Divergent by Veronica Roth
Genre: Dystopian
Pages: 496 (paperback)
Source: Won
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From Goodreads:
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 Rating:
My Review:
1. This is a good book. 2. I don't understand the hype.Beatrice/Tris must make a choice. Should she be herself? Or should she stand by her family? I LOVED the background and the idea of factions. I found the idea of adhering your personality and actions to one particular trait quite fascinating and I was really invested in that world. I would definitely choose the Erudite faction (the smart ones) Hey, let's be real, I'm not jumping off buildings. That just seems stupid. Grey does not look great on me. I can be peaceful but what do you do with that? I mean. Boring. And telling the truth is overrated (unless you are reviewing books). Wait...that sounded awful. I usually tell the truth. Mostly. The romance was sweet and I enjoyed it. Four... wheeew!! He sounds fantastic. If I had to get beat up all the time, I would love for Four to supervise it. I think it would even be worth it.
I LOVED the characters but didn't love the dialog between them. It was often cheesy, flat, or just...not witty. This was really disappointing because it seemed as if it was supposed to be witty or SOMETHING and it didn't work. For example, Trice said to Four, the love interest, "He would probably throw a party if I stopped breathing." Four answers, "Well, I would only go if there was cake." Really?! Flat dialog showed up throughout the book and it was a bit distracting. I had to stop and refocus. Also, there was a lot of really short sentences. I only noticed it because at times, the story was just choppy. It didn't take away from the story, but I was surprised that it really stuck out to me. The "Divergent" issue came up once every 100 pages or so and then became a big deal in the last 200 pages. At first, I was surprised that the book wasn't called "Dauntless" or "Initiation," but then I figured it out. If violence bothers you...uhhh...don't read this. But then again, if you read The Hunger Games, you can handle this no problem.
On the hype: I kind of get the hype but not really. It is an interesting story but it didn't seem very special. Any negatives that I had came from the writing so this may just be a personal problem. So while I thought this was a good book, it felt like a 3.5/4 star book rather than the 5 star of an "awesome" rating. I'm only mentioning this because I feel like I have to defend my opinion.
So now my concern is that maybe I shouldn't have started with The Hunger Games trilogy. Am I going to be disappointed with every dystopian novel after this? After hearing so many positives about Divergent, I am wondering if it is just me and if I need to stay away from dystopian novels now. So much for the Dystopian list being generated in the giveaway : /
Thoughts?
