Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent by Veronica Roth
Published: 3rd May 2011
By Katherine Tegen Books
ISBN: 0062024027
Paperback
Target Audience: YA


My Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


Having read so many good reviews for this, and then, all the hype that surrounded Insurgent, I decided I had to see what all the fuss was about. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Beatrice lives in the Abnegation faction, where everyone is selfless and puts others before themselves. But at the age of sixteen, she takes an aptitude test and can choose a faction for herself, based on her results, at a Choosing Ceremony. But her results don’t go to plan. She is warned to keep them secret, as it could be very dangerous for her if they get out.

When I read about all the different factions, Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite and Amnity, I thought I would never be able to keep up with them all, but I was worrying for nothing and had no problems at all.  Veronica is an extremely talented writer and I really liked her writing style. She kept it simple and it just flowed along easily. Her world building is amazing and the descriptions are so illuminating.

Beatrice (Tris) is the main protag here. For the first couple of pages, I felt I wasn’t going to like her. She seemed weak and compliant. But that was just her abnegation showing and she is actually quite awesome. She is brave and intelligent and her character grows and learns so much in her new faction that she is just admirable. She copes so well with all that is thrown at her even while unsure of how her friendships lie when they are all competing against each other.

Four is also an awesome character. Unfortunately, from reading reviews I knew where this went but I would have loved to be going into this blind. I think I might have seen Four differently. Whereas, I felt that I shouldn’t know whether he is good, bad or trustworthy, but I had a good idea of where things were going with him. I loved the way the romance was played out though.

There are a good number of secondary characters in this book too. They are all written really well and add depth and tension to the story.

The ending of this is where most of the action occurs. It is totally awesome. Things take a turn for the worse and there are some tense moments. Tris really shines and we see how much her character has really grown and that she will be someone to be reckoned with in the next book. I’m really excited to see how things will progress with Four and how they will deal with the devastation that has been dealt to the world that they live in.

Buy the book: Amazon/The Book Depository