Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 978-0-00-742041-4
Pages: 487
Series: Divergent #1
Type: Young Adult Dystopian
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
In futuristic Chicago society is divided into five factions: Erudite (the
intelligent), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Candor (the
honest) and Amity (the peaceful). Upon their sixteenth birthday everyone must
choose a faction, either staying in the faction they were born into or breaking
from their family and leaving for another. But when Tris makes her choice she
cannot begin to fathom the ramifications or how drastically her life or the
world around her is about to change.
This is the first book in the
Divergent trilogy and is probably one of the most-hyped books I've read in a
while. Having now read it, I'd actually say that it is overhyped to the point
that I was left feeling let down by the storyline. The sheer level of "oh my
gosh this is like the most amazing book ever!" meant that while I enjoyed the
book, I was expecting something incredible and this isn't quite at that level.
There is a lot of missed potential, particularly in the world building, and the
book is overly long for the amount of storyline covered.
It is clear that
this is set in a future Chicago which has been devastated but there is no
explanation. Each faction has it's own areas of the city, but again these aren't
really described. There are a lot of hints to the factions and their purpose but
things are kept very vague, most likely to be revealed in future books (which is
a plot device I dislike immensely). Even the conflict between the factions of
Abnegation and Erudite is kept off the page which means that it only ever seems
incidental. The other thing that bothered me was that the pace started off
pretty quick and then slowed.
The entire book is basically set around
Tris selecting and then joining a faction. While I liked Tris and the way she
thought things through, she could be really immature and stupid at times which
didn't fit well with the times when she was smarter or braver. As the book went
on Tris became more confident and coherent within herself. Four is one of my
favourite parts of the book. He challenges Tris, forcing her to become a better
person while also being incredibly sweet and supportive.
I liked how the
other initiates were shown as joining a faction includes some pretty serious
hazing. There was a great spectrum from the horrible Peter to Tris's awesome new
best Christina. As Tris is kept with the other faction transfers this does
explain a bit more about each faction without info-dumping, and it also means
that the concept of bullying can be handled in an innovative way.
All in
all, this was a fun read and I'm looking forward to Insurgent.
Plot:
8/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending: 9/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Cover:
9/10
Overall: 43/50
Sunday, 24 June 2012
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I am so glad to see that you read this and enjoyed it. I am the worst about reading books after they have gotten a lot of hype. I am only cheating myself, really. I should pull this off the shelf.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have liked it even more if I hadn't seen the hype. It left me expecting something mindblowing and this wasn't quite there.
DeleteI completely agree that this book is over-hyped. I really liked it, but mostly because it just does not stop. It keeps going and makes you wanna keep going. But to me, If I'm being honest, nothing really happens til the last 70 pages or so. Still, I devoured Insurgent as well....though more happens in the sequel.
ReplyDelete~V
I totally agree! I think it's only once you've read it you can understand that there's a lot of action but not a huge amount happens till right before the end. It sounds so weird in reviews though lol :)
DeleteYou were awarded the Liebster Blog award!
ReplyDeletehttp://scottreadsit.blogspot.com/2012/06/liebster-blog.html