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A review by ihateprozac
Divergent by Veronica Roth
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.