Divergent by Veronica Roth: the review.

This review contains spoilers. Not major ones, but spoilers none the less.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

After a long overdue hiatus, I've finally decided to get off my ass and do some reviewing.

And I could not be more proud to be reviewing Divergent.

Veronica Roth's debut is easily one of the most compelling reads to grace our bookshelves all year.

So, let's get down to business

Summary:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, 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 to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating 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 a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Sounds good, right?

Well, I have news for you: You have no idea.

This book is a force to be reckoned with; a literary wrecking ball with the force to knock every bit of air from your lungs and suspend you in disbelief and awe, while compelling you to keep the pages turning long into the night.

It's been a while since I have been so captured by a book that I have to force myself to put it down. In the last three years, it has happened only a handful of times.

The two that spring to mind are Divergent, and the other heavyweight in the Dystopian genre, The Hunger Games.

Yes, the genre is becoming saturated. Every way you turn, another dystopian novel pops up and hits you right between the eyes.

I, for one, am thrilled with this development. Dystopian fiction is exciting. The imagined worlds are all possible, if just a few changes are made. Yes, that thought is frightening, but it also makes the novels that much more captivating, don't y0u think?

Anyway, enough with the digression, back to Divergent.

Tris has to choose between one of five Factions once she turns sixteen.

They are:

Tris has to choose, and the choice will change her life forever.

I am always a fan of books that feature strong female leads, and more often than not I am left disappointed. Tris does not disappoint. She is strong, both physically and mentally, and she deals with the trials and tribulations of life in the Factions with clever wit and extraordinary courage. She spends a good deal of the book being bruised and bloodied by other delegates in her chosen faction, Dauntless, but she doesn't whine and cry and wonder why. She deals with it, and I appreciate her more for that.

In fact, all the characters are equally captivating, lovable and detestable, as our protagonist and her trainer, the incomparable Four.

Oh, Four, how I love thee....:)

Serioulsly, a hot trainer, and love interest, always adds to my appreciation of a book. Yes, it makes me shallow, but it's not just how he looks. It's because of who he is. All his little nuances and complexities make Four one of the most interesting love interests I've ever come across.

And it makes me even more obsessively in love with a fictional character.

Of course, this is all due to Roth's amazing writing style.

Honestly, I am more attached to Veronica Roth's characters than I am to my own. Rivers of tears will flow from my eyes if anything happens to them.

I am eagerly awaiting the sequel, Insurgent, and can't wait to get my greedy paws on a copy.

Although, I don't think the I can wait, the suspense is killing me. Or at least giving me peptic ulcers after that ending.

This book gets two thumbs up, and on the crap to cool ratio?

It's definitely reaching Ice-cold awesome levels.

Thoroughly recommend it. To everyone.

But particularly to fans of the Hunger Games.

After all, we need a new obsession, and this thoroughly lives up to the hype.

5/5

Oh, and P.S.--Casting Directors? For the upcoming film, try and get

Skylar Samuels

` or Eliza Bennett

and the lovely Drew Roy

as Tris and Four, won't you?

Sincerely,

a loving fangirl.