Monday, November 21, 2011

Divergent review

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: I really thought I'd found my favorite book of 2011 back in September. I was sure that nothing could top Daughter of Smoke and Bone. That is until Divergent, a book I've been wanting to read for forever but had been nervous about starting. I was nervous because I have a habit of not liking the books I really think I'm going to love. But this story did everything I needed it to do. Divergent had me eating with one hand, staying up all night and reading any time I had a break. The week I read this book was literally one of the hardest weeks at school this semester. I had an exam I hadn't studied for, a presentation, a speech, and two papers due that week. But instead of taking up extra time, Divergent seemed to make that week easier.

For starters, this is the type of dystopian story I love. Where the setting is or (is) almost as interesting as the characters. This is the book where you remember page numbers because a character said something you need to remember. Or when you hug the book after your done because it was the "complete reading experience," (which i might have done).

And lately I've been liking books in spite of the main character, often finding them annoying and repetitive. But Tris wasn't a love sick immature girl who threw pity parties for herself every 5 pages. And she wasn't this holier than thou character that never did wrong or at least never thought about it. She's nice and kind, but she's also ruthless and hardheaded at times. And I loved Four so much! The way he acted around Tris showed that even though he liked her, he wasn't going to change his personality or other things about himself for her. He also wasn't that type of male character that seemed to be unrealistic, because in real
life not every guy is going to hug a girl because she's crying (all the time) or go after her after they've had a fight. And Four was one of the few males to treat his love interest like a another person instead of JUST seeing her as a girl (or the "weaker sex").

On top of the awesome characters (including the minor ones) the plot actually progressed in a way I haven't seen happen in a while. Every YA story seems to be a trilogy now. And every trilogy starts with a book where nothing happens until the very end and it leaves you on a cliffhanger. In Divergent, things actually happened. People had growth development, enemies were revealed, and the plot got even better as time went on. I am so invested into this series! And I'm  glad I finally decided to read it. Especially because most of my favorite series have or will end in the near future, so I need new books to fill my favorites list.

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