Book Review: Divergent, by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date of Publication: November 21st, 2013
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 487
Goodreads: Click
Amazon: Associates Link
Recommended? Yes
Similar Books: Bait, by Courtney Farrell, The Gender Game by Bella Forrest, The Giver by Lois Lowry
My Rating: ★★★★☆

This review is giving me a difficult time, and I'll tell you why: I'm reviewing a book that I've already read, already reviewed, and which I loved the first time around, but which I found less enjoyable the second time around. This never happens to me. In general I love books more the more often that I read them, so this has left me confused, and reeling a little bit.

I think that it was the movie that ruined it for me, on a number of levels, but I also think that, having loved this book the first time around (and preferred it over The Hunger Games, in fact!), I'm left feeling let down by its pacing, by the development of the characters, by the development of the romantic plot line, and by the way that the story progresses to its end. 

It's strange going from the movie back to the book, and I feel now like the movie might have ruined this story for me. I'll be reading Insurgent (for the second time) and finally finishing Allegiant, so we'll see if that changes anything for me.

This is the story of Beatrice Prior, a sixteen year-old girl born into the faction of Abnegation. In futuristic Chicago, the city is divided into five factions: The Abnegation (the selfless), the Candor (the truth-tellers), the Erudite (the intellectuals), the Amity (the kind-hearted), and the Dauntless (the courageous). She must make a choice to either stay with her family in Abnegation, or to leave her family behind and join a new faction. 

When the results of her Faction Aptitude test are "inconclusive," Tris must make the decision of a lifetime -- with potentially devastating consequences.

Tris is a strong heroine with an incredible strength of character. All of the characters in this book are well-developed and three-dimensional, with both strengths and weaknesses. Ms. Roth has done an amazing job of giving us strong secondary and tertiary characters about whom we want to know more. 

This is an action-packed dystopian story set in the future, where society has been divided into factions based on the personality types of the individual. Sixteen year-olds are tested to determine which faction they belong in, and then must make a choice for where they want to live out the rest of their lives. Based on the principle "Faction before Blood," these teenagers must decide to leave their family behind and follow the system that was set in place longer ago than anyone can remember.

There are a lot of great things about this series. The first, and the thing that I enjoy the most about this type of dystopian novel, is the action of the story. There is never a dull moment in Divergent, and the author pushes the characters to their limits. Given that my favorite part of Harry Potter (the books, I don't care for the movies, again) is the Quiddich, you can guess that I do like a lot of motion and movement in the stories that I read. This series definitely delivers that.

I also adore Tris. As protagonists go, she defies the odds, she's strong in terms of character, and she is a complete character in that the author makes sure to give her both positive and negative traits. She might have been boring had she not been divergent. It might have been preferable had she not been so reliant on Four to get her through initiation, but if she wasn't, we wouldn't have the budding romance. 

I love that Ms. Wroth doesn't waste words. The story starts immediately and it ends abruptly to lead into the next book in the series. She kept me wanting to read because reading was easy. There were no lulls in the story, nothing to keep me from continuing with reading the book. Nothing made me want to put the book down and pick another up (other than being sent ARCs to read).

So if you like fast-paced books with a futuristic setting, this book -- this series is definitely for you! If you're looking for a strong female protagonist, you'll love this book. If you're looking for the type of book that you can easily read in one or two sittings, then yes, you'll love Divergent. 

However, I advise people going into this story to not compare it to The Hunger Games. It's an entirely different series with an entirely different feel to the novel, and you must be prepared for something that is vastly different. Surely fans of The Hunger Games (as I am) will enjoy this novel, but I feel that it is imperative to allow this series to stand on its own, for its own merits.

The drawback, for me, was with the pacing. While the book didn't feel rushed, it was difficult to read -- and different to read -- after watching the Divergent movie. I've not seen the Insurgent movie, so we'll see whether or not I have the same experience with reading the second book in the series as I did with reading the first. It's altogether possible that it will be different for me.

Even so, looking back I still believe that I enjoy this series better than The Hunger Games (which for a fan of the series, is saying a lot).