Divergent by Veronica Roth - Book Review

First Published by HarperColins in 2011.

Synopsis 

Sixteen-year-old Tris is forced to make a terrible choice. In a divided society where everyone must conform, Tris does not fit in. 

So she ventures out alone, determined to discover where she truly belongs. Shocked by her brutal new life, Tris can trust no one. And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her.

The Hardest choice lies ahead. 


In this book a world is imagined as a place where people are divided to maintain a peaceful society. Set in a future Chicago, people are divided into five factions, Abnegation, Erudite, Dauntless, Amity and Candor. Each faction expects its members to behave to a certain way, for example Abnegation members are meant to always be selfless whereas the Dauntless are supposed to be brave. Similar to the Hunger Games, Veronica Roth uses the story of a strong female character to spark conflict in a society of controlled liberties.

Tris or Beatrice is a sixteen year old girl who must choose her faction, either to stay at the faction she was born into, Abnegation, or to join a new faction. The problem is that during her assessment carried out in a simulation, Tris found out she was Divergent. Divergent are those who can make there own choices and later in the book you learn they can manipulate simulations, making them difficult to control.

This novel is a story about intense training, friends and enemies and some romance. As the book progresses more is revealed about the mysterious Four, Tris's instructor and lover. This book uses character development, along with world building to set the scene for hopefully and action  packed trilogy. I am looking forward to reading Insurgent.

The best things about this book were the world building and the fast paced action packed story. The one negative probably being a slightly sluggish start due to a lack of knowledge about the world Divergent is set in. Like many novels which rely on world building, it is always difficult to strike the correct balance between world building and plot progression. Although the next two books are more like to focus almost entirely on plot and character development, though I am hoping for more information about Candor and Amity.

Rating 8.7/10

Reading for pleasure making a comeback?

As a commuter I get a lot of reading done on my bus rides to and from work. However, I also notice many others, including teenagers and young adults, reading on the bus as well. Moreover, an article in the guardian shows the huge growth in the YA Fiction book market. Books such as The Hunger Games and Divergent have been adapted into movies. Evidence seems to suggest a new generation of readers is emerging.

Younger people are starting to pick up books more often because of a greater variety in fiction targeted at young adults. Young adults use youtube and social media a lot, and the most talked about books on youtube are YA. Genres including fantasy, dystopian, paranormal romance and contemporary fiction are the main players in the growing community of bookworms on the internet.

People who read for pleasure can sometimes be very introverted, so it is no coincidence that we readers blog or vlog about books. So read that book in public with pride and ignore the comments from people who say reading is boring. Both the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter franchises were born from great books, and many consider them to be exciting and engaging.

I myself am doing a re-read of the Lord of the Rings and also planning to read Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Keep reading :)  

Update, end of winter, books that I have read

Spring is on its way and I intend to post more often on this blog. I have read many great books recently; the one that sticks out is Wonder by R.J Palacio. A book review of Wonder will be on my blog this weekend hopefully.

On World Book Day I bought myself Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I am looking forward to reading this book. Currently I am re-reading The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, my favourite book. Bus journeys fly by whilst I am reading this epic novel.

I do intend to do some discussion blog posts where I talk about novels and the big issues: education, identity, culture, politics and society itself. The first discussion shall be on education, so look out for that blog post this month.

Keep reading :)