Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

In the distant future all teens must make a life changing choice when they turn sixteen. Society is now divided into five groups called factions. There are Abnegation (selfless) , which Beatrice Prior and her brother Caleb grew up in, Candor (honest), Dauntless (brave), Amity ( peaceful) and Erudite (intelligent). They are then initiated into their groups and taught all the rules of their faction all in effort to become the “perfect society”.

But Beatrice is one of only a few who don’t have a clear faction after taking the required aptitude tests. People like her are called Divergent and being Divergent is extremely dangerous so much so that she has to keep the results secret and choose a faction anyway. Shunning her family Beatrice chooses another faction, renames herself Tris and begins the long and hard initiation. But things in this so called perfect society aren’t what they seem and being Divergent means Tris can see past what the leaders want everyone to see and with the help of another Divergent she wants to make things right for her and family.

Divergent was another book that fell victim to the “Too much hype” curse. So many times I’ll read a book that has many, many positive reviews that claim the book was amazing while I struggle to get through it. People compared Divergent to The Hunger Games which I had just finished so I thought I would give it a try.

First off the story was just not too interesting. Without revealing any spoilers, while Tris is being initiated and trained she begins to hear rumors that two factions are gearing up to start war on another faction. On top of this she is trying to hide the fact that she is Divergent but there’s just not enough action to keep me entertained.

Secondly the story is just not believable enough for me. There is no way that society can be divided into just five groups. If this were realistic the factionless (people who don’t fit into any faction) would be the majority not the factions. Plus I’m supposed to believe that this perfect society relies on 16 and 18 year olds are going to lead the training and security of the faction. Where are all the adults?

Honestly if I was reading this one instead of listening to it on audio I would have given up but since it was audio I hung in to the end. Towards the last 1/3 of the book the pace picked up and I started to enjoy the book more but I was still disappointed that it didn’t live up to the hype. I would recommend this one for sci-fi fans as a library read or audio book.

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2012/01/review-divergent-by-veronica-roth.html