REVIEW: Divergent

Divergent

Veronica Roth
Divergent # 1

Goodreads Description: Beatrice "Tris" Prior has reached the fateful age of sixteen, the stage at which teenagers in Veronica Roth's dystopian Chicago must select which of five factions to join for life. Each faction represents a virtue: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite. To the surprise of herself and her selfless Abnegation family, she chooses Dauntless, the path of courage. Her choice exposes her to the demanding, violent initiation rites of this group, but it also threatens to expose a personal secret that could place her in mortal danger. Veronica Roth's young adult Divergent trilogy launches with a captivating adventure about love and loyalty playing out under most extreme circumstances.

My thoughts:  Wow!  I really liked this book.  It had a little of everything.  And it all really made sense to me.  It wasn't one of those dystopian novels that just didn't make sense....like why would our society ever become that?  I think that Divergent actually makes sense, and if there ever were some situation that changed our world, I think having the factions might work.

Tris is a 16 year old girl who seems quite innocent.  She does as she is told and just keeps moving on.  Now she has to pick what faction she will be a part of for the rest of her life, unless she were ever to become factionless.  Tris is currently Abnegation because that is what her parents chose, but she decides she wants to be Dauntless.  At first, Tris has a hard time as Dauntless.  She comes close to giving up even.  But then she gets some burst of energy and she moves to the top.  And throughout all of this stress, she finds love with someone she thought was off-limits.

I really loved learning about Tris and seeing what she has become through all of these changes.  I am a little confused by her decision to become Dauntless.   She never was out of line or pushed the boundaries as Abnegation, so it was hard for me to tell if she had the bravery to be Dauntless. I know if I grew up Abnegation, I wouldn't be able to handle Dauntless! I would have been done as soon as I found out I'd have to jump out of a train. She must have just wanted to get out of her boundaries so bad, but had the control to do as she was supposed to.  Tris was a good friend and was really concerned about other people.  There were several times that I wanted her to punch Peter or Molly, but she stayed in control and dealt with it for a very long time. 

I really loved the whole idea of this world.  People with different virtues would be good at different things.  I am surprised that there are only 5 factions though.  However, couldn't we consider our military to be like the Dauntless?  The only huge difference I see is that our military is allowed to assiciate with others outside of the military.  I don't see them have any problem doing there job even though they associate with others.  So I think a society could survive on 5 factions like this book, although it would be a lot easier if the factions could intermingle and associate with one another.

My rating: ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺