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_smartie_'s review against another edition
adventurous
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
thekatiefu's review against another edition
4.0
I think my first mistake was seeing the movie before reading the book. Since I already knew what happened, this just was not the page-turner I wanted it to be. They sure did change a lot when they adapted it for film. But I think I liked those adaptations better. In the movie Tris is strong and powerful; in the book she's a weepy little girl quite often. Even Four seems a weak version in the book as compared to the movie. Reading the book after seeing the movie made me annoyed at the weak characters in the book.
Once I start something I have to know what happens, so of course I will be finishing this trilogy. But my expectations are a lot lower now after reading the first book. Hopefully that works in Roth 's favor for books 2 and 3.
Once I start something I have to know what happens, so of course I will be finishing this trilogy. But my expectations are a lot lower now after reading the first book. Hopefully that works in Roth 's favor for books 2 and 3.
thedragonflysdream's review against another edition
5.0
Let me start off by saying that this is hands down one of my favorite reads of 2012! I know, I know it came out last year and I WISH I would have read it then but I didn't. I'm sort of glad that I didn't read it last year in a way because I don't have to wait as long to read Insurgent :)
Beatrice is a 16 year old girl who has to make a difficult choice. Her choices are to stay with her faction Abnegation and be selfless, humble, and dull or switch factions. Either way she chooses her life will be changed forever. It all started with her taking the aptitude test. This is where the word "Divergent" kicks in. Just know that Beatrice is different from everyone, which will unfold in the story. I will tell you no more about it because then it would spoil it for you. Every 16 year old has to take the aptitude test which suggest which faction each person should choose.
On this wild, adrenaline rushing, roller coaster riding story I laughed, almost cried, got angry, and experienced so many emotions because I felt like I was literally in Tris' (Beatrice's) shoes! She goes through so much in this book, and I felt like I was in this wonderful corrupted world that Veronica Roth has written out perfectly. I have never cared as much about characters as I did in this book. Not everyone is what they seem, and everyone's personalities and characters unfold beautifully. I cannot wait until Insurgent comes out, because let me tell you I am hooked! I loved facing Tris' fears, happiness, sadness, and anger with her. I didn't feel like I was on the outside looking in. I have to mention Four, he is sort of a love interest in Divergent and also a trainer for the initiates.
Divergent engulfed me and drew me in from the very first page and I didn't know it until I looked up and was on page 120! If you haven't read this wonderful book yet I suggest you stop reading this review, go to the nearest bookstore and BUY IT! You will pull an all nighter with this book, because it keeps you wondering what is going to happen next... with wondering being a BIG understatement.
Veronica Roth thank you so much for an incredible story, you have probably hear it hundreds and hundreds of times but Divergent is absolutely astounding! It surpassed my expectations tremendously. You are truly gifted!
Beatrice is a 16 year old girl who has to make a difficult choice. Her choices are to stay with her faction Abnegation and be selfless, humble, and dull or switch factions. Either way she chooses her life will be changed forever. It all started with her taking the aptitude test. This is where the word "Divergent" kicks in. Just know that Beatrice is different from everyone, which will unfold in the story. I will tell you no more about it because then it would spoil it for you. Every 16 year old has to take the aptitude test which suggest which faction each person should choose.
On this wild, adrenaline rushing, roller coaster riding story I laughed, almost cried, got angry, and experienced so many emotions because I felt like I was literally in Tris' (Beatrice's) shoes! She goes through so much in this book, and I felt like I was in this wonderful corrupted world that Veronica Roth has written out perfectly. I have never cared as much about characters as I did in this book. Not everyone is what they seem, and everyone's personalities and characters unfold beautifully. I cannot wait until Insurgent comes out, because let me tell you I am hooked! I loved facing Tris' fears, happiness, sadness, and anger with her. I didn't feel like I was on the outside looking in. I have to mention Four, he is sort of a love interest in Divergent and also a trainer for the initiates.
Divergent engulfed me and drew me in from the very first page and I didn't know it until I looked up and was on page 120! If you haven't read this wonderful book yet I suggest you stop reading this review, go to the nearest bookstore and BUY IT! You will pull an all nighter with this book, because it keeps you wondering what is going to happen next... with wondering being a BIG understatement.
Veronica Roth thank you so much for an incredible story, you have probably hear it hundreds and hundreds of times but Divergent is absolutely astounding! It surpassed my expectations tremendously. You are truly gifted!
cora_steffani's review against another edition
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book,I think the initiation took a long time,and it was a bit draggy in my mind .I didn't like the romance much!! I want to read a book with the least amount of romance,and this book doesn't fall into this category!
I have a lot of complaints to make about this book.
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I have a lot of complaints to make about this book.
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uselesspirateraven's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, and Grief
ihateprozac's review against another edition
3.0
I love me some Brave New World and its disturbing caste system, so I thought I'd automatically love the factions in Divergent. I didn't. There was something lacking that I can't quite put my finger on - the castes and the factionless should have been disturbing, should have had me horrified at this bleak view of the future. I should have been appalled by the idea of 'faction over blood', but in the end I just didn't care.
First of all, I don't care for the names of the factions. Candor, Amity and Erudite aren't horrible, but I laughed inwardly when I read 'Dauntless'. It's hard to articulate, but I guess I felt the name was over the top and overly self-explanatory, to the point where it was cringeworthy. Surely the author could've found a better word to convey that the fearless and the brave belong in that faction. I also didn't like the name 'Abnegation' at first, probably because I had to Google what that even meant! The author could've chosen a simpler and more effective word to convey the selflessness and willingness to serve of this faction.
The caste system in this novel was unique from any other sci-fi or dystopian literature I've read, but was a bit hard to keep straight at first. This caste system isn't based on economic status like in Kiera Cass' [b:The Selection|10507293|The Selection (The Selection, #1)|Kiera Cass|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1322103400s/10507293.jpg|15413183]; by birth like in Brave New World; or by industry and geographical location as in The Hunger Games. We have caste systems within a caste system: not only do we have the factions of Candor, Amity, Erudite, Dauntless and Abnegation, we have the factions versus the factionless.
Because the faction system is more complex and not ranked from smartest/richest to poorest/dumbest, I initially found it quite difficult to recall which faction is responsible for which part of society. In fact, I still can't remember exactly what it is that Candor and Amity do! I know that Dauntless do security, Erudite are researchers, Abnegation run the government and take care of the factionless, but that's it. Amity seem to take care of the farms for whatever reason, but it's not clear what else they do. And I think that Candor are responsible for law, but I'm still fuzzy on that.
Names and purposes of the factions aside, I feel like the author could've done a lot more with them. I should've been on the edge of my seat, appalled at the idea that future citizens of Chicago were being forced into industries and lives they couldn't get out of. I should've been biting my nails, wondering what lies beyond the city walls, and why the fence deserves such high security. I should've been anxious to devour this book as quickly as possible, to find out why Abnegation children continue to defy the aptitude simulation. This book could have raised so many questions and made so many statements, but it didn't.
And given that the goddamn book is called 'Divergent', not a whole lot of attention was even paid to Divergence! As soon as I found out that Divergents could manipulate the simulations, I thought "Oh, so they're going to be troublemakers in real life, since they don't adhere to the thinking of any faction". A couple of hundred boring pages later, we find out exactly that. The author tried to make it seem like more of a mystery than it was, with Tris wondering why the Dauntless leaders would try to kill Divergents, but it was a pretty weak attempt. Tris just came off looking like an utter moron who couldn't see things right in front of her face.
I found it hard to empathise with Tris. I liked her when she was struggling with which faction to choose, admitting to herself that the selflessness of Abnegation had never come easily to her. I also liked her when she was struggling to assimilate in the Dauntless compound, and ironically found that a lot of Abnegation thinking and values had stayed with her. But as she became more and more like the Dauntless, I lost the ability to empathise with her.
I rolled my eyes whenever Tris' body image issues reared their ugly heads, because I just didn't buy it. She didn't seem truly vulnerable and insecure to me, she just seemed more annoyed that her nose was too big and her frame too boyish. It seemed like the author had included the body image issues in an attempt to engage female readers, but it fell completely flat for me. I had zero sympathy for Tris, wanting to tell her to man the fuck up whenever she started whining about her nose or body.
I also felt like she changed too much for my liking when she became Dauntless. About two seconds after the Choosing Ceremony she was jumping off buildings, climbing ferris wheels and getting tattoos. Sure, a lot of the time she was trying to branch out of her comfort zone and avoid becoming factionless, but most of the time it felt like the author had switched out Tris for a completely different character. I would've liked to see a more gradual progression of Tris going from 'Stiff' to Dauntless. I would've liked to see her struggle more with leaving her Abnegation ways of thinking and frail body behind.
Tris was also strangely...unsympathetic. Instead of feeling sympathy for Al as he struggled with leaving his old faction, she thought him pathetic and weak. And although Tris' friendship with Christina started out great, she was almost a stranger to her by the end of the novel. She didn't seem to care much about maintaining relationships with the other initiates, she was too consumed with her own drama and her relationship with Four. Granted, she never had any friends growing up in Abnegation, but I don't think that excuses how she basically ditched Christina and Will.
I'll read the next book, [b:Insurgent|11735983|Insurgent (Divergent, #2)|Veronica Roth|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1325667729s/11735983.jpg|15524542], but I don't have high hopes at this stage. Given that the series is called 'Divergent', I don't really care about the mystery surrounding it. At this stage I'm assuming that Abnegation children are Divergent because they don't think about themselves enough to develop qualities that would make them suitable for other factions. And because they don't have that sense of self, the simulation can't latch onto their minds like it would with other initiates. But hey, I'm always up for a surprise!
I'm also curious as to what the world is like beyond the fence. I wonder if the rest of America is at peace, while Chicago has sealed itself off and the Erudite just look like children throwing their toys out of the pram. Or perhaps the rest of America is in a similar state to Chicago, dividing their citizens in a lame attempt at 'peace'. Or perhaps the rest of America has simply been annihilated, and Mother Nature is slowly reclaiming a land ripped apart by a nuclear holocaust.
Overall: Divergent had so much potential, but didn't know what to do with any of it. We got snippets of gold and piles of trash. The author somehow managed to ignore the titular theme of the novel for much of the story, and I don't even know how that is possible. I'll read Insurgent because I can't stand to leave a series unfinished, but I'm going into it with very low expectations.
First of all, I don't care for the names of the factions. Candor, Amity and Erudite aren't horrible, but I laughed inwardly when I read 'Dauntless'. It's hard to articulate, but I guess I felt the name was over the top and overly self-explanatory, to the point where it was cringeworthy. Surely the author could've found a better word to convey that the fearless and the brave belong in that faction. I also didn't like the name 'Abnegation' at first, probably because I had to Google what that even meant! The author could've chosen a simpler and more effective word to convey the selflessness and willingness to serve of this faction.
The caste system in this novel was unique from any other sci-fi or dystopian literature I've read, but was a bit hard to keep straight at first. This caste system isn't based on economic status like in Kiera Cass' [b:The Selection|10507293|The Selection (The Selection, #1)|Kiera Cass|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1322103400s/10507293.jpg|15413183]; by birth like in Brave New World; or by industry and geographical location as in The Hunger Games. We have caste systems within a caste system: not only do we have the factions of Candor, Amity, Erudite, Dauntless and Abnegation, we have the factions versus the factionless.
Because the faction system is more complex and not ranked from smartest/richest to poorest/dumbest, I initially found it quite difficult to recall which faction is responsible for which part of society. In fact, I still can't remember exactly what it is that Candor and Amity do! I know that Dauntless do security, Erudite are researchers, Abnegation run the government and take care of the factionless, but that's it. Amity seem to take care of the farms for whatever reason, but it's not clear what else they do. And I think that Candor are responsible for law, but I'm still fuzzy on that.
Names and purposes of the factions aside, I feel like the author could've done a lot more with them. I should've been on the edge of my seat, appalled at the idea that future citizens of Chicago were being forced into industries and lives they couldn't get out of. I should've been biting my nails, wondering what lies beyond the city walls, and why the fence deserves such high security. I should've been anxious to devour this book as quickly as possible, to find out why Abnegation children continue to defy the aptitude simulation. This book could have raised so many questions and made so many statements, but it didn't.
And given that the goddamn book is called 'Divergent', not a whole lot of attention was even paid to Divergence! As soon as I found out that Divergents could manipulate the simulations, I thought "Oh, so they're going to be troublemakers in real life, since they don't adhere to the thinking of any faction". A couple of hundred boring pages later, we find out exactly that. The author tried to make it seem like more of a mystery than it was, with Tris wondering why the Dauntless leaders would try to kill Divergents, but it was a pretty weak attempt. Tris just came off looking like an utter moron who couldn't see things right in front of her face.
I found it hard to empathise with Tris. I liked her when she was struggling with which faction to choose, admitting to herself that the selflessness of Abnegation had never come easily to her. I also liked her when she was struggling to assimilate in the Dauntless compound, and ironically found that a lot of Abnegation thinking and values had stayed with her. But as she became more and more like the Dauntless, I lost the ability to empathise with her.
I rolled my eyes whenever Tris' body image issues reared their ugly heads, because I just didn't buy it. She didn't seem truly vulnerable and insecure to me, she just seemed more annoyed that her nose was too big and her frame too boyish. It seemed like the author had included the body image issues in an attempt to engage female readers, but it fell completely flat for me. I had zero sympathy for Tris, wanting to tell her to man the fuck up whenever she started whining about her nose or body.
I also felt like she changed too much for my liking when she became Dauntless. About two seconds after the Choosing Ceremony she was jumping off buildings, climbing ferris wheels and getting tattoos. Sure, a lot of the time she was trying to branch out of her comfort zone and avoid becoming factionless, but most of the time it felt like the author had switched out Tris for a completely different character. I would've liked to see a more gradual progression of Tris going from 'Stiff' to Dauntless. I would've liked to see her struggle more with leaving her Abnegation ways of thinking and frail body behind.
Tris was also strangely...unsympathetic. Instead of feeling sympathy for Al as he struggled with leaving his old faction, she thought him pathetic and weak. And although Tris' friendship with Christina started out great, she was almost a stranger to her by the end of the novel. She didn't seem to care much about maintaining relationships with the other initiates, she was too consumed with her own drama and her relationship with Four. Granted, she never had any friends growing up in Abnegation, but I don't think that excuses how she basically ditched Christina and Will.
I'll read the next book, [b:Insurgent|11735983|Insurgent (Divergent, #2)|Veronica Roth|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1325667729s/11735983.jpg|15524542], but I don't have high hopes at this stage. Given that the series is called 'Divergent', I don't really care about the mystery surrounding it. At this stage I'm assuming that Abnegation children are Divergent because they don't think about themselves enough to develop qualities that would make them suitable for other factions. And because they don't have that sense of self, the simulation can't latch onto their minds like it would with other initiates. But hey, I'm always up for a surprise!
I'm also curious as to what the world is like beyond the fence. I wonder if the rest of America is at peace, while Chicago has sealed itself off and the Erudite just look like children throwing their toys out of the pram. Or perhaps the rest of America is in a similar state to Chicago, dividing their citizens in a lame attempt at 'peace'. Or perhaps the rest of America has simply been annihilated, and Mother Nature is slowly reclaiming a land ripped apart by a nuclear holocaust.
Overall: Divergent had so much potential, but didn't know what to do with any of it. We got snippets of gold and piles of trash. The author somehow managed to ignore the titular theme of the novel for much of the story, and I don't even know how that is possible. I'll read Insurgent because I can't stand to leave a series unfinished, but I'm going into it with very low expectations.
yerawizard_kari's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
lalalily17's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I've heard this book compared to The Hunger Games a lot, and while I don't think this book is as good as those books, I enjoyed it a great deal. It is fast paced and kept me interested and wanting to know more. I stayed up way to late on more than one occasion reading it.
jennc's review against another edition
5.0
Awesome book! I loved the characters and loved the idea behind the factions. It made me think a lot (I love when a book makes me do that) and was really well written. Looking forward to the next book!