she is "divergent," although she is given little information about what that really means. At the start of the novel she must decide whether to follow in her parents' footsteps and become a life-long member of Abnegation, or choose the more exciting and tempting Dauntless faction. Most of the first half of the novel revolves around Tris's initiation into her chosen faction. The second half deals more with the unrest between the factions and Tris's attempts to prevent a war that threatens to destroy the world she knows. There is an element of romance between Tris and her 18-year-old initiation instructor, Four, and the novel is full of intense action scenes, violence, and exciting plot developments.While I did enjoy DIVERGENT, I must admit that I am not fond of present-tense narration, which I find artificial and tedious. This is a very popular writing style right now, however (Suzanne Collins had great success with it in her HUNGER GAMES series), so most readers will probably not be bothered as I was. I also had a little trouble understanding exactly why any government would choose to divide its population into five groups of personality types (it felt a little bit like everyone was living in a Myers-Briggs personality type workshop!) - what would be the benefit to society of having people separated into factions like these? As Roth defines it, all of the leaders of the society come from the Abnegation faction (because they are supposedly selfless), all of the counselors and doctors come from Amity (because they are compassionate), all of the jurists and lawmakers come from Candor (because they are truthful), etc. It makes little sense for sixteen-year-olds to randomly chose a faction which will ultimately determine the course of their lives - nor does it make sense to keep these five very important qualities of human existence separate and disconnected. Leaders, for example, need intelligence, courage, honesty, and compassion just as much as they need selflessness.Ultimately, I think all human beings are "divergent" - we carry within us elements of the five qualities represented in the novel. Roth suggests that the society's attempt to lock its citizens into five specific boxes is an attempt to control them, to weed out individuality (which is the seed of greed, selfishness, and lust for power), and to create a more harmonious world. Obviously, that doesn't work. As Tris's mom says late in the novel, "Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again." That's a very common theme for post-apocalyptic fiction - readers will be reminded of such novels as ENDER'S GAME, THE GIVER, and HUNGER GAMES.DIVERGENT is a fast-paced and often exciting novel that will not disappoint fans of the genre. I am also very pleased the Roth gives DIVERGENT a real ending, even though it is the first of a proposed trilogy. Almost every novel being published these days is part of a trilogy, and so many of them leave the reader hanging for a year or more between books. DIVERGENT certainly does leave plenty of room for more story, but it doesn't end with a cliff hanger. And for that especially I applaud Roth.Three stars for the novel itself; the fourth star is for the much-appreciated ending.