Thursday, June 30, 2011

"Divergent" by Veronica Roth

487 pages

Beatrice lives in a future world that is divided into five factions, each of which emphasizes a different value: Dauntless (courage), Erudite (intelligence), Amity (peace), Candor (honesty), and Abnegation (selflessness). The factions are all in the same city, but they each have their own compound and every aspect of members' lives is defined by the value of that faction. Children from all the factions go to school together, but at age 16 they all take an aptitude test to see which faction they fit best, and then they get to choose which one to live in for the rest of their lives. Beatrice is born in Abnegation, but she's always felt restricted by the passivity of the group. On the other hand, she can hardly imagine leaving her beloved family behind. When her aptitude test ends with an extremely unusual result, her decision is made even more difficult. And after she chooses her faction, she discovers that there is much more going on in her so-called peaceful world than she ever could have imagined.

This book sucked me in and I couldn't put it down! The idea behind the factions is really interesting, and there's almost constant action throughout the story. The hints of sinister things going on kept me guessing, but the conclusion surprised me. I like that the characters are multi-dimensional instead of clearly "good" and "bad" (with some exceptions, of course). I love that the narrator is strong and smart instead of just good-looking (she describes herself as "not ugly, but definitely not pretty" and none of her friends disagree) and is acknowledged and valued for that. Her internal struggle to figure out who she is, what she values, and where she fits in her world is something that almost everyone can relate to, and the story as a whole creates a lot of thought about human nature. Great stuff. I can hardly wait to read the rest of the series!

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