Review – Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title – Divergent (Divergent #1)

I knew this was an awesome book, because I couldn’t stop laughing, smiling like an idiot and in complete awe and was completely engaged, compelled and entranced into the whole story, it begins like this…

Beatrice lives in a dystopian world made up of four factions – Amity, Erudite, Candor, Abnegation and Dauntless where everyone must conform. Currently she lives in Abnegation with her family; Mum, Dad and Caleb her brother. Beatrice has reached the age of sixteen, and where the rest of her life is based on a simulation and a choice… Beatrice is unlike any girl in the faction, she is a Divergent. Divergency is a way of saying, you don’t fit in… Beatrice is of multiple factions and she has a choice to make. Beatrice becomes Tris, a girl that struggles to conform and yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her. There are more secrets that this divided society wishes to share with the world.

Beatrice and Tris portray the two personalities that her Divergent status holds… Beatrice is supposedly an ordinary sixteen-year old who wants to be what Abnegation taught her to conform too, but she will never conform to any life she is given or chosen. It’s not her fault that she is a unique girl, but she finds out as much as it is uncommon, it is not unheard of in the closest people around her. Tris is an extraordinary young girl in this book, she becomes someone on her own right not theirs, and she becomes a complex character and suffers greatly after choosing to become someone she is not ready to accept her fate. Like all teenage girls, she felt an instant connection with a boy, Four, her instructor, he draws protection and danger to herself, but it grows deeper than that.

Four (Tobias) is one of the instructors of the initiates. Eighteen years old, tall, dark haired, blue eyed and handsome, he is enough to turn most girls heads, especially one such as Tris (and me). Four has sense of strategy and control, his code of conduct, and a strong persona and sense of self. But his background uncovers her truest fears and secrets. His soul becomes him when he strides closer to Tris. But like all dived societies, he has to stand to his code; he has to protect himself and Tris… That will make any girl swoon.

“I might be in love with you.” He smiled a little. “I’m waiting until I’m sure to tell you, though.”

Four and Tris’s relationship is like no other, when they feel it. I feel it. Tris is beautiful or pretty so she says, but she is something else and Four sees inside of her. He sees wants share the knowledge they both have and hide. They are born to survive each other and what lies ahead. Four and Tris are a dynamic couple, who create a solid team and complement each other throughout the whole book. What I found was that they remind me of Shane and Claire in The Morganville Vampire; their love, truth and beliefs are shared between them and they hold nothing back. They guide and protect each other… If I’m comparing Four and Tris to Shane and Claire, then this is a brilliant partnership and a brilliant book.

I’m not finished yet… =)

At first, I wasn’t sure this was going to be the book I would enjoy as it reminded me of The Hunger Games, but this is by fare something very different. I haven’t read many dystopias and this by far is the best. I thoroughly enjoyed this book… It’s fast paced and an exciting read that compels you to move on. I felt entranced into the nature of the characters. Also what I found was that Beatrice/Tris and Four/Tobias portray the Divergency in their characters and that truly defines them. Even though I’m seventeen years old, yet I feel connected to Tris. The characters are well developed and defined and I thought this dystopian novel is one of the best I have come across. As I have rekindled myself with YA Fiction, so far this is the highlight of my year. Veronica Roth is an intelligent author that writes beautifully. She has a skill creating her character to the definition that they were purposed for in the novel. I’m in awe of Veronica Roth for this ingenious novel.

I can’t wait to start Insurgent…