Booked: Divergent by Veronica Roth

by: Veronica Roth

I was so looking forward to reading this book because this was so hyped up. Elle by Allthatglitters21 did a Gliterature about it and my interest was instantly piqued. So, I went of a mission to find a copy of the book, but it was sold out everywhere.  Finally, after 2 weeks of searching, I found the last copy of Divergent which was somewhat damaged from being smushed in the corner of the best seller section. The bookstore also had many copies of the Insurgent and just to be sure I purchased it in advance to avoid having to hunt for it when I’m done reading Divergent.

 The story was really fascinating. It was similar to other dystopian novels I’ve read but, the story line really sucked me in beginning from the first two chapters. Basically the society is made up 5 factions, Amity, Erudite, Candor, Abnegation, and Dauntless. Each factions have attributes or qualities that they uphold. For Amity they believe in keeping peace.  Candor believes in truth and honesty. Erudite believes in knowledge. Abnegation believes in being selfless. Dauntless believes in being brave and courageous.

 The story started by showing us how the Abnegation live, since the main female character, Beatrice, was born to this faction. When the children turns 16 they are given this evaluation to determine which faction they are most suitable. Those candidates that have affinity for two or more factions are called Divergent and was deemed dangerous to society. Most of them hide the fact they are divergent for the fear of being pursued by the government.

After the evaluation test, they would hold this choosing ceremony where the children would go up on the stage before everybody and choose which faction they would like to belong to by spilling their blood on a bowl that symbolize each faction. After choosing, they would stay with their chosen faction for the initiation process. Those people who failed the initiation will become factionless and basically become outcast of the society.

"Faction before Family"

  

Beatrice has qualities that would be suitable for 3 factions namely Erudite, Abnegation, and Dauntless but in the end she chose to become part of the Dauntless faction. From then on the story became really interesting because the Dauntless are known to be really brave and fearless and it shows in their brutal initiation. Candidates are asked to jump on moving trains, jump off a building and even beat each other as part of their training. They went thru many physical and mental struggle for them to come out fearless. The initiation process was ridiculously hard and dangerous that some of the candidates end up dead.

For the most part of the story, it revolved around Beatrice journey in becoming part of the Dauntless faction while hiding her being divergent. There are also bits of romance involved which was nice to balance out the story. But, in this book I did not really grasps why the society was afraid of divergent people and I’m hoping the second book will reveal the reason why. This book was really fun and was a quick read. I read the whole book in one day. I literally can’t put the book down.  It was so interesting to see how the different factions interact with each other and how romance of Beatrice and Four developed.

I totally recommend this book and I can’t wait to read Insurgent.