Friday, May 17, 2013

CBR V Review #21: Divergent by Veronica Roth

“We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.” 



Divergent, yet another in the trend of post-apocalyptic YA fiction, is set in a world where we mankind exists in five factions, Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent).  We are immersed in the world alongside Beatrice "Tris" Prior, an Erudite who is approaching the annual selection day, where every 16 year old is tasked with selecting which faction they will belong to for the rest of their lives.  Each faction has an initiation period that follows, and Tris's poses a number of challenges to her.  As she moves along the path to her chosen faction, secrets start coming out that could shake the foundation of all she holds dear.

Speaking on this book too much would spoil things, so I'm going to steer clear of most of the plot.  Tris is a great character, leading a book filled with other very interesting characters.  Even the ones that just pass through you get a reasonably good sense of as three dimensional people, not just filler, which is nice.    But my favorite character isn't Tris, it's Four.  Four is a fascinating character with so very much going on inside of him.  I love his relationship with Tris and with all of the other initiates.  He's awesome.

I burned through this book and then tore through the sequel (review to come) and now am waiting with everyone else for the third book, which comes out later this year.  I have a lot of reservations about the upcoming film adaptation due to casting, but I'm still interested in seeing where it goes.  A must read for fans of the genre.

No comments:

Post a Comment