![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The Blurb On The Back:
One choice decides your friends, defines your beliefs and determines your loyalties ... forever.
One choice can transform you.
In Veronica Roth’s debut novel DIVERGENT, a perfect society unfolds into a dystopian world of electrifying decisions, stunning consequences, heartbreaking betrayals and unexpected romance.
16-year-old Beatrice (‘Tris’) lives in a future where society is divided into five factions: Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity and Dauntless – each faction devoting itself to embodying a particular virtue. Tris has spent her whole life living the selfless ideals of Abnegation but knows that she can’t stay there. When she takes a test to determine which faction she’ll spend her life with something goes wrong and she’s told that she’s a Divergent – a person who has equal aptitude to three of the factions – Dauntless, Abnegation and Erudite – and warned that this must be kept a secret from everyone, even her family.
Uncertain who to trust, she joins Dauntless, where she and the other initiates are forced to undergo a series of brutal tests to decide who is offered a permanent place. Failure to pass will result in her being Factionless – one of the underclass denied access to rations and work. But as the tests go on, it becomes clear that sinister forces are working to threaten not only Tris’s life, but the very nature of the society itself.
Veronica Roth’s debut novel, the first in a YA trilogy, is an interesting dystopian SF that revolves around society having identified 5 perfect virtues. I was initially sceptical of the idea, but Roth avoids it becoming cheesy and make some interesting comments on valued personality traits, taking them to extreme conclusions. Although I didn’t like the depiction of the intelligence-favouring Erudite as being power hungry (mainly because it was so stereotypical), Roth does make some interesting points about types of courage and how the Dauntless have mistakenly only come to value foolhardy demonstrations of bravery.
Tris is a well-drawn character who undergoes real growth over the course of the story. I liked her self-awareness that she can’t live by the values she’s grown up with and her reaction to the people who pick on her in Dauntless is all-too-believable. I could have done without the romance that blossoms between her and one of the instructors, mainly because this is too common a device in YA nowadays, but her growing emotions are again well depicted.
Some of the plot twists were easily spotted and I thought that the ending was rushed, with characters being killed off too quickly so it became a checklist. However, there’s a good set up for a sequel and I care enough about Tris to want to read on.
The Verdict:
This is an interesting YA SF dystopia that builds its society around 5 key virtues. Although some of those virtues came too close to stereotyping, I thought that the central character of Tris was well-drawn and underwent believable character growth over the course of the story. It’s not a perfect novel and I have to say that the inevitable romance storyline did nothing for me, but I cared enough about Tris to want to know what happens to her next and I will definitely be reading on.
DIVERGENT will be published in the UK on 3rd May.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
One choice can transform you.
In Veronica Roth’s debut novel DIVERGENT, a perfect society unfolds into a dystopian world of electrifying decisions, stunning consequences, heartbreaking betrayals and unexpected romance.
16-year-old Beatrice (‘Tris’) lives in a future where society is divided into five factions: Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity and Dauntless – each faction devoting itself to embodying a particular virtue. Tris has spent her whole life living the selfless ideals of Abnegation but knows that she can’t stay there. When she takes a test to determine which faction she’ll spend her life with something goes wrong and she’s told that she’s a Divergent – a person who has equal aptitude to three of the factions – Dauntless, Abnegation and Erudite – and warned that this must be kept a secret from everyone, even her family.
Uncertain who to trust, she joins Dauntless, where she and the other initiates are forced to undergo a series of brutal tests to decide who is offered a permanent place. Failure to pass will result in her being Factionless – one of the underclass denied access to rations and work. But as the tests go on, it becomes clear that sinister forces are working to threaten not only Tris’s life, but the very nature of the society itself.
Veronica Roth’s debut novel, the first in a YA trilogy, is an interesting dystopian SF that revolves around society having identified 5 perfect virtues. I was initially sceptical of the idea, but Roth avoids it becoming cheesy and make some interesting comments on valued personality traits, taking them to extreme conclusions. Although I didn’t like the depiction of the intelligence-favouring Erudite as being power hungry (mainly because it was so stereotypical), Roth does make some interesting points about types of courage and how the Dauntless have mistakenly only come to value foolhardy demonstrations of bravery.
Tris is a well-drawn character who undergoes real growth over the course of the story. I liked her self-awareness that she can’t live by the values she’s grown up with and her reaction to the people who pick on her in Dauntless is all-too-believable. I could have done without the romance that blossoms between her and one of the instructors, mainly because this is too common a device in YA nowadays, but her growing emotions are again well depicted.
Some of the plot twists were easily spotted and I thought that the ending was rushed, with characters being killed off too quickly so it became a checklist. However, there’s a good set up for a sequel and I care enough about Tris to want to read on.
The Verdict:
This is an interesting YA SF dystopia that builds its society around 5 key virtues. Although some of those virtues came too close to stereotyping, I thought that the central character of Tris was well-drawn and underwent believable character growth over the course of the story. It’s not a perfect novel and I have to say that the inevitable romance storyline did nothing for me, but I cared enough about Tris to want to know what happens to her next and I will definitely be reading on.
DIVERGENT will be published in the UK on 3rd May.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.