Divergent (Divergent #1)

I devoured Divergent.  That’s right.  DEVOURED.  I haven’t read a book that quickly since The Hunger Games.  I feel a little late to the party.  I was a bit wary going into Veronica Roth’s Divergent, though I think my expectations were high.  I heard all the buzz; I’m always a little hesitant with books that have a lot of hype.  Then a friend, who has very similar reading tastes to mine, gave this book five stars on Goodreads.  In a comment for that rating, she called it better than cheese.  She loves cheese!  Without doubt, that was what really made me want to read it.

Divergent was exactly what I needed.  It folded me into the world of Beatrice and the factions.  I forgot everything around me and all I wanted to know was what was going to happen next.  I know it gets compared to The Hunger Games a lot and there are similarities.  Female lead.  A segregated population (Districts/Factions).  Violence.  A teenager being asked to kill people.  But these are different worlds.  Unlike other dystopian novels I’ve read, I can’t actually see our world becoming like the world in Divergent.  However, these characters never leave the city.  I wonder what the rest of the world is like.  I hope to find out in the next books.

Another difference I really liked:  NO LOVE TRIANGLE.  Roth could have easily put one in.  There was almost the set-up for one, but Tris was focused.  Her entire world was about passing the initiation.  When she did let herself feel things, she only had eyes for one man.  Because of their backgrounds, their relationship seemed so natural.  The conflict in Tris’s life involved staying with her family, doing the right thing, and degrees of violence (should I shoot him in the head or the foot?).  There was never a struggle about which guy should she coose.  Tris was great.  So was Four.  He’s not what I’ve come to expect from a male lead.  I like being met with the unexpected.

I don’t feel like I need to go on.  A lot has been said on Divergent already.  I’ll read Insurgent soon, just not right away.  I have a lot to do over the next few days and if the sequel is anything like the first book, I don’t want to be consumed again.  I’m itching to read it though.  I almost picked it up and cracked it open when Divergent was finished.