Divergent, Veronica Roth

I'm submitting this book to the 2011 Debut Author Challenge, hosted by The Story Siren.

Description

Review: How do you know when you're loving a book? Well, you stay up late, into the wee hours, reading it because you just need to know what happens next. Then, when there's only about 100 pages left, you stall, because you are enjoying it too much and don't want it to end. And when it finally ends, you still obsess over the book over a few days. And for me, that's what happened with this book.

Divergent is a book about a society that divided themselves into factions that embody qualities. The factions' creators believed that that those qualities would be the solution to avoid conflict. And so they divided into Abnegation, the selfless; Amity, the peaceful; Candor, the truthful; Erudite, the intellectual; and Dauntless, the bold. The irony is, as we see during the book, the division into factions only causes more conflict.

Beatrice was born in Abnegation, but as she nears the ceremony when she has to choose the faction she's joining for life, she feels she's not selfless at all, and she joins the Dauntless. I loved to read about the Dauntless initiation process, because it's so crazy dangerous. People have compared this book with The Hunger Games, and I think that the initiation is one of the reasons why, because you get the same sense of danger and that someone's going to die any minute.

I really liked Beatrice (Tris). At first she struggles with being in a faction that she feels she doesn't belong in, and then the initiation process is hard for her as well. At least in the beginning, because as time passes she proves herself over and over again. And she shows that she still has something of Abnegation as well. Tris suggests us with her actions that maybe people aren't made to be divided in factions.

I also liked how Veronica Roth wasn't afraid of putting Tris into situations that would require her to do some very wrong things. YA authors tend to shy away from going that path, even when characters are put into dire situations.

The secondary characters are quite interesting. Tris makes a few friends among the other initiates, but also makes enemies. But even among friends things aren't perfect, and I appreciated that reminder. Tris' mother was a character I loved to read about in the few times I met her. I guessed that thing about her early on, at some time I was practically screaming at Tris because she hadn't guessed yet. It was the one thing that annoyed me in this book, a couple of times Tris takes too long to guess something for plot's evolution purposes.

On another instance, I really enjoyed that Tris wasn't inserted into a silly love triangle, and bonus, there is no instaromance as well! You can actually see things evolving slowly between them, and guess way before them where it's headed. Four lets Tris be strong and brave for herself, and I thought it was incredibly cute how protective she was of him. Also, it was easy to guess his true identity, but it was fun to let Tris guess in her own time.

The final chapters... oh dear, all hell breakes loose. I'll just say it was crazy good, and crazy dangerous, and other crazy things too. And that I'm crazy impatient that April/May 2012 comes and I'll be able to read Insurgent, book 2 in this series. I wish I could say more about the book, and the things it made me think about, but this is becoming too long and words fail me right now. I'll just say I loved it and that I recommend it.

Pages: 496

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)