Divergent (Divergent, #1) in Reading with Style

Dec 06, 2011 Deidre rated it liked it

Where to start with this review.. This is a tricky book to review, actually, because as the dystopian young-adult genre has grown exponentially in the past few years, there are aspects to the plots that continually turn up in every story, so that each subsequent one seems a bit less genuine than the preceding ones. It's kind of hard to feel like each book stands on its own as a result, especially when there are several similarities to a previous book. But I'll give it a shot.

Beatrice, who goes b Where to start with this review.. This is a tricky book to review, actually, because as the dystopian young-adult genre has grown exponentially in the past few years, there are aspects to the plots that continually turn up in every story, so that each subsequent one seems a bit less genuine than the preceding ones. It's kind of hard to feel like each book stands on its own as a result, especially when there are several similarities to a previous book. But I'll give it a shot.

Beatrice, who goes by Tris in her new faction (have to say here, I actually kind of liked that random name choice for a main character, because it was so out of the ordinary), is an interesting character. She's actually a lot like Katniss from "The Hunger Games", in that she's got a lot of pride and independence as a strong character, but isn't terribly likable. She's actually a bit hard to swallow sometimes, because she can be very detached and selfish, especially in her regards to other people. That in itself was interesting, because she was brought up in the faction that was supposed to be the most altruistic, and the least selfish; she should have turned out with an attitude that other people were always more important, but she didn't. Having the author provide that juxtaposition gave the character more depth, since she had to struggle a lot against her own desires and those that were taught to her, just like any human struggling in society.

The teenage love thing I could have done without, can't lie. I'm always reminded of the target age group for young adults books when I come across half-baked teenage romances, where the entire premise is so cute, fuzzy and unrealistic I could gag. Usually, those romances involve some good-looking, older guy, with the main female character being the "ugly" one, who can't understand why anyone would like her. I get it, the average female has low self-esteem, and I'm sure they're all flabbergasted when some guy likes them for whatever reason. But it just comes off as very grating when an otherwise strong female character talks herself down in terms of a guy, because a lot of those feelings are born from the desire to "measure up" to someone else's standards, and attempting to define self-worth in terms of another person. So I did NOT like that aspect of the book; it felt far to Bella-esque and Twilighty, and made Beatrice into a quasi-Mary Jane character that she really didn't need to be. That alone was what forced me to give the book three stars, and not four.

Some of the other characterizations were.. Awkward. Like Jeannine, the evil Erudite, came across as a somewhat tamer version of the Queen in Snow White. I almost expected her to cackle at certain points, because she was just fleshed out so thinly, she came off as nothing more than a bad caricature of what the author thought that "evil" should be. That thin characterization went along with all the other "bad" characters in the story, because none of them felt realistic or worthwhile, like the author just borrowed ideas of "bad" characters from other books, and hoped that no one would look too closely at the bad stitching.

And while I'm on the subject of things I didn't like, there was one particular event that irked the crap out of me, and it wasn't a big one. In fact, it's probably so small, most people wouldn't have given it a second thought. After the first week or so at Dauntless as an initiate, fighting and running around, there is a morning where Beatrice tries on an old pair of pants, and she can't even pull them up past her knee, because a random "bulge" of muscle has appeared. Now, given her history at Abnegation, she did not wear tight-fitting pants before (because that would have revealed too much of her body), and she even mentioned that she's built like a little girl, all skinny and no muscle. But apparently, after not even two weeks or lifting guns and beating people up, suddenly she acquired enough muscle to not even be able to put her pants on.

Not. Going. To. Happen. Ever. That is the kind of thing that women who never work out, and have no idea how body fitness works always worry about when they think about working out. "But I'm going to look like the Hulk!" Contrary to this notion, women cannot put on that much muscle accidentally, especially if they didn't have much naturally, because their body won't let them. It takes months, even years, of dedicated training to put on enough muscle to "bulge", let alone enough to outgrow a pants' leg. Muscle takes up less space than fat, so in reality, Tris' pants would have been more loose, not tighter. That bit of untruth just made me really annoyed, because it shows the author doesn't have any concept of how human bodies and muscle actually works. Unless Tris is actually a man with a super-duper amount of extra testosterone and natural steroids pumping through her veins, in which case kudos to the author for tripping me the eff up.

Okay, glad I got that rant out of the way.

I did like how the author gave some different opportunities to characters in the end. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that the next book would be an interesting read, just to see what she does with those characters that are the "bad" ones, and how they play into the overall picture with Tris.

The premise of the story isn't bad. It's based on separation of individuals based on their intrinsic desires, so that they serve in an area of society where they can do the most beneficial job. It's four factions total, and the premise seems to be that those four factions rule within the given city area of Chicage. There isn't an overall government mentioned, so I'm assuming that the city is the government. That plot of separating sections of people into useful sects reminded me of the districts in "The Hunger Games" (though I am loathe to compare books to one another, it's hard not to in this genre), and in that the plot fell flat for me. There was of course a lot of gratuitous violence, as seems to happen in dystopian plots where war forced a society to adapt, but I didn't mind that so much, because it makes sense for the premise of the story; I just felt like the idea of kids (the initiates are all sixteen, and the main characters who lead the Dauntless aren't older than 18) toting guns and beating each other up to prove a point wasn't handled that well by the author. It almost felt like she added those aspects for shock value, and less as realistic expectations that could be expected to actually happen.

Anyway, it's not a terrible book. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it, either. It's an easy, quick read, suspenseful, and there is a lot of brutal honesty with the main character and her internal struggles to find her own way. Yet I never quite felt the connection to realism, and underlying ideas that the author was trying to get at, so at the end, the story and the characters just felt rather superficial, like a cake with half the frosting. ...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Ann rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2012-books, rws-spring-12

World building? What's that?
For a dystopian novel, there is remarkably little attention paid to the dystopia itself. Something bad happened to Chicago at some point. This lead the remaining people to form a new type of society, where at 16 everyone chooses a faction. There are five, and each center on an ideal - bravery, selflessness, honesty - so on. The factions are supposed to balace each other out and keep people in line, but of course it doesn't really work that way.
Interesting setup, right ...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Jensen Wahlquist rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-13-25

In futuristic Chicago, Tris lives in a dystopian society where the people are separated into four factions predicated on what they value most. When Tris leaves her faction, things change abruptly for her. She is governed to change, become stronger and braver. And she learns something about herself that puts her life in danger.
Three stars? Only three stars? Why only three stars, when everyone else is giving it a five star rating? Allow me to explain: The main reason is that the book did not capt ...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Stacie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 2013, fiction, divergent

So I think that I would have finished this book in three days if it weren't for Christmas. This book was amazing and I couldn't put it down! I got completely absorbed into the story and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about what was going to happen next. When I first started reading it, I thought to myself that this wasn't really the book for me. I am so glad that I gave it a chance, though, because after Tris decided her faction, I was sold. There are also so many things going on in th ...more

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Jul 31, 2013 Dianne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, modern, young-adult

New favorite! Fast-paced, yet riveting! Every page was full of intense action and drama! Oh, boy, I'm tempted to read the 2nd book right now (though I have tons of school works to do)! And oh, I can barely wait for Divergent's movie! Fangirl-mode on! ...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Rosemary rated it liked it · review of another edition

I found this unputdownable, which is lucky because as soon as I did put it down and think about it, I couldn't believe in the society that was being described. I just can't imagine human beings organising themselves into five factions that each venerate a certain quality (courage, selflessness, etc) and living like that, apparently harmoniously, for several generations before it all starts to fall apart.

But if you are good at suspending disbelief and can keep from questioning any of this and do ...more

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