Divergent

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth

Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books (2011)

Genre(s): Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Post-apocalyptic Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Length: 487 pages

Synopsis:  Of all the five factions, Beatrice is sure that her parents' faction, Abnegation, is where she least belongs.  Soon, though, she will have to make a choice.  Does she dare do what so few Abnegation children have done, and leave her family behind forever?  When the tests meant to guide her choice leave her with more questions than answers and with tensions between factions growing every day, Beatrice doesn't know where to turn.  Is she brave enough to walk away from Abnegation?  Is she selfless enough to stay?  She has only  one chance and only one choice.

My Rating: 4 Stars

My Opinion:
This felt to me like a slightly grittier version of The Hunger Games.  I say grittier because unlike so many novels that have teens battling it out in physical confrontation, these kids hurt.  They don't have the slick skills that let them easily excell and every inch must be earned.  I liked Tris and how her character grows and expands and feels and thinks throughout this story.  She doesn't have it all together; she's scared and selfish and cruel as often as she's kind and brave and caring, just like so many of us.  She isn't perfect, but she does what she has to.  Nonetheless, the last quarter or so of the story spirals quickly beyond the scope of the individual, setting Tris not only against herself and the immediate threats of faction life, but also the political upheaval and turmoil of her futuristic city.  It felt like the final confrontation came too fast to me and that it was relatively easily resolved, though of course there's plenty still to be told in the sequel, Insurgent.  It's always hard to set a single individual against an entire power structure, and though it may not be entirely effective here, neither is it quite the same as the obvious parallel, The Hunger Games.  This still feels more personal, and I'd like to see it stay that way in the next book.  Roth's characters are her strength, but with such sweeping plot possibilities, I fear she might sweep them right away.