Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Harper Collins Children's
Publish Date: May 3, 2011
Source: Library

 

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a dystopian fan.
• You want a book that really sucks you in.
• You like books with really well written settings.

What's the Story:

From Goodreads.com: "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 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 Two Cents:

One genre that I really have found that I like is dystopian fiction. I can't get enough of it! Now with the popularity of dystopian fiction, especially in young adult books, I've come across some very good dystopian books and some very bad ones. Divergent, for me, was definitely one of the really good ones. After gulping down the entire Hunger Games trilogy in a week last year, I had been looking for a dystopian book that I liked just as much. I found it with Divergent. My only regret about reading Divergent now is that I have to wait so long until the other two books in the planned trilogy come out. At least with Hunger Games, the books had already been out for awhile before I read them. Drat!

Anyhow, Divergent is wonderful. The main character, Tris, is a really interesting character. She goes against the grain of everything that she knows and how she was raised to seek something new. I think that's pretty admirable. While I didn't really see the appeal of the Dauntless group that she chose to live her life with (I'm so not that fearless), I could see how she would choose to go with that group. Tris is a wonderfully written character. Roth did a great job with making us, the readers, feel what Tris was going through.

Another factor that I always look at in dystopian fiction is the world building. Settings are very important to me. The more vivid, the better. When an author can make me see what the characters in the books are seeing and feeling with regard to their surroundings, I'm thoroughly impressed. While I lived near Chicago when I was very young, I don't really remember the city so I loved how Roth included things that would be familiar to those who at least know a little about Chicago (the El, the Sears Tower, Millenium Park and the poor bean statue that I don't really know the real name for. Sorry, bean sculpture). It was almost eerie to read about things that were ultimately familiar but still different than our current state. I really liked that Roth selected a specific location for the story to take place. It really gave a sense of how things had changed from our current time to whenever Tris' story is taking place.

I ate through this book in about two days and it's a pretty big book. The detail is wonderful and I can't wait to see what happens in Insurgent (but seriously, what's with all the rhyming named books in these ya series????).

Bottom line: this made me remember how much I love dystopian fiction!

My Review:

5 out 5 stars