Saturday, July 23, 2011

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent (Divergent Trilogy)

Veronica Roth’s first installment of her new dystopian trilogy Divergent simply blew me away. I was not expecting this novel to contain such intensity and emotionality. I usually enjoy dystopian stories, but this one, although much more violent than what I was anticipating, was above and beyond my expectations both with the depth of the characters and the unique plot. The storyline was thrilling, definitely not for the faint of heart.

In this society, each citizen is classified into 5 separate factions based on the virtues that their personality is most suited to. The factions are Candor (honesty), Erudite (intelligence), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful). This seemed a bit strange at first, I was worried that a society of people adhering to such one dimensional views would fall understandably flat. This was not the case however. Veronica has created a fascinatingly terrifying world where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem.

Divergent contained a bit more violence than what I am used to in a YA novel. This was not a negative aspect however. Roth did not shy away from the unexpected character deaths either which I always enjoy in a book as it is conceivable that when there is a war, many people are killed, and highly unlikely that the main characters make it out unscathed.

The main character, Beatrice or Tris as she comes to be known, certainly does not make it through this book unscathed, physically or emotionally. I was fully caught up in her struggles to fit into her new faction and reconcile her feelings about the family she left behind. I loved how she grew as a character, realizing her inner strength while still acknowledging what she is physically incapable of doing. I think that the romance was fairly well written, building slowly as they got to understand one another.

I really can’t think of anything that I did not like about Divergent. I can’t wait to read the next in this action packed thrilling dystopian series.

Rating- 5

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7 comments:

The Phantom Paragrapher said...

Old Follower
Ive got this book in my TBR Pile on my Ebook Reader. Have you read Wither , that blew me away yesterday when I read it -One of my favourite Dystopian Novels.
www.thephantomparagrapher.blogspot.com

The Happy Booker said...

@Phantom Paragrapher

I haven't read Wither yet but it is in my TBR. I'm glad to hear you liked it so much, that makes me want to move it up the list!
I haven't read a lot of dystopian novels, but it seems like every one that I read I really enjoy so I'm going to have to take a closer look at that sub-genre and see what all is out there.
Thanks for commenting.

Lisa_Gibson said...

I have really got to make the time to read this. I keep hearing great things.
Lisa ~ YA Literature Lover

Anonymous said...

I totally appreciate your review for this. And might I just say, that I do agree with all of your points and opinions. Especially about the part about how inevitable death is in a war.
And I really love reading dystopian novels nowadays. Haha.

Donna said...

@PotterHead4ever

As I was looking at all of the books I read this year, it was obvious how much I enjoy dystopians as they made up well over half of the books read in 2011! Divergent was certainly one of the better ones, in my opinions. Thanks for stopping by!!

Aaa said...

So Divergent is voted as the favourite book in Goodreads with reasons ! You make the book sound really interesting and I would really love to read it ! I am very interested with the classifying of people :)

Noely Jeleen said...

Anyway, have you tried reading The Hunger Games trilogy?
If not, I really hope you read it. Just a suggestion though.
If you have read it already, then I'm looking forward to your review of it.
It's among the best dystopian novels that I've read.

BTW, this is PotterHead4ever. :)

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