Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Pages: 487
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
My rating: 5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.39 stars
Published: May 3, 2011

Description:

 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.

Veronica Roth has managed to outdo the Hunger Games.  At least, that's how I felt after reading Divergent.  This book was so interesting and it really sucked me in.  I'm not the quickest reader {getting faster}, but I read this in one day.  I was pretty much begging my husband to let me get Insurgent that day when I finished, and he reminded me that stores were closed.  So I will be adding it to my next Amazon order.  But I digress...


I love Beatrice {or Tris, as she's known through most of the book}.  Tris has so much going against her throughout the book, and the central part of that is her secret.  I'm sure most everyone who's reading this had already read the book, but for those of you who haven't I'll be good and not say what it is.


This book is chock full of people who have secrets.  Some are obvious.  Some are very well hidden.  The author does an amazing job at keeping some of those secrets covered up until the very last moment, and even then I was shocked by what was revealed {I want to give her a hug for not being freakishly obvious with everything!}.  There is so much going on in this book, and it all ties together so incredibly well.


The one thing that I got kind of caught up on with this was the world building.  Yes, she did an awesome job with decribing the world as it is in the book... just not how it came to be that way.  Not really.  It's touched on briefly, but not really tackled and explained.  However, I have a feeling more will be uncovered in the next book.  I hope that's the case, because while I really enjoyed this book, I want to know exactly what happened to have and area factioned off, and if the rest of the world is similar, or just the country, or even just that area.  I have no idea how big this thing really is!