Review: Divergent

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
Pub Date: May 2011, HarperCollins Children's Books
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased from BN.com

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, 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 to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating 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 a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.

My Thoughts

As usual, I am late to the game with some of the hottest books out there, though that was in part due to the Great Blogging/Reading Hiatus and being totally out of the loop on some of the best new debut books. I'm so glad I decided not to put off reading Divergent for too long once I started hearing about it, though! I opted to get the eBook after I recently bought my new Nook Simple Touch with Glow Light and I'm glad I did because naturally I had to download Insurgent immediately upon finishing Divergent!

I know the Hunger Games comparions are all over the place out there, and given that both series are YA dystopians that is totally understandable. For me, that is where the similarities ended, though. I like them both for their own unique stories and approaches to a dystopian future in America. And oh, how I l-o-v-e-d Divergent. LOVED it. I seriously thought this book had one of the best collections of characters that I have read about lately. Not to mention I was totally captivated by the idea of the five factions based on the different virtues. Once Beatrice/Tris made her choice, I was sucked into the story even further and blown away by the initiation process that follows.

But my favorite part? The romance... oh, the romance! I won't go spoilery and name names for the one person left that hasn't read this book and might be reading this blog, but I will say that I could see where this relationship was headed pretty early on, as I suspect most of you who've read these books probably did, as well. In my opinion, though, Roth is brilliant in bringing it about at the pace she does and through the events that cause Tris and The Boy to grow together.  The romance, along with the nail-biting initiation into Tris's chosen faction and the growing discontent among some of the factions combined make this book one you won't want to put down.  Indeed, the first night I read a pretty good chunk and managed to put the book down, but on the second night I decided it was totally worth staying up WAY past my bedtime to finish the book.

I am so excited about this trilogy, but once again I am wishing that I could just wait until all the books are out before starting a series so I don't end up getting stuck waiting (impatiently) for a book to be published. I am thinking that Divergent and Insurgent will definitely be worth a re-read before the third book comes out. So yeah, I'll go ahead and say it... If you liked the Hunger Games, I would say that chances are pretty good you'll enjoy these books, as well. I'm looking forward to sharing my review of Insurgent with you soon (probably tomorrow)!

My rating: