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Divergent (Divergent, #1)

Veronica Roth

Start date: January 16, 2012

Finish date: February 16, 2012

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Discussion leader: Shellbelle

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♦Buddy Reads♦

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What Members Thought

Feb 23, 2013 Nika ♥Marie♥ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I am going to be honest I had no intentions in reading this book because someone told me what happened in the last book. I thought it would have ruined the series for me but to my surprise it didn't. This book was good. Though it had it moments where it lulled especially in the beginning it took a while before things got interesting but I also understand that the world needed to be built.

I really enjoyed Tris and her character. I enjoyed the reading about her internal struggle before she selecte ...more

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Jan 05, 2014 Diana S rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2014, remember-2014

It's set in a Dystopian society in futuristic Chicago selected upon fractions. These fractions are based upon the traits and talents of the individuals that are 16 years of age. But are they really? Do they really have the freedom of "choice" of which fraction they should belong too or is it another form of control based upon how one should think and act.
Then along comes Beatrice Prior. Someone who thinks for herself. Does the knowledge that she is one who is known as a Divergent frees her from ...more

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May 02, 2013 Nicole Field rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book completely took me by surprise.

Having read The Hunger Games and Delirium before, I thought I knew what I was getting into this time. Dystopian future teen book. And, look, if I'm going to stop gushing and look at this emotionlessly, that's pretty much the outline of the book.

But the characters! The factions!! I made a comment early on about this book actually being a combination of Hunger Games and Harry Potter, with a sorting hat-esque scene near the beginning, but I enjoyed the diff This book completely took me by surprise.

Having read The Hunger Games and Delirium before, I thought I knew what I was getting into this time. Dystopian future teen book. And, look, if I'm going to stop gushing and look at this emotionlessly, that's pretty much the outline of the book.

But the characters! The factions!! I made a comment early on about this book actually being a combination of Hunger Games and Harry Potter, with a sorting hat-esque scene near the beginning, but I enjoyed the different factions and how they interplayed with each other far more than I enjoyed the four houses in Harry Potter.

About the only way this book let me down, and the only thing that stopped it being a five star book for me, was that I didn't have a feeling for the setting. In other dystopian books, the reader is typically given a visual description of the ways in which this world is different to the world we live in now. That part of Divergent was sort of... absent. I had more of a mental grasp of the specific train that the Dauntless jumped off and onto than the more general world. Roth was very good at describing the specific places where her characters went, but that wasn't helpful in getting me to visualise why this book was dystopian. (Harry Potter, for instance, had separate houses that the characters would be sorted into, but that didn't make it a dystopian book.)

Of the factions, I thought their histories and what they contributed to the world were well devised and interesting. Interesting too that the fact that there too narrowly defined became a symptom of what was wrong with the world.

Of the characters, I loved Four the most. Hands down, no competition. I also, like everyone else, loved the part where he told Tris that, even if she wasn't 'beautiful', he liked the way she looked, yet it was also her brains and her courage that most drew him to her.

I thought it was interesting the the plot point of the Divergent was so underplayed throughout, but I loved the entire plot, so that wasn't really a point of contention for me.

This was a fantastic book and I am definitely looking forward to reading Insurgent soon! ...more

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Oct 18, 2013 Jenn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: swoonworthy-boys, young-adult, book-to-movie, dystopian, read-in-2013, 5-star-reads

My feelings remained pretty much the same while reading this the second time. However, one thing that did stand out in my mind was, why did she have to kill Will? Why didn't she just shoot to injure? *shrugs* Anyway, below is the review from when I first read it.

Just wow.

I don't even know if I can formulate words to go with this. Divergent has been compared to the Hunger Games - or more so, it's being called the next Hunger Games, and I can see why. This dystopian style book shares some similari ...more

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Oct 25, 2015 Colleen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia

I wanted to like this more than I did. I think the world building has potential and the idea of setting up the factions as a way to prevent civil unrest is intriguing (if not very original). On the other hand, it feels like a typical coming-of-age tale in which a smart and sassy teenager who is misunderstood by adults/society is set up to be the one destined to save everyone from their own stupidity and greed. The dialogue and action was well paced and I'm interested enough that I'll likely cont ...more

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Aug 03, 2013 Steph Ann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: tcf-2013-challenge

4.5 stars

Part of me knows I shouldn't be giving this 4.5 stars. The premise and world building are shaky, and if I try to think about it too much, I'm sure everything would just fall apart. However, I can't bring myself to care about any of that because I just really enjoyed the ride the book took me on. I did not want to put the book down from the moment I started it. I was always eager to find out what was going to happen and found myself trying to speed up my reading pace so I could get to th ...more

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Dec 17, 2013 Bouchra Rebiai rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 101-in-1001-days-2, read-in-2014

Normally, I don't fangirl over anything - except maybe Star Wars or Doctor Who (yup, I'm that kind of weird person) - but Divergent is really awesome!

I just finished reading it a couple of hours ago, and can't wait to read the rest of the series. Unlike The Hunger Games, which has similar themes - dystopian society where people are divided into sections that don't interact for the most part of their lives - and shares the fact that the narrator of the story is the female main character, Divergen ...more

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Feb 04, 2014 Mary Bronson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

OMG this book was AMAZING!!! I loved reading it. I was hooked from the first page and could not stop. The characters and plot was very well written. Tris is such an amazing character. She is one kick ass girl. I have been told to brace myself for the second book.

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