Book Review on Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent

By Veronica Roth

Summary:
        

        Divergent by Veronica Roth is a thrilling novel full of love, loss, and betrayal. The main protagonist, Beatrice (later referred to as "Tris", the name I will be using throughout the blog), is a young woman struggling to find herself against the repressive factions (Erudite: Intelligence, Abnegation: Selflessness, Dauntless: Bravery, Candor: Honesty, and Amity: Peace) that have been created to allow everyone to do the jobs they are best at, thus creating a more efficient and capable society.

        However, while many other 16 year old's, like Tris, are trying to discover who they are, Tris finds out during the testing phase (tests run to find a subject's affinity to each faction) that she is something known as "Divergent" (clever book title); someone that has the qualities of the majority of the factions. Those categorized as Divergent are seen as incredibly dangerous because they do not adapt well to one certain lifestyle in any one of the factions, rather, they prefer a blended lifestyle that living in all factions at once would provide. This would seem like not a very big deal, however, because they do not adapt to one faction alone very well, the leaders of each faction and the government view them as uncontrollable, meaning they do not mold to the "perfect" society.

        Throughout the novel, having switched factions from Abnegation to Dauntless, Tris struggles to be accepted by her new faction-mates. Not only that, but Tris also struggles with living with only some of her many qualities, as well as dealing with inter-faction rivalries. All of this creates a nice subplot that helps to provide depth to Tris and the supporting characters.

Opinion on the Book:

The five factions present in Divergent

        Out of the many books I have read recently, few have pulled me into the novel like Divergent has. Roth's concise wording allows every bit of detail to come out as important, and the book does not feel overly fluffy, like I found The Hunger Games to feel. This, combined with her interesting characters and surprising twists, had me turning the pages for more. While some ideas are not expanded on quite as much as I would've liked, such as why the factions were split up with the five qualities, I found Divergent to be a very enjoyable read.

Who Should Read this Book:

        While I might not have enjoyed novels such as The Hunger Games as much as others, I believe that anyone who enjoyed the trilogy should give Divergent a try. Not to exclude others, any that enjoy action/adventure novels would enjoy this book. Divergent's strong female protagonist in Tris (shown clearly by her bravery and her joining the Dauntless) could also give anyone who doesn't enjoy watching any important female character be put in the backseat compared to the male characters just enough reason to give it a read.

How this Book Relates to the Theme:

        In my opinion, Divergent fits in nicely with the theme "cruelties of society". For example, any person that does not make it through a faction's initiation phase (essentially a test to see if you're good enough for their faction), are cast out into the streets, left with no home, no faction, and no one that would give you a second glance (besides the Abnegation). Much like the social class "the Untouchables" in the Hindu caste system, these "factionless" are seen as failures of society, making them worthless to any who lay eyes on them (this blog would be a lot easier if I didn't have to keep noting that the Abnegation aren't as cruel). Furthermore, without revealing too much of the story's plot, it is revealed that a faction had created a tool to completely take over everything, regardless of the bloodshed that resulted in using this tool. That one faction could do this without remorse implies that other factions would have no problems incorporating such a plan into their end-game. 

Movie Review:

Divergent movie poster showing costars Shailene Woodley and Theo James

        While I have nothing but praise for the book, I feel that the movie adaptation of Divergent was lacking in crucial areas that, for me, made the book so good. For one, Tris' relationship with Four isn't quite as focused. Now, don't get me wrong, I would prefer action over a love story any day, and that's what the movie seemed to gravitate to; however, when the relationship is so crucial to how the characters interact and how the plot moves forward, it felt like the relationship side was half-baked and uninspired compared to the book, leading to a relatively interesting surge of emotions towards the end of the movie that, had I not read the book already, would've made me think  "Whoa, where did that passion come from?" 

        Second, some of the confrontations felt too friendly. Tris' main confrontation with the boss of the take-over-the-world plot felt like Tris was being too friendly for the situation she was placed in. The meeting went smoothly, as if there were no tensions or stress between the two. This might've been from the lack of internal thought being given by Tris - a book allows so much more insight to occur for a character's thoughts than a movie does - but it still felt strange to me.

        Finally, the Dauntless faction and all of it's ideas seemed to be lost in the movie. I don't mean to say the Dauntless wasn't stupidly brave - they were - I'm just saying the unforgiving nature of the Dauntless wasn't shown as much. For example, in the initiation process, the book has one initiate not make the jump from a train and fall to her death, the movie has no such occurrence. This scene showed me for the first time that the Dauntless faction was very ruthless: either you live, or you die. While this may seem like a violent scene to include in a movie, it's not like the final product of the movie was lacking in any to begin with. Overall, I feel like, for such an important setting in the movie, the Dauntless faction's beliefs and ideas were not as important to the movie as the book.

Links for more: 

Common Sense Media Book Review
NY Times Book Review
Cinema Crazed Movie Review