Book Review: Divergent

Title: Divergent.
Author: Veronica Roth.
Format: Paperback.
Pages: 487.
Series: Yes, #1.
Source: Purchased.
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books.
Published Date: 2/28/12.
Links:
Goodreads.
Barnes and Noble.

Summary:

"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, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her."

First & Last Line:
"There is one mirror in my house."
"I suppose that now, I must become more than either."

Cover:

Even though I love the *SHINY* sheen on the entire cover including the spine and the back, my favorite aspect would have to either be the city towards the bottom, or the dark and stormy clouds on the top.

My Thoughts:

This story takes place in a futuristic society where people are divided (by a test result and partially their own choice) into five different sections, based upon various virtues. When someone in this society turns sixteen, they take a preliminary test which helps them decide if they should remain in their faction, with their family and friends, or if they should switch to another faction, where they'll have to pass the entrance tests. If they don't fit into any of these groups, or don't pass the entrance test, they will become factionless, which in this society is basically a nobody.

The way this world is built is interesting, and I couldn't learn enough of the way things worked within it. With such a distinctive world, I assumed that the beginning of the book would be a bit slow, since a lot of things need to be explained first for the reader to completely understand what's going on, but I was wrong. Divergent jumped right into all the action!

Beatrice and her brother have both just turned sixteen, and its finally time for them to decide what they want their future to be like; to stay in abnegation, always putting others before themselves, or leaving their family and home, to become someone else, somewhere else.

I don't want to give away which sections they picked, but I promise if you read the book, you'll find out in the first 100 pages or so!

Beatrice and her brother have never known anything else outside of Abnegation, or the five factions, but when things change, and war breaks out in this "perfect" society, nothing will ever be the same again. Beatrice will have to learn to become strong, both physically and mentally; she can't be that small and helpless girl she was at the beginning of the book. Her world, rests in her own hands.

I loved Divergent, and if anyone ever told you to read this book, because it totally kicks butt, I'm telling you right now, do exactly what they say! You're not only going to find it hard to put it down, you're also going to regret that you didn't read Divergent much earlier!