Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth
Genre: YA Fiction/ Dystopian

Beatrice "Tris" Prior lives in dystopian Chicago where the residents of the city are divided into five factions; the selfless are sorted into "Abnegation", the brave into "Dauntless", the honest into "Candor",  the intelligent into "Erudite", and the nonviolent into "Amity".  Once a year, all the city's sixteen-year-olds attend the Choosing Ceremony where they select which factor they will pledge loyalty to for the rest of their life.  The help them prepare for such a decision, each teen is administered an aptitude test that will determine which faction they are best suited for.  The results of Tris' test are highly unusual: inconclusive.  Rather than demonstrating an aptitude for one faction, she is deemed suitable for three: Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite.  Tired of feeling like an outsider in her own faction, the Abnegation native decides to take a leap of faith and selects Dauntless.  Upon arrival at their new faction's headquarters, the new initiates are shocked to discover only ten of them will make it to initiation day; the rest will become factionless and spend their life alone and begging on the streets...

I found the novel engaging and suspenseful.  There is enough character development for the reader to become invested in the outcome.  Veronica Roth's take on the dystopian genre is very interesting.  It is an intriguing examination of human nature that is accurate enough to be frighteningly believeable. As is so often the case, the book is much better than the movie. While the film adaptation was good, it changed the order of some of the scenes and omitted a few key characters completely.  There was also quite a bit of character development lost when it was translated to the screen.  Internal dialogue is difficult to portray in film.  I suggest reading the book to fully experience this story.

Recommend for fans of dystopian fiction, particularly The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins).

5/5

WARNING: Violence throughout.  Also some mild language.