Book Review - Divergent
BOOK REVIEW
DIVERGENT - VERONICA ROTH
I give this amazing book a 5 out of 5 stars!
I thourougly enjoyed this book. It was full of adventure, romance, and suspense, and I just fell in love with it. I'm pretty sure it's the beginning of a series because it was sort of left open. The two factions Tris had been a part of broke apart while the Erudite are plotting war. If there is more, I can't wait to read them! I think the whole idea of being Divergent...different from the pact...being more than just one personality...is very realistic and it almost seems like it's a hard thing for many of the characters to grasp because they grew up to believe that everyone belongs to only one faction and you must choose that faction before you choose your family. To be divergent, a free thinker, is almost unheard of.
I actually expected that Tobias was divergent. There were many signs throughout the book. Of course, Tris looked past most of them because he never opened up to it so she just moved on. What really made believe he was divergent though, was when he took off his shirt and there on his back were all five faction tattoos; Bravery, selflessness, Knowlege, Honesty, and kindness. Also, he explained how he tries to keep all thos traits within himself instead of just one. All was confirmed when he squeezed Tris' arm on the train to prove he wasn't sleepwalking like the rest of them.
There actually turned out to be a lot more Divergent people than I thought in the book. There's a lot I'm sure that weren't mentioned but there happened to be another one of the Dauntless guards that was divergent...AND Tris' mother was also Divergent, which was why she understood Tris' decision to leave Abnegation. What happened to her and Tris' father in the end just breaks my heart. Even though her dad can be very ignorant, atleast he knew how to be brave and protect his daughter, just like Tris' mother did. That made their deaths all the harder for me. Whenever someone sacrifices themselves like that...it just makes all my feelings pour out and I can't help bawling my eyes out.
I share Tobias' fear of heights in the book and I really can't see how Tris can climb all those things like the Ferris wheel and the ladder up to the simulation room without feeling like the world is coming out from under her. I felt great sympathy for him when he had to do all that stuff because I know I would have been just as freaked out as him, if not worse. I probably would have resolved to not climb at all.
The characters that appauled me the most were Eric and Peter. Both were so sadistic and cowardly that I just felt like they shouldn't have been in Dauntless to begin with. I don't know how they managed to get so far in their initiation and actually become members. They're both so crude. I love how Tris deals with them though She ends up shooting Eric in the leg, and Peter in the arm. Even though she doesn't kill them, because it was her intinetion to scare them into doing what she said, it was still freaking awesome!
I love that there was an acknowledgment that being in love for the first time can be very scary and could be another fear that shows up in the fear-inducer. If I were in that room, I know exactly what would show up in my simulation, Bees, burning to death, drowning, heights, being buried to death, and a car accident. I'm pretty much aware I can be a big scaredy cat..and I know it wouldn't be as easy for me to overcome those fears as it is for Tris in the book.
My favorite part, even though it would have scared the hell out of me, was when Tris rode a zipline off a Hundred story building and at the end of the journey when she unhooked herself from the harness and fell into the joined arms of the Dauntless, she knew for a fact that she was one of them. And that's when her friends originally from Dauntless stopped calling her "Stiff"
I was quite satisfied with how Tobias came out of his stupor. Jeannine had given hima dose of her new serum and made him think all his friends were enemies. At first I thought the only way that he was going to come out of it was if the computers were destroyed but it turns out that Tris was able to reach him by talking to him and eventually, when she took her hand to his heart, he was able to hear her voice and know it was her. So basiclally, their love helped his divergence break to the surface! Whcih means, love really does conquer all!
So as I said before, I think this book is the first of a series even though I'm not sure what the next book is called. I wil now have to look it up because this book was AMAZING and I reccomend it to anyone who loves a good adventure romance! Pick it up, read it, and enjoy!
