Any Hunger Games fans who need a new endeavor to pass the time until the movie adaptation of Catching Fire is released should try out Veronica Roth’s Divergent. The post-apocalyptic setting with divided districts and a young girl put in an unfortunate circumstance make the book familiar and appealing. However, it is anything but predictable!
Beatrice lives in a “faction” called Abnegation. All five factions were founded on an honorable quality; bravery, intelligence, honesty, peace, and Abnegation’s selflessness. At age sixteen, every citizen must take a test to determine which faction they belong in. Then they make a choice: stay in the faction they were born in, or move to the one that a test has determined they fit in.
But, as we know, great books are never that simple.
In Divergent the characters are all at risk for a fate worse than death should they choose wrong. (Dun, dun, dun….)
Although Beatrice is taunted with that same fate, she is different, and that puts her in even more danger. Her decision and what follows it is beyond anything she could have ever imagined.
Similar to Katniss Everdeen, Beatrice is a young girl with a hidden fire inside her who is constantly defying expectations. She lives in a world where it seems like she has no control, but it turns out that Beatrice has a larger influence than anyone thought. It takes being thrown into an entirely new situation to learn who she truly is and what kind of power she has.
Though the basis of Divergent is similar to other popular books, the direction the story takes will shock and excite you the entire time. Prepare to read page after page, sacrifice your social life, and even question your own values and reflect about the state of our world today and what it could possibly become. It is that good.
The sequel, Insurgent, was recently released and the final book in the trilogy is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2013. You’ll be craving them the second you finish Divergent!