Divergent- Veronica Roth

My Rating: 4 Stars

Description:In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

My Thoughts:
The story line and premise of Divergent are amazing. The agony of one choice that determines the rest of your life is one that most people are familiar with, yet this novel takes it beyond what you major in or who you marry to one choice that determines how you will live your life (or as the back of my copy says: One choice determines your friends, your beliefs, your loyalties. One choice can transform you).

The struggles Tris goes through were real. Who does she want to be? Who can she trust when those she trusted betray her? And then the determination needed to stick by her choices when they become difficult.

But I can not give the book five stars. The reasons contain spoilers, so I have covered them.


[ 1) Tres repeatedly refers to God and says that most of Abnegation believes in God. There is no explanation as to why this is, and I found it hard to believe. Especially after some of the things Tris does and then only feels guilty about it when she thinks she will die and she is glad that she didn't kill Eric... [ then she turns around and kills Will and says she would have killed Marcus if she had not believed that to be Four's right.

The way the Aptitude tests work perplexes me. The best I can figure out is that the only way to test abnegation is to also test for most of the other factions, but to test for more than one faction makes you divergent. Yet not all the abnegation are divergent.

And then the second half of chapter 31. It felt out of place, like the author created the conflict in chapter 30 and then scrambled to diffuse it so that Tris and Tobias could have their "happy" ending.
[ 1) Tres repeatedly refers to God and says that most of Abnegation believes in God. There is no explanation as to why this is, and I found it hard to believe. Especially after some of the things Tris does and then only feels guilty about it when she thinks she will die and she is glad that she didn't kill Eric... (view spoiler)[ then she turns around and kills Will and says she would have killed Marcus if she had not believed that to be Four's right. (hide spoiler)]

The way the Aptitude tests work perplexes me. The best I can figure out is that the only way to test abnegation is to also test for most of the other factions, but to test for more than one faction makes you divergent. Yet not all the abnegation are divergent.

And then the second half of chapter 31. It felt out of place, like the author created the conflict in chapter 30 and then scrambled to diffuse it so that Tris and Tobias could have their "happy" ending. (hide spoiler)]