Divergent (Divergent, #1)

by Veronica Roth

The explosive debut by No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth.

DIVERGENT – a major motion picture franchise.

The first book in the DIVERGENT series that has swept the globe – selling millions of copies world-wide.

In the world of Divergent, society is divided into five factions – Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity and Erudite. Every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice Prior, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is. Her choice shocks everyone, including herself.

During the initiation that follows, Tris and her fellow initiates undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them, Tris must determine who her friends really are – and whether she can trust the man who both threatens and protects her.

Because Tris has a deadly secret. And as growing conflict threatens to unravel their seemingly perfect society, this secret might save those she loves… or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the scene with the first book in the Divergent trilogy – dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences and unexpected romance.

• ISBN13: 9780008167905
• Publish Date: 31 December 2015 (first published 1 May 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 21 February 2024
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Harper Fire
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 496
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[Sarah Says]

I'm at a loss for words and I really need to write something so i can move on to the 2nd book.
So I read this in two days. Would have been One if I hadn't had to get some sleep to go to work the next day - So that shows what a gripping book it was. It's quite easy to read and flows really fast. I know it's been compared to the Hunger Games a lot, but i don't think that comparison does it justice. So even if you weren't keen on the hunger games don't knock this one back as just another dystopian YA. We get a strong female lead, Friendship, Love, evil bad guys to hate on and standing up for whats right.
Ok I'm off to quickly get the house work done so i can read the next one, Insurgent.

[mary]

I do love dystopian novels. The genre is so fun to me and extremely easy to read and enjoy. They tend to be more character driven and thick with action. Divergent is a fun, edge-of-your-seat read. It is easy to get submerged in, effortless to remain engaged in, and impossible not to enjoy even the slightest bit.

The opening to Divergent describes the faction called Abnagation, a completely selfless faction.Beatrice, the narrator of the book, is part of this faction and right at the beginning you can sense her unease with this way of life. I really liked that Roth made Beatrice believe that she herself was the problem and not the faction system. Beatrice is unhappy with Abnegation, but she doesn’t project her unhappiness as a problem with the society. As a person that was born and raised in this government system she believes in it. She questions herself, instead, and wonders if something is wrong with herself.

What I didn't like was the overall lack of world building, which I hear occurs in Insurgent. So I guess I will have to continue reading once I get my hands on the second book to hopefully have some questions finally answered. For instance how long have these factions actually been in place and how long ago was the war? I guess I will just have to wait and see.

The writing in this novel was very simple. I think the one thing that irritated me about this story was the simplistic style. I really felt that Roth just told me instead of showing me.

Overall it was a very entertaining read and I will be continuing on with the second book hopefully soon.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

A futuristic, post-apocalyptic Chicago is where the dystopian world of Divergent is set; where everyone is divided into five factions. At 16 you are required to take an aptitude test; this will determine which faction you are best suited for. Abnegation are selfless, Amity are peaceful, Candour are honest, Dauntless are brave and Erudite are intelligent. Following the aptitude test comes the Choosing Day (terrible name) where you are required to pick which faction you wish to belong to based on your score and personal preference. For some, like Celeb Prior this means giving up his family and moving from Abnegation to Erudite.

The novel, Divergent follows Beatrice Prior (later known as Tris) who is one of those rare people who have to hide the fact that the aptitude test was inconclusive. In this world she is known as divergent and would be considered an outcast and a danger to society if this was to come out. Tris’ test shows she has an aptitude towards three factions; Dauntless, Erudite and Abnegation. She picks Dauntless where she is trained up to be courageous and reckless, tools she believes maybe useful if her test scores ever come out.

I read this novel as a social critique; the idea of cliques and groups taken to the extreme. You know what I’m talking about; society likes to create rivals, in sports teams, smart phones, gaming consoles, etc., but more importantly when it comes to DC verse Marvel comic’s social-political stands. In this world the Abnegation are the governing body, since they are the selfless they are tasked with looking after everyone. However the Erudite are conspiring to take control, and a step that they believe will advance the world both socially and technologically.

This makes the novel sound more complex that it actually is; in reality I found that Veronica Roth liked to wave the symbolism in the readers face forcing them to take notice. It is like a child who is proud at what she has produced; jumping up and down and explaining everything detail over and over again in the hopes that we will think she is brilliant. The symbolism is prominent in the story, she didn’t need to try and draw extra attention to it. Most readers are smart enough to figure it out and those who don’t are only interested in the plot.

Take the title of the novel and the factions, if you look at abnegation, amity, candour, dauntless, erudite and divergent in the dictionary you pretty much how the entire book worked out already. However Roth reminded us again and again what each word meant. Reminds me of that old writing tip ‘show, don’t tell’. While this is not always true, I feel within the context of Divergent, it would have been a better solution.

There are a lot of interesting themes within the novel and I really wish Roth had let people discover them on their own; I don’t like having everything pointed out to me. The whole concept of social structures and classes would have given a literary theorist in the school of Marxism a lot to work with. There are other themes including courage verse recklessness, power, choices, secrets and even guilt that made the novel bearable.

While the novel has a protagonist fighting against a totalitarian state, the book is full of Christian themes and concepts. At times you can see Abnegation being depicted as weird/cult-like faction in the back drop of a controlling society but then they come through as righteous and merciful. There is a Christian misconception that stems from the Age of Enlightenment, which seems relevant in some radical churches that still believe that intellectualism is a dangerous thing. This comes across in the novel as well as some other Christian ideals. Veronica Roth states she is a Christian but has also claimed that Divergent is not a religious novel. She even believes that most Christians would consider the novel to be profane. It is unclear if Roth is an advocate for intellectualism or warning the reader of its dangers.

Yet another issue I found with Divergent was the characters and world building felt a little flat; I think Roth spent too much time explaining everything that the plot and the setting suffered. I didn’t care what happened to any of the characters; in fact thought they were all two dimensional, which is possibly the case with most of the characters. The idea of each faction just acting like a giant cookie cutter, forcing everyone to fit into that mould is clear. The divergents (I’m not going to name them) should have been richer, more fleshed out characters. The dystopian world borrows heavily from 1984 and The Hunger Games although it sometimes forgets this and reverts back to a more generic present day world. Then realising the book has gotten off track reverts to borrow again from previous dystopian novels.

Finally I would like to focus a little on the feminist qualities of Divergent, since reading The Fictional Woman this seems to be an area of focus for me. The concept of a woman trying to figure out her place in the world is a positive step for equality; however Divergent also reverts to two old archetypes that need to stop. I’m talking about the idea of a wise intelligent older woman being depicted as a witch or evil character and the female heroine needs to have a female enemy. Divergent does tackle the idea of what happens to a woman when she becomes more successful than the men she is competing against, and while it is not pretty it is a very real issue that needs to be looked at more often.

I would have liked this novel a lot more if the message was subtle and ambiguous; I just feel like everything got over done. As a reader I like to look for the messages but if the author hits me over the head with it and then proceeds to explain everything I lose interest. Dystopian fiction has a unique ability to tackle social issues and just because a book is aimed for a young adult audience doesn’t mean they need to be everything explained to them. I have to wonder how many YA lovers read the book for the themes rather than the plot. I suspect the majority of them read for the story and they probably prefer not to be stepped through themes either. If Veronica Roth left the themes in place and focused on the plot, this may have been a better book.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/06/29/divergent-by-veronica-roth/

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I saw the movie first, so I cheated. I just want to get that out of the way.

I loved this book. I only come across one or two books a year that I love. They have to be fabulously written, immersing, surprising, visual, and perfect. To me, Divergent is.
I don't want to compare it to the movie here, so I'll just tell you what I know.

The main character, Beatrice, is strong, resolute, and brave. She's well-rounded and different. I am so tired of the stereotypical heroine, I could tear my hair out. I loved Tris. I rarely even like the protagonist, so this is a big deal.
Minor characters? They were great. Different and infuriating all at once. The love interest both is and isn't tall, dark, and handsome. There are no love triangles. 10 points to Gryffindor.

The world is richly detailed, but leaves plenty for the imagination to fill in. It follows the traditional feel of a post apocalyptic world, but there's more to it, as though it's just a bubble. It feels familiar, and leaves you wanting to know more.

The plot - it's pretty original, although it follows typical dystopian lines. It won't be very surprising, but it is engrossing.

I am left wanting more.

Needless to say, I'll be reading Insurgent.

[kerrydarkeyes]

oh gosh, I wanted to like this book but nope. The concept - society divided into five factions - was interesting but completely untenable. And the protagonist was completely unlikable ... She shoots and KILLS one of her closest friends because, oops, sorry, he was under mind control! but then risks death and basically the entire mission to save her people because she's (maybe) in love with a boy ... a boy who tries to KILL her because, you know, mind control! Who is letting these teenagers run the show?! ;) Ugh. Sorry, just not my kind of YA book.

[teachergorman]

Today I read Veronica Roth’s Divergent. All of it. In one day. I’m not a fast reader like my wife or some of my colleagues, so that feels like an accomplishment to me.

My verdict is …mixed. The fact that it’s a remarkably fast read doesn’t really win or lose the book any points for me. I’ve torn through books before because they were so good I couldn’t put them down. I also read Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code very quickly, rolling my eyes every time he described Audrey Tautou’s character as “incredulous,” which was about 400 times. Roth’s writing is certainly better than Dan Brown’s, but that compliment feels more like an insult than I intend.

The world of Divergent is genuinely interesting and engrossing. I love dystopias, and the use of factions based on virtues is interesting. Calling the factions “factions” is a bit on-the-nose, but I can forgive that in YA. The choosing of the faction, though cliché, is also forgivable in a YA coming-of-age story. Whether it’s the sorting hat or the Reaping or the shooting of a first deer, these moments are dramatic and speak to a longing in our culture for distinct coming-of-age rituals which we lack. I get that, and Roth handled that part just fine even if it wasn’t unique. The protagonist, Tris, isn’t sure whether she belongs in Slytherin, um, Dauntless or Hufflepuff, um, Abnegation, wrestles with the decision, and ultimately chooses a faction only to find that they are all flawed and none fit her perfectly. It works, and if it ain’t broke …well, a bit more creativity would be nice, but I can handle it.

Here’s what is broken and which must be fixed. The narrator, Tris, is a gawky, accident-prone, scrawny, pretty (but not too pretty) girl who thinks she is ugly. Since she’s the narrator, we are only exposed to her beauty by reading about all her self-doubts and then recognizing that they don’t fit with the reactions of the boys around her who find her attractive. I can forgive Roth for drawing from the archetypal coming-of-age myths, but do we need another Bella Swann or Katniss Everdeen? Katniss is better than Tris in that she has confidence in her hunting ability and her role as the provider for her family. Tris has more pride than Bella Swann, but she even feels guilty about that pride. At least Tris doesn’t have to get knocked-up by a guy who is more than a hundred years old on their honeymoon in order to discover her own self-worth by becoming a mother. Can we please stop telling teenage girls that, in order to be likable, they have to have unrealistically low opinions of themselves? This tend can’t be good for anybody.

It’s difficult to read around a protagonist who is unlikeable, but the other characters kept me going. Tobias/Four, the love interest, is genuinely interesting and somewhat complicated, at least until his unswerving adoration of Tris becomes clear. Then he just becomes a realistic swooning teenage boy, and that’s bearable, too. Considering his backstory, he could have been a lot more insufferable in his brooding. Points for Roth on that.

And why present tense? Writers, listen to me! Present tense is great for action sequences, so I can see why it appeals to people who are setting out to write fast-paced, action heavy books. If you have any sense that the time period covered by the book will extend for any prolonged period of time, resist this temptation, especially if the book is written in first person. Learn from Suzanne Collins’ mistake. After a second reading, I have grown to like Mockingjay, the third Hunger Games book, but I completely understand why it gets such mixed reviews from my students. In The Hunger Games trilogy. the first book happens over the course of a handful of days, so the present tense works. The second book happens over the course of a couple weeks, so it works, but slightly less well. The third covers a much longer period of time, but Collins couldn’t switch because she’d painted herself into a corner. Unless you can maintain the urgency of an action scene for the whole series (which would probably be exhausting for the reader and would lead to a lot of blunt exposition at the expense of more beautiful prose), don’t make this mistake. Better yet, write the thing in one tense, then rewrite it in another and see which works better. I suspect that, most of the time, you’ll find that the demand for intensity is overbalanced by the fact that we naturally tell stories in the past tense in our daily lives, so this compulsion to haste leads to a stiff, awkward writing style.

The most interesting element of Divergent is the mystery of how this seeming-utopia is breaking down and what that says about the virtues which under-gird it. We really only get to see that starting to play out in the last third of the book, so I’ll read the sequels to see if the series gets deeper into those questions of values and motivations. Also, my wife says Tris gets more likable. Color me skeptical. Still, I have to remind myself that The Lightning Thief, the first book in the Percy Jackson series, was painfully derivative of Harry Potter, but the series found its own way in the second book and ended up being pretty great by the end. Maybe the Divergent trilogy will find its own path and break free from some of the more well-worn elements of YA fiction in the second and third book.

[Rowena]

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Really enjoyed this book and cannot wait to watch the movie this weekend. Full review to come, later.

[Baroness Book Trove]

I heard about this series before the movie came out but I never really thought much about it. I never read the plot or anything just heard from a bunch of people that it was good and that it was bad. But I decided after I was done reading the Hunger Games a couple of years ago that I would read this book series to see what the hype is all about it.

I actually get with why the author took a while to get up to the "main event" of the book towards the end of it because she wanted to get us, the readers, into Beatrice's world and see how their lives are totally different from ours in the here and now. I actually liked it since throughout the Dauntless initiations we see Beatrice totally change from the way that she was raised to be like what the Dauntless people would be like. It was a pretty good change to me.

Toward the end of it though I was quite sad and I had to stop reading after, the first time, when Beatrice's mom got killed and, the second time, then again when Beatrice's dad got killed as well. Those two were like the saddest parts but I know that the author must have had a good reason to do it. Overall this book was a good one and I am happy to have read it finally.

If you like this review please go and read some of my other reviews: http://baronessbooktrove.blogspot.com/

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews OMG!!!! I love this book. I'm angry at myself for waiting so long to read it. It was amazing. I haven't loved something this much since The Hunger Games trilogy. I don't think any review I write will be able to do this book justice but I'm going to try.

I found the idea of fanctions interesting. They had all been started with a motto or a purpose but I think that at some point they all forgot about it and became the people they were before the fanctions.

Beatrice or Tris has a hard decision to make but ultimately I think she makes the right one. No other fanction could have prepared her for what was to pass. I think that she is extremely brave. She faces her fears and transforms into an unrecognisable person. By the end she knew what had to be done so she did it.

Four, oh Four he is smoking hot. He is very clever and at times I wasn't sure where he what he was doing but I always believed he was on Tris' side. I couldn't believe anything else or more likely I didn't want to believe anything else. I may be a little bit in love with him. I guess I need to get to the back of the queue on that one though.

I don't usually pick out quotes but I have two favourites from this book:

"I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren't all that different" - Four

"we believe in ordinary acts of bravery in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another" - Dauntless manifesto

I honestly couldn't put this book down and I immediately know it's going to be one of my favourite books. I can't wait to read the next one.

[tweetybugshouse]

When I finished all i could think was wow what an emotional roller coaster. This book has been compared a lot to the Hunger Games series and i can see where there are similarites to the two series but i can also see where this one stands all alone. It draws you in and makes you want to keep reading cause you become curious as to how this whole faction society functions and where the author wants to take you on this adventure. You pretty much get to learn about the who society right along with the main character in the book and that really made it the most enjoyable for me. I like not knowing all the details at the start of a book and finding out more as you go along. I am very excited to read book two.