Divergent By: Veronica Roth
Reviewed by: Jacob Duncan
I recently finished Divergent, and was pleasantly surprised. Thinking that it was going to be just a Hunger Games rip-off I did not have high hopes for this book. Like the Hunger Games, it too is a dystopian fiction novel. This one book you should not pass up.
Divergent is a book where the last remnants of the civilized has been split up into 5 groups, and one group is fighting for control. Each has a different core value that all members must follow.On an appointed day of every year, every sixteen year old has to pick a faction, and after that, face the rigorous initiation. Tris, the main character is in the midst of that struggle as she has to decide if she wants to stay with her faction, or join another one. Her choice catches everyone by surprise. Later at initiation she learns that all is not right when she is told she is divergent. A faction is after all the divergents, and tris has no idea who to trust.
The author truly did an amazing job on character development. At the beginning Tris was frightened and put others thought into consideration, but by the end she was changed. I can’t really think of an age appropriate word that would match how she was in the end of the book. She didn’t care about other people, she didn’t help them out. In fact she scoffed at anyone who showed any sign of weakness. I’m saying the author did a good job because you saw her thoughts and watched as the initiation awoke a demon inside of this little girl.
“Never come near me again... If you do, I swear to God I will kill you,” I say. “You coward.”
That small excerpt let me know that the character transformation was complete. Tris was now completely changed. I did not like the way the author transformed this character, but he still did a good job on it.
The action was everything you could hope for in this genre, the thing I like most was the use of guns, not just as weapons, but a symbol of hope for the main character. The author did a good job not putting all the action into the last part of the book. While the last couple of chapters are some of the most intense, the beginning and middle had some pretty good moments as well.
I give Divergent a 6/10 because of how much I hated the character towards the end. Halfway through I wanted to jump into the book and shoot Tris. If there is a second (which seems to be the trend with this genre) I will probably not buy that one based on the fact that the character is hard to get along with. Other than that, a big portion of this book I would say it was a good read. If you haven’t read it, read it. So you can see exactly what I’m talking about. if you liked or hated this book read Hunger Games, a better series with more likable characters.
